Manual for Climbing Mountains

A guide for mountaineers/hikers/trekkers made by the one and only Paulo Coelho

 

Feel free to ponder on thoughts of Paulo Coelho regarding climbing mountains. Indeed, I have always believed that climbing mountains should come close to the heart. One should not climb for climbing’s sake. It should have meaning in one’s life. There you go, I hope you will be inspired by Coelho’s wisdom. Indeed, choose the mountains you climb wisely.

  

A] Choose the mountain you want to climb: don’t pay attention to what other people say, such as “that one’s more beautiful” or “this one’s easier”. You’ll be spending lots of energy and enthusiasm to reach your objective, so you’re the only one responsible and you should be sure of what you’re doing.

 

 

B] Know how to get close to it: mountains are often seen from far off – beautiful, interesting, full of challenges. But what happens when we try to draw closer? Roads run all around them, flowers grow between you and your objective, what seemed so clear on the map is tough in real life. So try all the paths and all the tracks until eventually one day you’re standing in front of the top that you yearn to reach.

 

 

C] Learn from someone who has already been up there: no matter how unique you feel, there is always someone who has had the same dream before you and ended up leaving marks that can make your journey easier; places to hang the rope, trails, broken branches to make the walking easier. The climb is yours, so is the responsibility, but don’t forget that the experience of others can help a lot.

D] When seen up close, dangers are controllable: when you begin to climb the mountain of your dreams, pay attention to the surroundings. There are cliffs, of course. There are almost imperceptible cracks in the mountain rock. There are stones so polished by storms that they have become as slippery as ice. But if you know where you are placing each footstep, you will notice the traps and how to get around them.

 

 

E] The landscape changes, so enjoy it: of course, you have to have an objective in mind – to reach the top. But as you are going up, more things can be seen, and it’s no bother to stop now and again and enjoy the panorama around you. At every meter conquered, you can see a little further, so use this to discover things that you still had not noticed.

 

 

 

 

 

F] Respect your body: you can only climb a mountain if you give your body the attention it deserves. You have all the time that life grants you, as long as you walk without demanding what can’t be granted. If you go too fast you will grow tired and give up half way there. If you go too slow, night will fall and you will be lost. Enjoy the scenery, take delight in the cool spring water and the fruit that nature generously offers you, but keep on walking.

G] Respect your soul: don’t keep repeating “I’m going to make it”. Your soul already knows that, what it needs is to use the long journey to be able to grow, stretch along the horizon, touch the sky. An obsession does not help you at all to reach your objective, and even ends up taking the pleasure out of the climb. But pay attention: also, don’t keep saying “it’s harder than I thought”, because that will make you lose your inner strength.

H] Be prepared to climb one kilometer more: the way up to the top of the mountain is always longer than you think. Don’t fool yourself, the moment will arrive when what seemed so near is still very far. But since you were prepared to go beyond, this is not really a problem.

 

 

I] Be happy when you reach the top: cry, clap your hands, shout to the four winds that you did it, let the wind – the wind is always blowing up there – purify your mind, refresh your tired and sweaty feet, open your eyes, clean the dust from your heart. It feels so good, what was just a dream before, a distant vision, is now part of your life, you did it! 

 

 

 

 

J] Make a promise: now that you have discovered a force that you were not even aware of, tell yourself that from now on you will use this force for the rest of your days. Preferably, also promise to discover another mountain, and set off on another adventure.

L] Tell your story: yes, tell your story! Give your example. Tell everyone that it’s possible, and other people will then have the courage to face their own mountains.

 

 

 

Here are some of the few climbing gears that will help you conquer your mountains.

 

 

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Mount Pinatubo Trek

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing."

 

 

 

My first mountain hike here in the Philippines is the Mount Pinatubo. I’m not a big fan of mountain climbing that is why I am reluctant to climb this mountain. But since there have been many tourists professing the beauty of this place, I’ve challenged myself to visit this place also. Plus, they already offer a 4x4 ride, so the trek would not be that difficult. Indeed, it turned out to be true - reaching the crater of the almighty Mount Pinatubo is beyond description.

 

 

 

 

During the time we went there, it was raining cats and dogs. I was not prepared  for the rain. And I even brought my DSLR camera. So at some point, I regret joining the trip. Various worst-case scenarios came up on my mind – flashfloods, eruption, etc etc. I know it’s crazy, but once you’re there, you can’t do anything but pray.

After reaching the crater, all of my pain and worries went away. The view was simply amazing. It was really really majestic. I promised myself to go back to the place when it’s not raining. I wish could back there at least once a year. 

 

 

 

 

 

    If you can do the necessary arrangements by yourself, rather than going through agency, then by all means do so. Seasoned backpackers would find that the charges made by travel agencies are expensive. Based on my experience, the biggest challenge if you do your trek independently is the commute going to the place in itself. As a matter of fact, if you are coming from manila, it’s not really that hard because you just have to take the bus. The 4x4 going to the mountain itself are plenty. You just have to negotiate to the people in charge of the vehicles.

But if you really want to have all the conveniences, then you can opt for travel agencies. At least you will not think anymore of the transportation going to and from the Mount Pinatubo. What is important is that you enjoy the view (on the crater most especially) as well as the journey going to the moth of the mountain. Good luck with the wild ride!  

 

 

 

Here are some links to have greater knowledge about Mount Pinatubo:

 

 

 

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Cibo Restaurant Manila

Italian Food at its Best

The first time I encountered this restaurant, I promised myself that I will go back to this place. The taste of  the foods are truly Italian unlike other restaurants here in Manila that feature Italian cuisine. It is a luxe dining restaurant, hence one can expect that the price is a little bit expensive. Nonetheless, this is only a small price to pay for an ultimate Italian food experience.





Aside from the food, the setting is also excellent. They have a well decorated and clean restaurant. I admire every branch of Cibo here in Manila because they see to it that they provide a good atmosphere for their customers. When I’m meeting my college friends, we would usually go to Cibo.   






Among the highly recommended dishes in this restaurant are tiramisu croccante, tagliata di manzo and rigatoni al alfonso. Nonetheless, you must try the other food in the menu such as their pizza, pasta, soups and sweets.




Here are some of Italian recipe books:

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Travel Quotes and Sayings

My favorite quotes and sayings that inspire me to go and see the world

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• The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  ~St. Augustine

~Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

 

~We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.
Anais Nin

• “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb

 

~The photograph reverses the purpose of travel, which until now had been to encounter the strange and unfamiliar.
Marshall McLuhan

• “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

~Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.
Chief Joseph

• “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” – Clifton Fadiman

 

~Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.
Susan Sontag

• “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux

 

~Travel teaches toleration.
Benjamin Disraeli

• “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

 

~“To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” – Aldous Huxley

• “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon

 

~“Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” – Seneca

• “Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe”……Anatole France

~“Not all those who wander are lost.” –J. R. R. Tolkien

• “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

~“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T. S. Eliot

• “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener

 

~“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

• “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” – Robert Frost

~“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

• “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” – Bill Bryson

~“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

• “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” –Jawaharial Nehru

 

~“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

• “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

 

~“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

• “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” –Freya Stark

 

~“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

 

• “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” – Cesare Pavese

 

~“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

• “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” – John Steinbeck

 

~“The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist.” –Russell Baker

 

 

• “Knock Knock! Who’s there? Tibet! Tibet who? Early Tibet and early to rise!” – Aha Jokes

 

 

 

Here are some travel books on quotes and many more, that you can bring on your journey:

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