BE NICE TO THE WORLD AND WORLD WILL BE NICE TO YOU
(MAYBE NOT BUT KEEP ON TRYIN’)
Nepalese are the nicest and most hospitable people I have ever met (obviously except…fill in your nationality). Starting from such a small things as greeting you with smile with their “Namaste” (which literally means “I salute God within you”), through pointing you into right direction when they see you are being lost a bit, all the way to cooking a meal for you in their home once you mistaken it for a local restaurant (you only realize this when you have to baby-sit while mom is cooking). Already after couple of days all this and much more makes you feel good and you become nicer to people, more tolerant and compassionate. This is definitely one souvenir you want to bring home with you and pass it on.
On top, Nepalese are very educated people. They all claim they know where Slovakia is and with English you are better off there than in France.

WE KNOW WHAT WE HAVE ONLY WHEN WE LOSE IT
Having a hot shower after couple days of trekking is considered a small luxury in Nepal’s Himalaya, having light (electricity) is a luxury, having and extra blanket for cold nights is something that fills your heart with joy, drinking water that you don’t need to treat with iodine – dream came true (the taste is unbelievable). Fried rice twice a day for three weeks – yummy. After couple of days in this environment (one of most beautiful in the world and full of smiles) your mind starts focusing on what you have, instead (as usually does at home) on what you don’t have. No need to say how good and grateful it makes you feel about your life. Unfortunately, all these things you take for granted once you’re back home and you only realize their worth once you lose them again.
(No need to say same applies for people in our lives but this would be topic for other reflections)

WE ARE WHO WE ARE AND IT’S NOT GOING TO CHANGE
Any longer stay in “spiritual” country like India, Tibet or Nepal makes people expect you to come back as completely different person. Some expect you to come back enlightened or at least walking on water. After no more than 10 days of being there and observing myself in different situations and different environments there was one thing I was very clear on – we are who we are and it’s not going to change. Those who already had a chance to meet me after I have returned home know exactly what I am talking about… Obviously, we can alter (change) our behavior for some time (sometimes for whole life) based on some values / principles we accept as right but deep inside we are who we are and this is not going to change.

YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE
Going for 25 days trekking trip to Himalaya it was very naïve from me to think that I can run away from problems I am facing, from things that need to be solved, from responsibilities I am maybe trying to avoid. This I have realized very first morning waking up in Kathmandu. This was then the case for the rest of my trip no matter how far or how high I went. I could run but I couldn’t hide and towards the end of my trip I did not even wanted to.

EVERY MAN IS AN ARCHITECT OF HIS LIFE. HE IS A CAUSE OF HIS OWN HAPPINESS AND MISERY
This was the motto of “Forward Academy” – school in Kathmandu I have visited and there is nothing I can agree more. My trip gave me a lot of time to think providing me with new perspectives on events in my life and things I have been through. At the end it all boiled down to one thing which would be best expressed by words of Sheldon B. Kopp: “It is enough if a man accepts his freedom, takes his best shot, does what he can, faces the consequences of his acts, and makes no excuses. It may not be fair that a man gets to have total responsibility for his own life without total control over it, but it seems to me that for good or for bad, that’s just the way it is.” Or as one of my best friends is saying: “It’s up to you”

LIFE IS SIMPLE (WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY EAT, WHEN YOU’RE TIRED SLEEP)
When trekking in Nepal you may find that your life is reduced to waking up at 6am, walking for 4 hours with all your belongings in your backpack, having lunch (plate of rice) and then 4 more hours (sometimes more) of walking, dinner (another plate of rice), bit of reading and writing and going to bed at around 7pm. This goes on for days and weeks on end and only thing left for you to do is to think. At the end, all problems (pardon, issues) start to seem very simple and not that much important, somehow big stuff is reduced to small stuff and it all boils down to one thing: Life is simple, don’t sweat it looking for explanations and answers. Life is simple; when you’re hungry eat, when you’re tired sleep.