#21 - Folkways - A Brief, Condensed History Part I

As mentioned in post #12, Folkways International Trekking began in 1975 with a capital investment of 1 box of letterhead, 1 box of envelopes and a few stamps.  Fortunately, I had a desk, chair and typewriter from my teaching days.  The physical location moved multiple times, but my commute to the office has never taken more than 5 minutes and, normally, less than 2.

In the beginning, I needed to be in the field and the office was staffed by friends and family (Marilyn gets special mention).  When Folkways Trekking made a little money on a trip, the funds were used to pay the staff and office expenses.  This became normal policy as the company evolved.

Beginning with the Around Annapurna Trek, there was a need to arrange airline ticketing for group members.  In the early days, I made arrangements with local travel agencies to handle our ticketing needs (Susanne and I did a few day trips to Vancouver BC in order to gain from the USD/CD exchange).  After we built an office addition to our home in Oak Grove, Oregon, GeGe, a very bright young lady who interviewed to assist me, had travel agency training, so we applied under the name Folkways Travel and became the only ticketing agency located in a private home.  I was able to find equipment for our new office and some friends who worked for the telephone company helped install a multi-line phone system to which was added a telex machine and, after several years, a fax machine.

During my graduate school days studying Intercultural Communication, I met a man who was the director of an organization that developed study abroad programs for high school students.  I was interested in staying connection to education and learned about several college study-abroad programs that worked with local companies to develop and arrange the student courses.  While exploring  these student and alumni overseas programs, I established the 501-c-3 Folkways Institute to work in this international education field.  Kyle, who had recently graduated from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon had heard about us and interviewed for work.  He was hired with no salary, based on the agreement that as soon as Folkways Institute had an income, he would get paid.  With his help, we were able to get agreements from Lewis & Clark College, Linfield College and George Fox College to "bid" on their student study-abroad programs.   We would develop and confirm overseas arrangements for up to 10 winter and spring term study-abroad courses without knowing how many, if any, we would be able to operate for the schools.  These were very work-intensive projects.  Not only did we have to develop, organize and book arrangements, but if our "bid" was not accepted by the school's Overseas Director, we had to communicate back to cancel all the booked arrangements.   Eventually, we were awarded enough courses that Kyle was able to get back pay and a small salary.

Our move to Happy Valley came due to a need for a larger office.  We grew to 3 staff in Folkways Travel and 4 in Folkways Institute.  With family financial assistance, a house was built on 3.13 acres which included a 1000 sq ft office.  Folkways Travel's airline ticketing equipment (3 airline computers and a ticketing machine) was moved after ATC location requirements were met.  Folkways had a good reputation at Lewis & Clark College and we had several students come to work for 1 - 2 years  between their college graduation and graduate school.  Again, these were all bright and outstanding students who were a joy to work with and learn from.  One student connected Folkways Institute with Elderhostel (now Road Scholar) and Interhostel (University of New Hampshire adult overseas education program).  For several years, we were operating adult education programs for both Elderhostel and Interhostel in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet.  We had rented a house in Kathmandu and had permanent staff living in the house, taking care of our trekking equipment and operating our treks and education courses.

Whether it was Folkways Travel or Folkways Institute, our work never came at a steady flow.  Sometimes, 6 months would pass without any income, but staff still needed to receive their salary.  Just like a squirrel preparing for winter, I kept funds aside for those bleak periods.   With the arrival of the internet, development of school international programs became easier, but also more competitive as Overseas Education Directors reached beyond local organization to overseas companies.  In 1975, there were about 4 "adventure" companies in the United States and we were considered one of those.  In 1985, there were hundreds and, in the next 10 years, probably 1000 or more in the USA as well as internationally.  The USA had an economic decline from July 1990 to March 1991, then a global economic crisis in 1998, contributing to traveler's concerns about spending money for travel overseas.  The culmination of these events had a severe impact on both Folkways Travel and Folkways Institute.

View from Happy Valley Office

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"Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are.

                                                                                                                            Jose' Ortega y Gassett

#20 - Nepal - Around Annapurna Trek (1979)

I scheduled our bus to the trailhead for 0800am.  At 0830, no bus, so our trekkers returned to the hotel garden for their second cup of coffee.  Our Sirdar arrived in a very dated bus at 0900, loaded the duffels onto the roof rack and we settling in for the 5 hour drive to the trailhead.  We drove out onto the Ring Road, then suddenly stopped. We were running out of diesel, so we crawled to the nearest petrol station for a 20 minute fill-up.  Tank full, trekkers aboard, Sherpa chattering away in back, some members on the roof with the duffels, we were off in a cloud of diesel fumes for our 25 day Around Annapurna Trek.

Our bus arrived in humid Besisahar where the porters, cooks and kitchen staff were waiting.  The trekkers, day packs on their backs, were impatient to move, so a few of our Sherpa led the way.  Our trek had begun.  That night a warm rain fell....as well as on the next day....and the next day.  On day three, I became very ill and couldn't eat or stand up.  One of the members was a doctor and diagnosed some type of local flu or valley fever.  The Sirdar and Sherpa sought local help and brought a doctor from the village who had a different diagnosis - "By the Heart".  The trekkers stayed in camp an extra day to allow for my recovery.  When I wasn't able to leave camp the following day, they continued up toward Chame.  The next morning, I was able to walk slowly, so the two Sherpa who stayed with us packed our tent and supplies, carried my day pack and we set off after the trekking group.  (Side note - 16 years later, after multiple Himalayan treks, and two TIA's causing vision problems with loss of leg and arm control on my right side, doctors would discover that I had a small hole in my heart that required open heart surgery - "by the heart?".  The doctors were surprised about my completing multiple Himalayan treks.)

The altitude, rain, trekking life, humidity and food began impacting some of the members.  The CornNut trekkers, who knew each other, became a trekking unit unto themselves and didn't want much to do with the other group members. 

In 1979, there were few foreigners in the Nepal countryside and we were alone with our staff and local villagers throughout most of our trek.  The village of Manang, (11,500ft) was rest and acclimatization day before moving higher.  After reaching Thorong Phedi (14,600ft) for the night, we rose very early the next morning for a hearty breakfast and began the approach to the highest point in our trek - Thorong La (17,770ft) with each trekker carrying water and lunch. Crossing Thorong La was the equalizer (in October 2014, over 17 trekkers were killed crossing the pass when a sudden storm swept through the Himalayas).  Some of those who were big talkers became big stragglers and all felt the high altitude conditions.  The group was strung out on the trail for miles and required myself and the Sherpa staff to remain alert throughout the day for anyone showing signs of altitude sickness.  Then darkness came. Some of the members were not in Muktinath camp (12,475ft) by 0800pm after beginning at 0400am.  The cook made several thermos of tea and a couple Sherpa and I left camp with tea, cookies and flashlights to retrace our steps back up to the pass.  As we came upon one or more of our trekkers, we poured hot tea, handed out cookies, checked their physical condition and sent them on down and continued up to search for others.  By 11pm, 19 hours after we had left Thorong Phedi, we were back in camp with everyone warm, fed and asleep. It was a long day.

We were running out of food.  The trekking company had not provided sufficient funds for the trek operation and I had little cash.  We were able to get word from the nearby military post to the trek company that we needed cash and food.  After two more campsites, we were met by a couple Sherpa and porters rushing up from Pokhara with our supplies. 

Of course, the trekkers collegial attitude from the successful pass crossing was soon exhausted due to the slim rations, the altitude, personality conflicts and length of time on the trek.  By this time, I was orchestrating two parallel trekking groups moving toward Pokhara and, in my thoughts, we couldn't arrive too soon.

The trekking staff did a fantastic job considering the attitudes and conditions among the trekkers.  No one became very sick, except myself at the beginning, and all arrived back in Kathmandu looking forward to a hot shower, good food and a nice comfortable bed.

Since Around Annapurna in 1979, I have had the privilege to trek in areas that were magical, awe-inspiring, physically demanding, remote and stimulating.  All are memorable. Frankly, it is hard for me to believe the gift that I have been given to explore the Himalayas over so many years.  Not only Nepal.  India, Sikkim, Pakistan, Bhutan and Tibet will be shared in coming posts.      

Annapurna Range - Around Annapurna Trek (1979)

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“All journeys end in the settling of accounts:  paying off porters, muleteers or camel-drivers, and rewarding the staff, especially the unfailing khansamah and, of course, the sirdar, the invaluable guide and caravan organizer.  It is also the moment when one must seek adequate words of gratitude and recompense for the contributions of loyal companions, and least of all for the numerous acts of kindness and consideration one has received on the way”  The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, Jamyang Norbu

#19 - Nepal? (~1977)

I am trying to remember where we first met.  I believe it was another dinner party at Doug's house, similar to the one which led me to Royalty in Belgium.  During the evening, I was introduced to a fellow named Bob Wilson, who was a college instructor, member of Mazamas Mountaineering Organization and an active mountain climber. Bob told me about the Mazamas sponsored Men's American Annapurna I expedition scheduled for 1979 that he would be leading and heard that I had a locally based trekking company.  He was looking for assistance with the climb in the areas of logistics, travel arrangements, luggage/climbing gear cargo as well as a possible fund-raising trek around Annapurna.  Would I be interested in joining the team and providing these support services?  Of course, I would.

The next morning at home, I searched for a world atlas and found Nepal tucked away in the Himalayas.  A short distance to the west of the capital, Kathmandu, at least visually, was the Annapurna massive and Annapurna I.  Fortunately, I had more than a year to research airlines flying from the west coast to Kathmandu, cargo requirements, trekking the Himalayas, local weather and any other questions that Bob or the other climbers may have had regarding their destination.  The climb was set for fall 1979 and the climbing team met regularly to plan and implement the Annapurna I expedition.

A brief reminder, once more, that we planned and researched without computers and the internet.  I "interviewed" local support services in Kathmandu via aerograms, which took between several weeks and a couple months to receive any responses.  There weren't a lot of options for local support services, so the "interview" process was short on numbers but long on communication exchanges. 

One of the climbers had a friend who was CEO of a company called CornNuts and they became one of the climb sponsors along with the Mazamas.  When the Around Annapurna Trek was finalize, the company sent nine  of the eighteen hikers to join the trek.  This would have been a large trekking group in any situation and it taxed our young Sirdar as well as the Sherpa staff, porters, cooks and the trek leader who had done only one Nepal trek previously.

Susanne (wife, whom I met through Sunset's "Things To Do" column - (another story)) and I arrived in Kathmandu about 2 weeks early to get organized and take a short trek together with our young Sirdar in the Gosaikunda region.  Except for my passing out while walking down a dry river bed in the intense heat, all went well.  Yes, this was the "one Nepal trek previously."  We were ready to greet our members and lead them on the Around Annapurna trek, or so we thought.

 

Around Annapurna Trek Airport Member Greeting (1979)

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Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a cord.
                                                                                                                            Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust

#18 - Zurich, Avignon, Rome, Athens (1977)

In post #2, I had been rejected from taking a book to the Royal Family of Belgium. You may remember the light mist in the air in post #4 as I walked along the Limmat River carrying my backpack, crossed the street stepping over the trolley rails running down the middle and entered onto a cobble stone walkway in a seemingly dingy section of the city which appeared to be a hotel district.  At several hotels, a young woman stood at the front door to welcome new guests.

I did not find my hotel that night and returned to the train station to continue my onward journey as well as some needed sleep.

Why visit Avignon?  I don't remember the exact motivation, but it was a learning experience on the cultural impact of historic events.  On the train, I met a young German fellow who was sightseeing around Europe.   He was going to visit Avignon and asked if I would like to join him.  Of course, I could.  After arriving at the station, we walked around the city carrying our packs. Late afternoon, we begin looking for a reasonable hotel for the night.  We had been communicating in my limited German and his limited English, but neither of us spoke French.  Thinking that many Europeans speak several languages, he asked the first hotel for available rooms.  None available.  The same response came at the second hotel, then the third. At the forth, I asked about rooms in English and turned to answer, in German, his question when the hotel clerk responded that they had no rooms.  The fifth hotel clerk told us, basically, that they didn't have rooms for Germans.

I walked back to the train and continued on to Rome and Athens.  He stayed in Avignon looking for a place to sleep.

Greece had captured my imagination as a location that could be planned similarly to New Zealand, i.e. travel with a small group via passenger van and visit historic and cultural sites.  Language would be a major problem and I would need a Greek speaker to accompany us. I took the ferry from Brindisi, Italy to Igoumenitsa, Greece and bus to Athens to research my future Portrait of Greece for May 1978.  Having learned my lesson in Avignon, I spoke English and found a rooftop room in the Plaka with a view of the Acropolis.  One evening while dining on a Taverna patio, a fellow at the next table asked how I happened to be in Athens. During our evening conversation, I learned that George was a Classics Professor from Ohio State on a short visit to prepare for his sabbatical year in Greece. He spoke Greek. Would he be interested to travel around Greece with a small group of Americans in a passenger van finding hotels and restaurants as we went?  Of course he would. We agreed that I would cover his apartment and travel expenses during our journey.  I had found our guide, a van rental company and an accommodation Athens, so it was time to return home and find some travelers.

Sunset Magazine, "Things to Do" column, Portrait of Greece, May 1978.  Fifteen requested more information and six deposits were received for a 28 day cultural tour with a Classics Professor and a driver who had never driven in Greece.  It was a fantastic trip.

Chania Fishermen Mending Nets (1978)

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I prepared excitedly for my departure, as if this journey had a mysterious significance.  I had decided to change my mode of life.  "Till now," I told myself, "you have only seen the shadow and been well content with it; now, I am going to lead you to the substance."
                                                                                                                        Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

#17 - The Art of Travel Design

Let me start by repeating two quotations from blog #1:

"For the history that I require and design, special care is to be taken that it will be of wide range and made to the measure of the universe.

For the world is not to be narrowed till it will go into the understanding (which has been done hitherto), But the understanding is to be expanded and opened till it can take in the image of the world."  

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Francis Bacon

I would like to draw from the mission statement directing my work and suggest the I will be writing for those Travelers who seek life-long learning in a creative, stimulating environment while promoting cross-cultural understanding.  The Traveler's whose focus is the diverse cultural and geographic settings of our global community that provide an environment for growth in understanding international relationships through a prepared, personal encounter with regional nationalities and the environments that molds their culture.

I want to apply Seven Principals of Art Design to travel design and, as a text suggests, "How one applies these principals determines how successful a design may be."  The Principals:  Balance, Emphasis, Pattern, Repetition, Rhythm, Variety & Unity.

Variety:   A new location or experience should be scheduled into a journey without alienating the traveler or overwhelming the local community.  If the traveler is removed too far from their comfort zone, the new experience may become a distraction rather than captivating.  The local community should not be impacted to the extent that they become unwelcoming to the traveler (i.e. many Bhutan festivals have pushed the local community into the back as foreigners move in and jostle for prime viewing areas), but the welcoming should not become a culturally artificial tourist show.  Every destination has a "bucket list site" that must be included as a recognized historic or cultural place. But, these "must see" places should not exclude the "you need to see" sites that are significant and known locally but not necessarily internationally.

Emphasis:       Travelers, usually, join an overseas trip which has a focus: trekking, hiking, wildlife safari, birding, culinary, cruising, sailing, wine tasting, etc.     Context is important.   Without losing the focus, or the traveler's purpose for joining the trip, the diverse cultural and geographic setting of the local community should be introduced so that the traveler's "understanding..is expanded and opened."

Rhythm:      If you have been on a trek lasting 10 days or more, you understand how this principal may apply to travel.  There is a daily routine that the Sherpa staff follow beginning with the cook and kitchen staff 4am breakfast preparation for trekkers and their fellow Sherpa, cleaning and packing up the campsite, loading porters, sending out the Sherpa guide ahead with the trekkers, cook and staff passing the trekkers in order to prepare lunch along the trail, serving lunch and cleaning up, Sherpa staff passing the trekkers in order to set up the tents at the next campsite while the cook and kitchen staff begin dinner preparation, serving the trekkers dinner and, finally, bedtime for everyone except one or two Sherpa who stay awake during the night for security.  There is a rhythm to trekking as well as cruising, sailing or any other type of travel.    If either of these are disrupted due to weather, political social events or facility/transportation maintenance, it is important to plan equilibrium so that the disruption does not become the overriding focus of attention.

Balance:    Accommodations, for example, should reflect the local history, culture and architecture as much as possible.  Consideration of traveler's health and safety must be considered as well as whether the place and location enhance the traveler's experience through accessibility to the community or cocoons and isolates the traveler away from cultural experiences.  A historic and expensive hotel, such as the Strand in Yangon, can be included by finding several less expensive yet satisfactory accommodations.  Above all, accommodations should not become a distraction from the travel experience due to faulty facilities or questionable food conditions.    

Pattern & Repetition:    We have all experienced the museum, monastery, cathedral, ancient ruin, etc. etc. travels that pique one's interest at the beginning but the repetition drags down the enthusiasm. How does one pique interest to a peak and not down to a valley?   Every person and place has a tale which can be told as a static event in history or, better, as a archival story which expands the local historic narrative.

Unity:       On the final day, has the journey encouraged more questions or has one "been there & done that."  No matter what the overall trip emphasis, the experience should not "be narrowed till it will go into the understanding (which has been done hitherto), But the understanding is to be expanded and opened till it can take in the image of the world."  The parts, the individual experiences, must fit into and enhance the whole. 

Inya Lake  - Leg Rower Fisherman (2013)

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The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

                                                     Neil de Grasse Tyson, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry