I am still in Dali and I am enjoying myself. I just spent the past two days talking to a really interesting Dutch guy from New Zealand named Eric. He finds oil and gas and tries to get it out of the ground. This usually means he has worked in some of the hardest places in the world to live such as Papa New Ginny, Kuwait, Iraq, and others. He is a contractor and has worked with some of the biggest companies like Halliburton and KBR.
Most of his work has put him in very remote places where the only way to get in is to fly in and out. This usually means dealing with real characters who are a bit well off mentally. He has fired Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG’s). On climbing Mount Everest, he has said it is easy as long as you can remember to put one foot in front of another and rest. According to him there is even a steel latter in places to climb. K2 is a harder mountain to climb because there is more rock face and more rock climbing then hiking. He has been to most of the countries in the Middle East and feels that Damascus is great. He has been shot at a few times which were interesting stories to hear from.
He has a severely autistic son at the age of 12 who is non-functioning as well as a highly functioning autistic 7 year old daughter who has to have everything perfect. From this he thinks that Autism is something that is in the DNA which overly sensitizes the mind. The basic idea that they are not able to forget things and sort out what is important and what is not. This causes the overload and makes a lot of them non-functioning. Having worked a lot with Autistic children as a teacher I found this interesting and correct.
It is because of these people that I love traveling and sometimes prefer to travel alone. When you are with someone you are lest likely to reach out to others and engage them in conversation. When you are alone you want to and have to. I love it.