March 27, 2013

Well, the federal government buggered up my contract work at Fort Irwin.  The Brigade Combat Teams scheduled to rotate through there in March and April have been canceled, thus, I have no work until May.  I guess I could cut back on spending, tighten my belt, and eat boxed mac ‘n cheese for two months, or I could go on a 3 1/2 week trip to Asia.  Tough call, that.

As a PA I am required to have a certain amount of Continuing Medical Education (CME) per year to stay licensed to practice medicine, making CME trips mostly tax-deductible.  Additionally, the Army Reserves will pay my salary for 4 days of CME per year.  There is also a huge travel industry catering to CME-seekers, so bogus CME trips abound.  Like the one I signed up for which teaches an hour of wilderness medicine CME per day on a trek in Nepal, culminating with a visit to the Everest Base Camp Emergency Room.

Friends warned me of the inherent dangers of such a trip and suggested I find a CME class in Pacoima, instead.  Brother Tim told me he has it on good authority that the Nepalese put yak butter in the beer they serve to tourists.  Naysayers, all of them.  I’m pretty sure Tim’s wrong about the yak butter, in any case.  I mean, they wouldn’t do that, would they?

So on Thursday I fly from LAX to Kathmandu via Guangzhou, China.  I’m planning on 5 days in Bangkok on the way home, but plans are loose.  My hope is to be able to blog from the road, or trail, or trek.  Whatever.  We’ll see how well that works, as there will be no Internet connection (egad!) for most of my trip.

Below is a map of the places along the route in Nepal.  Also a Google Earth screen shot of the route.