TOP THREE DUMBEST THINGS WE'VE DONE (SO FAR)

No, that's not us on the scooter. But it sure feels like it could be sometimes.  Photo credit: The Internets

For being the experienced, all-knowing world travelers that we should be by now, we sure do a lot of dumb stuff. Below are three of the biggest idiot moves we've made since leaving home months ago.

Perhaps our New Year’s resolutions should be not to repeat any of the following:

• Sailing with Strangers: Many of the details we've already written about back when it happened, but let’s just say we will never, ever, get on a sailboat with strangers again. What was supposed to be an eight-day leisure sail sunning and fishing our way across the Pacific Ocean turned into nearly two weeks of hell with no wind, no electricity, no fish, no booze, little fresh water, limited food...

• What Day is Our Flight?: In a remote spot in the Philippines, the land of 7,000 islands, we were lucky to get the last two seats on a puddle jumper to Manila leaving the following week. It was the start of Holy Week (a huge Filipino holiday) and everything was already booking up, so we decided we better plan ahead for a change. Big mistake. The next seven days we spent on a live-aboard dive boat, exploring the depths of the famous TubbatahaReef. When we returned waterlogged to dry land we celebrated with a few rum drinks before prepping to catch our flight we were sure left the next day. Three cocktails in, something clicked, and we realized neither of us were sure exactly what day our plane was leaving. Turns out, it had already left…an hour before, and there were no seats for the next four days. Those were some expensive drinks.

• Leaving “Life” in Burmese Taxi: We both travel with two backpacks—one holds clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc, and a smaller one that fits inside the larger pack holds our “life,” our irreplaceables—passports, ATM cards, laptop, camera, memory cards, journal, etc. The larger packs we can toss on the tops of buses without hesitation, but the small packs rarely leave our sides. So when Kip realized 10 minutes too late that he left his small bag in a pickup truck we had hitched from Yangon’s bus station at midnight, we freaked out. Kip immediately jumped a motorcycle to the capital’s chaotic transport hub while Liz stayed at the guest house on the orders of the owner, who told us not to worry, that the bag would show up. Turns out, he was right. Within half an hour, the driver returned our backpack, apologizing for his mistake. Liz hugged him, thanked him profusely, and slipped him $10. Kip meanwhile, remained at the bus station, bag-less and freaking out. After 30 minutes, a benevolent driver loaned him a phone to call the hotel where the proud owner told him the good news. Thank you Burma for letting us get away with being so dumb, just this once.

Although we wish there were only three really dumb things we’ve done on this trip, those who have seen us in action know better. Maybe we'll add a few more from the full list in coming weeks. Here's to a smarter, smoother 2013! 

Happy New Year, everybody!

Liz and Kip

PS  If you want to see a few of our previous travel mistakes, click here.

WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS FLIGHT

The 15,000-foot view from our flight to Lukla, Nepal, home of the world's most dangerous airport.

If you want to trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, chances are you'll be flying into Lukla's Tenzing-Hilary Airport. Deemed "the most dangerous airport in the world" the airport sits at nearly 10,000 feet, features a single runway less than 1,500 feet long (most commercial runways are more than 5,000 feet) and is built on a 12 percent slope that on one end collides with solid rock and the other falls off steeply into a deep valley. 

It's not exactly leisure travel, but considering the alternative was taking a rickety bus for 10 hours along dangerous mountain curves, followed by four days of hiking uphill, we decided to take our chances. 

A twin-prop plane preps for the downhill take-off from Lukla's airport at 9,100 feet.

However, before we could defy death by landing at the airport, we first had to survive an hour-long, knuckle-whitening flight from Kathmandu to get here. This is the same flight that crashed in late September this year, killing all on board.

Nervous would be an understatement. 

From our seats in the well-used, twin-prop plane, we did see some stunning views of Mt. Everest. Yet we also got unwanted pilot's-eye views through the cockpit, where the captain and co-pilot wove skillfully between swirling storm clouds, dodged soaring vultures, and let the wings skim dangerously close to the peaks of some of the world's highest mountains.

On our flight, one person cried, two passengers hurled, and three on-board screamed out loud when we hit turbulence on our approach to Lukla. We'll let you guess which of us was included in the aforementioned stats.

Upon landing (and kissing the asphalt runway much too intimately), we grabbed our heavy backpacks and headed quickly up the dirt and stone trail into Lukla. In addition to the flight, we had been awake since 5 am, and we had six hours of uphill hiking ahead. We needed a drink.

Our celebratory coffee on making it to Lukla alive and kicking-off the long trek to Base Camp.
Thanks for the drink, readers!

Considering we hadn't yet had breakfast, we opted for two strong Everest coffees and some fresh apple strudel from a nearby bakery (thanks for the contributions, readers Todd and Tori P, Alison J, Ben P, and Lindsay N!)

With our caffeine fix and some time to calm our nerves, we headed up the trail, starting a 12-day return trek to Everest Base Camp. Seeing as Kip refused to buy a map or hire a guide or porter, we'll need all the luck we can get. 

The son of the bakery owner gives us the thumbs up as we hit the trail to Everest Base Camp.