Himalayan Photo Roundup

Over the last three weeks I had some opportunities to venture out with my camera and capture some of the awesome beauty of the Indian Himalayas…

Bridge over the Beas River in Manali

On the road from Manali to Chatru

Me on the first ascent of Spliff and a Chowmein (5.9) in Chatru

Jeremy leading Blood on the Rocks (5.7) in Chatru

Me messing around after a day of climbing in Chatru

Chatru is really just a river crossing that happens to have a couple tea shacks – pretty rustic

Moonrise in Chota Dhara

Festival in Delhi

Moving on from Jaipur, we drove for a day to reach the capital of India, Delhi.  Delhi is the busiest city I’ve ever been in by far – always chaos, always something going on.

A couple days  I stepped outside the hotel to find some sort of Hindu parade coming down the street of the bazaar where we are in Pahar Ganj.  I’m not really sure what it was about, but it was pretty interesting to watch.

We also got out for some climbing yesterday, just outside of Delhi at Dhauj rocks (near Faridabad).  It was really nice rock, with loads of trad routes between 10 and 30 meters tall.  I bagged my first too legitimate trad leads, which was really fun.  Without a guidebook I can’t say for sure what grade they were, but I would guess around French 4 or in American grading 5.6 – easy but good for starting to lead.

Anyhow, now I’m in Manali, waiting for the rest of the group to catch up and relaxing in the cool mountain air!

Too Hot in Jaipur

105 degrees and humid.  Too hot to drive, too hot to sleep, too hot to do anything but sit in a restaurant and order cold drinks – welcome to Jaipur.

We moved on from Mt. Abu yesterday, which while still fairly hot, was cool in comparison to where we are now.  I didn’t get a chance to take any photos in Mt. Abu so I won’t linger on it long, but it’s known as a place to get away from the heat in Rajasthan, and is a popular honeymoon spot for newly married couples.  We had hoped to do some climbing in Mt. Abu, but unfortunately all we found were some unprotectable slab climbs that weren’t worth the effort.  We spent the three days lounging around, walking around the town, and generally being pretty bored.

Now we’re in Jaipur, which is about 500 km northwest of Mt. Abu, but much hotter as it’s at a lower elevation.  Jaipur is known as the “Pink City” but really it’s another hot, dirty Indian metropolis.  We hired an auto-rickshaw for the day today and drove around to see a few tourist sites – the best of which was a palace complex:

We also stopped by a factory where they make textiles, and I got some presents for my family (getting Christmas out of the way early).  We also hiked to the top of a really (too) tall minaret so we could get a view of Jaipur

That pretty much leads me up until right now – we are here tomorrow as well, which I plan to spend reading by the pool and trying to keep reasonably cool.  Then on Monday we drive to Delhi, which is supposed to be slightly more hot than here, if that is even possible.  We had a whole week alotted for Delhi, mostly because the a good portion of the group needs to hang around the Chinese embassy and work out their visas.  Seeing as how I don’t need to do that, I plan to spend a day or two climbing, a day to see Delhi, a day to go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal, and then I’m going to hopefully take the first bus to Manali and take it easy in the mountains while I wait a couple days for the group to catch up.  It’s a cool 56 degrees there today, which sounds GREAT.

Where’s the Beer-Wallah? – Arriving in India and visiting Goa

I’ve arrived safely in India, and have been with Hot Rock for the past week or so.  The journey over here was not as bad as I expected, the whole thing was more than 24 hours of traveling, but the plane was about as good as you can get in coach and the rest went without any major hiccups.  The first thing I had to do when I got to Mumbai was to find the train station and get a train down to Goa – I took a taxi from the airport and stepping out of the air conditioned passenger lounge was like stepping into a completely different world.  The most striking thing about India is how dirty it is, and how many people live in what we would consider really poor conditions.  I’ve traveled quite a bit in the third world – Egypt and Syria were pretty dirty and the people quite poor, but this is really a whole new level. 

The train ride itself was fairly enjoyable, although I was dead tired.  Luckily I shared a compartment with a middle-class Indian family, they seemed pretty trustworthy so I was able to go to sleep for four or five hours without having to pay close attention to my luggage.  Riding an Indian train is a different experience – I road in sleeper class which isn’t air conditioned and is where most middle class Indians would travel.  As you sit there looking out the window there’s a neverending procession of people selling food, drinks, toys and whatever else you can imagine.  Unfortunately the one wallah they did not have was the beer wallah, much to my dismay, because a cold brew after a 24 hour plane ride would have been JUST the ticket.   If I was more awake I would have been all over the food offerings, but the couple things I did get were really good – thats definitely an upside to this country – the food is delicious even in the worst places.  Finally we got to Goa and I got off and took a taxi to my hostel (at which I seemed to be the only guest), and then immediately passed out for about 12 hours.

Finally the next day I got an Indian cell phone and gave Danny, the trip leader, a call and took a five minute drive to meet up with the truck – which was looking as beautiful (or as dingy) as ever.

I spent the next couple days doing pretty much nothing, just relaxing and sitting on the beach, which was really beautiful – and with warm water!  It was almost a surprise when I went in, since I’m used to the cold Atlantic in New England.

 

One awesome perk of our hostel was that they rented out scooters and motorbikes by the day, for only $3 dollars.  Indian driving is chaotic, but I got used to it pretty fast and zipped around the nearby beach towns to go to restaurants and shops with other people from the group.  Unfortunately I also wiped out on it once, and had to pay the guy about $10 for it to get the paint touched up (in the end that was still a steal, India is so cheap!).

Finally we left Goa, and that’s where I’m going to leave this post.  We’ve traveled north about 1200 km to Mt. Abu to do some climbing – but I’ll get to that next time.  Here’s a parting picture that pretty much sums up how relaxing Goa was:

Summer Travel Plans

About a year ago I got back from traveling through Egypt, Jordan and Syria with Hot Rock, which was without a doubt the best trip I’ve ever taken.  A really great bunch of people, fantastic scenery and some of the world’s best climbing destinations – how can you go wrong?

Now that I’m graduating, it’s almost time to go into the real world and start working and be limited to three weeks of vacation a year.  Luckily I made arrangements with my job to delay my start date until late August – giving me a great opportunity to take off and see some more of the world.

This time instead of the Middle East, I’m headed for India and Pakistan (I was never one for traditional destinations).

I’m flying into Mumbai on May 25th, and then taking a day train down to Goa where I can meet up with the expedition.  Goa is supposedly full of beautiful beaches like this:

I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a better way to unwind than to sit on a tropical beach with a cold beer!

After Goa we have a long list of destinations, including the Ghats, Mumbai, Rajasthan (Jaipur, Agra), Delhi, and then towards the Himalayas and Ladakh.  After heading through northern India, we head into Pakistan for some time around Lahore and then into the beautiful mountains of the Karakoram:

Finally, after being abroad for 11 weeks I return to Islamabad and fly back to Chicago.

I’ll try and update this blog as much as I can, including lots of pictures and climbing reports – so keep me on your blog list and start looking for entries come the end of May!

Running the Job Hunting Gauntlet: Kick Ass at Career Fairs

Come next May I’ll be finally leaving the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Computer Science and heading out into the “real world”.  This means I need a job, so beginning last September I made it my mission to find a good one.  Advance 3 months later, I’ve done 7 on-campus interviews, 6 on-site interviews, gotten 4 job offers, and finally accepted a position with Jump Trading in Chicago.

There are plenty of places providing good advice on what to do when you’re in an interview, but not too much on actually getting invited for interviews in the first place. Hopefully the advice below can help fill in the gaps.

Kick Ass at Career Fairs

Up until a year ago, I took the on-campus career fairs at UIUC for granted.  Then I studied abroad for a year in London and I realized these events are gold, because it’s really difficult to find a job when all you can do is email resumes.  In comparison to that experience, getting interviews out of a career fair (at least at a school that is recognized as good in CS) is like shooting fish in a barrel.

1. Research Companies
   Find the list of employers who will be at the fair and who are hiring CS grads, visit their websites and make your own list of companies you want to chat with.  Learn something about what each company does, and note what in your past experience (in industry or in class) is most closely related.

2. Customize Resumes
   You should hopefully already have a default resume – but you should customize that to each company on your list to visit.  For each company modify your “objective” (or purpose, etc) section to specifically mention at least the following:
   1. Whether you are looking for a full-time position, an internship or a co-op position
   2. The name of the position you are applying for (don’t just say “software engineer”, look on their website)
   3. The name of the company you are applying to
   4. A rough time-frame of when you’re looking to start

   For example, my Microsoft resume read something like “Seeking a full-time position as a Software Development Engineer with Microsoft beginning Summer 2009″.  This accomplishes two goals – firstly, the recruiter is going to have to ask people for this information all day long, so they will appreciate you providing it up front.  Secondly and more importantly, it shows you aren’t just carpet-bombing the career fair with your resumes, you already know something about the company and specifically wanted to speak with them.  The majority of recruiters I talked with specifically mentioned they liked that I had targeted my resume to them.

   It’s also a good idea to bring a couple generic resumes with you in case you end up talking to a company you hadn’t planned on visiting.

3. Dress Smart
   I don’t think you need to wear a suit to a career fair or an interview (at least not for software jobs) – I don’t even own a suit.  That said, I think it’s to your detriment to waltz in with jeans and a t-shirt.  Interview attire seems to be a hotly debated topic, but personally I wear business casual and I think it makes a better impression.

4. Bring a Schedule
   If you’re doing well, you should be able to get a couple of on-campus interviews the day or two after the fair.  From personal experience, if you don’t bring your schedule you’ll start getting confused about when you can and can’t schedule interviews, so plan ahead and write down when you’re free.

5. Approach in Order of Importance
   No matter how much you’ve prepared, it can still be a little daunting to approach companies at a career fair.  It’s better that you save your dream companies for last, and approach other companies first to work off your nerves and get a feel for what you’re doing.  Failure is a part of life, including the job hunting part, so take it in stride and move on.

6. Control the Conversation
   With the prep work out of the way, you just need to execute.  Here’s how I think a good conversation should go:
   1. Walk up, introduce yourself, give a firm handshake.
   2. The recruiter may ask how much you know about the company, here’s where the research you did beforehand comes in handy.  Let them know you’ve got the basic idea, and then ask them one or two intelligent questions to show your interest and get some more specific information.
   3. Hand them the custom resume (don’t give them the wrong one!), point out what you think is most relevant, and discuss!
   4. Don’t run away too early – wait until you are either offered an interview, they elaborate on what you should do to be considered (submit online, etc), or they thank you for stopping by.
7. Don’t Forget to Follow Up
   Some companies have a special process for arranging on-campus interviews, for example many companies that come to UIUC use our online system to accept resumes and do interview sign-ups.  If a company mentions you have to do some extra steps to be considered, get them written down and do them ASAP.

If you follow these steps (or your own version of them), you should stand a good chance of getting interviews.  In my experience many people go to career fairs unprepared and don’t do very well, but it doesn’t have to be that way if you take a couple hours beforehand and do some preparation.

Palmyra & Crac De Chevalier

After leaving Damascus, we headed for the two biggest sites in Syria – the ancient ruined city of Palmyra and the crusader castle Crac De Chevalier.

The area of Syria around Damascus is less arid than you might imagine, it isn’t a real desert environment at all – loads shrubs and trees (although plenty hot). On the other hand Palmyra is a true oasis in the desert – driving away from Damascus we soon left greenery behind in favor of vast, expanding sandy wasteland, only eventually broken by the palm forest that gives Palmyra it’s name. On the way to Palmyra we had a quick reminder that although Syria is relatively stable, we aren’t but a half-day drive from somewhere much more dangerous.

Arriving in Palmyra, we had the afternoon to wander around the ruins in the scorching sun. It’s hard to imagine that at one time this place would have been a bustling city providing a stopping point for silk-route caravans weary from the heat of the desert. While they don’t inspire the same awe as the city of Petra, Palmyra is relatively intact – especially the main road which is lined with rows and rows of columns.

After leaving Palmyra, we spent the night bush camping in the desert, enjoying a night away from the sounds and lights of the city. In the morning we headed onto the road again to visit the massive crusader castle of Crac De Chevalier. Arriving at the castle you’d as much think you were on mainland Europe as in Syria – the farther north we go the greener this country becomes (although the heat doesn’t seem to abate at all). The castle itself is an amazing site, unlike castles in Europe, there aren’t too many tourists, and health & safety concerns haven’t prevailed – leaving plenty of interesting dark and ruined passages to explore on your own.

Looking out over the landscape surrounding the castle, it’s easy to see why the spot was chosen, as it is virtually impenetrable due to steep hills on all but one side. We spent the afternoon wandering the ruins, before driving the truck just a few kilometers to a local football pitch where we spent the night. Sometimes in the Middle East it seems as you are the attraction instead of the country – and this was one of those occasions. After we stopped and started cooking, flocks of children and other locals surrounded the truck, looking on curiously as we went about preparing dinner. The people here are incredibly kind, asking us all kinds of questions, showing us the town, and letting us into their homes.

After spending the night near the castle, we’ve driven today to Aleppo, the other major city in Syria besides Damascus. I spent some time wandering around earlier, and the markets here have much the same feel as those in Damascus – and theres still plenty of tasty street food. Tomorrow we’ll head to the Turkish border, and that will signal nearly the end of my trip with Hot Rock. We’ll reach Adana on the 26th, and on the 27th I’ll catch a night bus to Ankara where my flight back to London leaves on the 28th.

It’s been an interesting and strange experience overall. Most people I know at home react in surprise that I took such a long vacation – but on Hot Rock five weeks is almost no time at all when many of my new friends have spent months on board (some since South Africa). I’m definitely better (and a bit tanner) for the experience, and I hope that I’ll have the chance to come back to Hot Rock in the future for more than a holiday. That’s about all I’ll be writing in this blog on my Hot Rock trip (though I’ll still write occasionally about other traveling and such) – so I’ll talk to everybody when I’m back and settled in in London.

Cheers,
Paul

Links to Albums for Syria:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2389913&l=bca87&id=1928719

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2392150&l=00ce4&id=1928719

Damascus

Well, today is my eighth and final day in the Damascus area as tomorrow we will be moving on to Palmyra. Of the three Middle Eastern countries I’ve visited on this trip, Syria is without a doubt the best. The people here are friendly and welcoming, there is no hassle to speak of (even for the girls), and everything is quite cheap.

Half of my time here I’ve spent wandering around the old part of Damascus, which is an amazing section of the city filled with winding souq’s housing an incredible variety of shops and eateries. You can (and I did) spend a whole day just wandering from one food cart to the next sampling the cheap and delicious cuisine – an experience that only really sets you back about US $10. With the food and shops out of the way, another must-do is a trip to a Hammam (bath). Me and some of the guys headed here for an afternoon of relaxation, complete with a wash, sauna, scrub-down, massage and an hour sat drying off and drinking tea. Today should be another relaxing day, wandering the rest of the old city – seeing the famous mosque (supposedly second only to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, which I recall was quite spectacular), and of course filling myself with some more food.

The Umayyad Mosque

Damascus Souk

The other four days I’ve indulged in the newly developed Syrian sport climbing – which to be honest isn’t really anything special. The largest and only crag I’ve visited is Monte Rosa, which consists of several dozen bolted single pitch routes on sharp limestone. The grading here is very modest, to the point where anything French 6a or above is a real struggle for me even on a top-rope. The climbing mainly consists of 15-20m routes that ascend razor sharp limestone with mainly tiny crimps for holds (a combination that has lead to quite a few cuts and scrapes). I spent 2 days working through leading many of the grade 5 climbs, and another 2 days top-roping some of the more difficult ones. Overall an interesting crag, but in no way more exciting than taking a couple hour drive from London down to sport climb in Portland (certainly nothing compared to Wadi Rum!).

Climbing in Monte Rosa

I don’t have an SD card reader at the moment, so I’ll post Damascus photos along with ones of the ancient city at Palmyra when I get a chance. Only another 6 days left on the trip!

Nights Out in Amman

After leaving Petra behind, we headed towards Amman, the capital of Jordan. In terms of sights, there really is nothing to do in Amman – but it is one of the few cities in the Middle East where half-decent nightlife can be found. Having not had a proper night out for my birthday, and it being Duncan’s (truck owner) last night, we decided to go out to (of all places) an Irish bar – quite a good night of drinking and dancing, and my first Guinness in quite a while (I really do miss a cold pint).

A reasonable night, but not to be compared to the bizarre experience we had the night before our drive day to the Syrian border. Some of the group had met up with some local (but not Jordanian) girls while they were drunkenly running a 10k marathon in womens clothes and climbing gear the day before (that is another story entirely) – and for our last night in Amman we figured we’d meet up with them at a bar not too far from our hostel. Lots of games of pool, beers and shots later we met a Middle Eastern guy about our age (not Jordanian either) who invited us back to his house after the bar closed. Never ones to refuse an invitation, we all hopped in a couple cars and drove to residential Amman where we quickly realized that this guy was, to put it lightly, very well-to-do. After refusing any money, he bought loads of take-away kebabs and booze and we hung out in his posh basement until about 7am when we had to go back and get on the truck to leave Amman.

Crossing into Syria was less exciting than you might imagine – being a group, the others had no issues securing visas and after we jumped through all the right bureaucratic hoops we were let into Syria without any trouble.

Barrah Canyon (Wadi Rum) Climbing Photos

Just a quick update with a few climbing photos from Wadi Rum, the full gallery is available here

This was quite easily the biggest single pitch climb I’ve done - this first picture is me in green and Duncan in red belaying me up (after the belay point it gets overhung and Dunc had run out of gear – the crack was massively sustained climbing).

There was some good layback bits …

And some good jamming bits as well …