Notes from the hills - Rangmuk 2006 FF SFTGFOP

Ha, got a phonecall about 20 mins ago. A tiger has been sighted at Makhaibari TE, moving through the tea bushes and scaring the living ... out of the locals. The special wildlife squad (carrying narcotic guns) has been informed and I guess the hunt is on. As it's already perfectly dark outside I wouldn't be to keen on joining those guys down there.

BTW: Managed to snatch a ~3g sample of that fresh Puttabong and now it's back to the hotel for another sampling session. The price is 6 times that of the Rangmuk mentioned before, let's see how that translates into the cup.

Karsten / Darjeeling

Karsten, your posts read like a good ongoing novel and always manage to pull me in so far it feels like I'm there at times. Excellent stuff. Forgive me for my ignorance, but do you live there or is this like a trip just for tea? Could you give a newbie some backstory or direct me to previous threads... my searches haven't turned up much. Sounds like a very interesting experience and no doubt could be turned into a very good book.

- Dominic Drinking: Osmanthus Oolong

Hey Karsten: You're a careful writer, so when I see you distinguishing "profile" and "flavor" I'm sure you mean something specific. Could you explain, please?

/Lew

Hey Lew.. not speaking for her, but I took it to mean the aroma profile. Similar to smelling a fine wine and comparing the profile to another similar wine. That was how I read it... but we'll have to wait out Karsten's response.

Oh Lew, all that techno-speak (spectrum, peaks, ...) comes from my weird engineering/scientific background. I always try to perceive tea with all available (deteroriated) senses and e.g. while sniffing or slurping teas I get all kinds of visuals on my internal screen, sometimes accompanied by physical perceptions. Then I usually convert them onto a

2-dimensional plane and interpret them as a 2d spectrum to make them more communicable. There must be a hidden database somewhere that allows me to automatically compare those spectrums with that of other substances. Of course this is highly subjective, but working with other folks in the past has shown that there's at least a bit of an intersubjective consensus. For example blind testing of homeopathic or Bach remedies by taking them into your hand and letting them "tell their stories" (takes between 5 seconds and 3 minutes). I and others could do it for hours without one wrong guessing.

Back to your question, take for example the frequency-over-time spectrums of music, from low-freq bass notes up to overtones (a Schubert piano piece vs. full-spectrum electronic music) and try to see or analyse, say the aroma or flavor of tea that way. If I think of the masala I mentioned (a masala - nothing to defined but again one of those files in my database ) I perceive a synergistic multi-dimensional projection (pls forgive me) of it's aroma/flavor that matches my perception of that tea at that moment (and later on) pretty much like spectrums of different pieces of music can be pretty similar in appearance. I can't help it, it just happens, I just hope it makes a bit sense to those who waste their valuable time reading those lines . As Namkhai Norbu, a Dzogchen master, used to say, looking all over the seminar room: "This all dream".

Karsten / Darjeeling

Nah, I'm just another stranded dropout who just happens to love the Himalayas and the wonderful people here, not to speak of the tea. I have spent some years in the Nepali mountains until all the bloodshed got unbearable and ended up here (back to Germania in one week, sniff).

These days I try to get professionally involved with tea. It's just a bit hard to communicate my weird ideas with my tea guru.

If you're talking about my ramblings there ain't much. Try googling for Lew's "In pursuit of tea" threads or Anodynes reviews instead. Far better reads, I carry them on my PDA.

BTW: where is Holly ? Haven't seen her posting in a while. Anyone ?

Boy, it's 11.20 p.m., still hanging out in my friends webcafe, I guess the pot of Castleton has to wait until tomorrow.

Karsten / Darjeeling

Very nice of you to mention my writing in the same sentence as Holly's, but don't you mean "tea pilgrimage" rather than "in pursuit of tea"?

/Lew

That's nothing to be ashamed of... if anything you're doing it right. I'd give everything I own to be in your shoes. Graduating from college, buying a house, and such is overrated and really a trap of sorts. I'm a free spirit, and feeling trapped in a scripted and structured life at

25 is no glorious thing.

I just meant like the backstory to how you ended up where you are, and whatnot. You kind of touched on that in your first paragraph. It seemed that you had a fairly solid scientific background, and the whole thing just had me puzzled... it just wasn't adding up. So I was trying to search back to see if this was like a year off sabatical type thing or something like that.

On the subject, my one goal in life is to travel to someplace during the rainy season and spend a week in the constant rain/thunder/lightning preferably in a small hut or self-made leanto. I love rainstorms and solitude and find them the most relaxing and wonderful things in this world.

I truly envy you.

- Dominic

Hey Dominic,

I guess you're right. One question I ask my self over and over again goes like "What would I do if I had all the money in the world ?". I honestly wouldn't change that much. I'd buy a wooden shack somewhere above the arctic circle and a small boat, but mainly continue travelling on a shoestring.

is no glorious thing.

As long as you have a vague idea of something to aim for and go for it I guess it ain't too bad. I really hate the word "important" but I guess dreams fall in that category.

whatnot. You kind of touched on that in your first paragraph. It seemed that you had a fairly solid scientific background, ...

Oh my ..., I started my engineering office (biophysics, weird sciences) when I was 20, ran it parallel to my unniversity studies until I was 35 or so, worked too much (damn obsessed freak I am), got sick, closed the whole joint down withing one week, grabbed my savings and went travelling.

season and spend a week in the constant rain/thunder/lightning preferably in a small hut or self-made leanto. I love rainstorms and solitude and find them the most relaxing and wonderful things in this world.

Another man after my own heart ! I love rainstorms too, a lot. Trekking somewhere through the highlands of Iceland or Scotland, not a single human being around for tens of miles, getting really drenched, later on looking for a nice spot to camp, pitching the tent, cooking some food, getting into the sleeping bag and finally grab a good read, a pipe and prepare some fine TEA. Life doesn't get much more intense for me. Wonderful moments. Last year I've been (hitch-)hiking through northern Norway and the north of Sweden, well before those masses of tourists make it there. What a wonderful area this is. Every night I pitched my tent on some other beautiful spot. While I was cooking or reading all kinds of animals came to watch that stranger going about his beezness; pheasants, polar hares, foxes ... wow.

If you're talking about the one goal in your life, why just one week ? Ever went hiking or "hillwalking" - ehem -somewhere ?

Best, Karsten / Darjeeling

Lew, I apologize, of course I meant your "tea pilgrimage", but it's been a while ago since I've read it the last time. It's somehow strange to have other fellows describe those places and sometimes people you know so well. I remember a book by an english chap, who went travelling all over Asia in pursuit of tea. He also made it to Darjeeling. Gotta find out the name, a lovely read.

Karsten / Dorje Ling

"A Time for Tea Travels through China and India in Search of Tea" by Jason Goodwin, Alfred Knopf New York 1991. Chapter 9 was on Darjeeling and about 27 pages long.

Jim

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

100% agree. If I ever came into a large amount of money the first thing I would do is sell everything I own and move to someplace where even $1,000 would let me live like a king for a year and continue to travel among those types of places indefinitely.

Work sure isn't "important" even noble pursuits, dreams and hopes are all that are to me. I grew up pretty poor and with a tough life, hopes, goals and dreams can be the *most* important parts of life.

I think it has something to do with starting too early. I began working building computers and helping to run a business when I was 14. All on my own merits, not a family business or even someone we knew. The owner hired me after one conversation with him. I've worked every day of my life since, at 25 I have almost 12 years of experience in the field and run a banks systems and network... way too stressful and full of responsibility as well as all-consuming.

I'd love to make it a month or even more, but I could never see those happening realistically. Bills, work, etc. Part of the entrapment... in

15 years or so when I'm finally out from under student loans, mortgage, car payments, etc. I'd most likely have kids and be unable to still do it. It is frustrating and confining, that is why I'd love to be in your shoes and truly free.

I'm sorry to go off on a tangent, but I have enjoyed the conversation, Thanks!

- Dominic

Not that I'm trying to burst anyone's bubble, but...

I'm not suggesting that anyone should stay stuck in one place and work like a dog for their whole life, but on the other hand, keep the following in mind. There aren't many places left where you could live like a king for $1000 a year. And even if you could, I think that it would be a pretty empty experience after a while. Ever spend any real time in an expat community? Pretty depressing, in my experience. Lots of people who drink too much, work meaningless jobs that they hate, look down both on the host culture (after the initial honeymoon period) as well as their culture of origin, and in the end, if they stay long enough, feel trapped because they can't go back to the States, but they don't find any meaning to where they are living.

How do I put this gently? This sounds like a cop-out. It appears to me that you might actually want to be trapped but these things, because you might be afraid to actually go off and do what you want. I'm 41, have a house and now a second child. Two years ago, my wife, my 1 1/2 year old daughter and I rented out our house and lived in southern Spain for 9 months and then Germany for another couple of months. It can be done. You just need to take the first step. Just think carefully about what you'd want out of the experience so that you are going towards something that gives you joy, instead of escaping from something at home.

Just my two cents,

Steven

There is also an issue of lawlessness these days. Nothing stands out in the local community like a rich foreigner who them makes a juicy target for kidnapping or worse. Even in the Himalayas.

Living like a king on the cheap => living amongst impoverished and there are always "evil doers" lurking. Those days of "Lord Jim" or Somerset Maugham belong in the 19th century. The world is different now. Even "foreign-returned" people have to be on their toes when visiting their own native country!!

I meant where I could live comfortably without excess happily for $1k/yr. I don't want to be "above" the locals but one of them. "live like a king" was a bad choice of phrases. A small fishing village, or some such was what I meant. And I would happily work alongside locals, just not need to rely on it.

I applaud your efforts, and if I had that ability to do so I would. It is no cop out, just that I am 25, not 41 and well established. I have student loans, I purchased my own home last year, among other things. I don;t have a nest egg or reserves yet to carry me any length of time. A week is a big deal for me, and while it may seem meaningless or whatnot to 9 months, I assure you it would require a lot of work on my behalf to swing just a week. Buying a home at a young age as myself ate up the majority of my savings, so once I rebuild them and have some real savings built up I will no doubt enjoy travelling and being more adventurous. It's also hard for me to leave a job and find another quickly. For one thing my area does not have an abundance of jobs, and even with my experience my age causes me problems to easily hop from job to job. Again, not anything near a cop-out just the cold, hard, reality. And my realistic outlook also probably betrays me, but I would feel happy and fortunate to have a week.

- Dominic

If you think you cannot travel when you are 25, when will you be able to do it ? Of course, you may change when you're older. I know a 92 yr old Japanese woman?that started traveling at the age of 75. Since then, she's spent 3 months every year visiting Europe as a backpacker, the rest of the year she studies languages. She has a weak health and walks with difficulties, but she still travels : she writes in advance to check the number of stairs in places she intend to visit.

Like most Americans of your age. There are at least 10 000 of them around here in Osaka.

Great, you can get a rent to pay back what you owe.

And it's easy for others ? I usually work 3 years, then I take one year to travel, then.... 1 year without disposable income. Because I have to restart my business from scratches (and reinvest any little money I make).

I have been told many times that it is impossible to travel or to start a business without a large amount of savings. Most people believe that. As you know, most people never move to another country nor start a business in their whole life.

I really think you and many other people have the material possibility to do like me. I don't say you should. If you like your job and life, why changing ? Not so many people appreciate travel lifestyle. On my road, I meet many people that feel very unsatisfied, they are convinced that they are missing great career opportunities, they cannot have a *normal* familial and social life, etc.

Kuri

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Kuri, and to the others... please understand that not everyone's life is as cut and dry as yours may be. And that some of us are not in nicely defined and "normal" lives.

Without getting too into specifics, please take a second to understand my situation before lecturing me. I am 25. I have basically supported myself since I was 14. I had a tough life growing up, and to this day help support my parents. My family has survived a lot of tough times and problems throughout my short life and perservered: alcoholism, ultra rare bone disease, poverty, jobs, bouncing from one place to the next never owning a home, and much more. I have basically put myself through college, graduated (the first in my family to do so, and at first in my class), have found a decent job, recently became engaged, purchased a house, and trying to stabilize. I have had a turbulent life and I have made the decisions that I have to try to regain some sense of normalcy.

Traveling is normally something a young person does, I understand that, but I am not in a position to do so at this moment of my life. I work very hard at everything I do and I assure you none of my outlook is attributed to laziness or being scared to take a risk. I have invented and reinvented myself a number of times already over my short life, and I had created and run my own company for 4 years... so I know what it takes. Like I said, I am comfortable, do I wish I had a family and a life that could have allowed me to take a year off after High School and travel... Sure. But I can't change that, and I can't change my current circumstances much more than I have strived to do so far. Stability is nice for a change for me, and I have no doubts that travel awaits me, but for now... a week long stay in a rainy season is my dream, and my goal and is big enough that it will take a lot of work to get there.

- Dominic

[Karsten]

I'd love to read about your "weird" ideas. I'll bet they make some sense.

BTW, if you remember Holly here, you've been around rfdt for quite awhile!

Michael

Hi Michael,

What have I just said ... Yup, pretty weird and yet so simple and economically interesting that I had to be afraid of any competitor lurking around on rfdt. I'm back in Germany in a few days and will meet some befriended fellows to carefully discuss possible patents, trademarks and all that terrible stuff (for the umpteenth time). One of the darker sides of my career.

Some years back I used to post some nonsense for a while and of course remember you, Lew, Alan L., your serene Highness, some others and ... sniff Holly. I collected all her postings on my PDA, wonderful reads. I really miss her a lot.

Karsten / Darjeeling