Boston: Places to go, Things to do

Lexington, Concord, Walden Pond. National Historic Park on the beginning of American Revolution; interesting exhibits along route between them. Visitor centers, gift shops. Concord also a cultural center and the home of many authors – Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – exhibits/museums . Walden Pond made famous by Henry David Thoreau- a pleasant, relaxing park, with a path around the pond.

Wayside Inn/Grist Mill, DeCordova Museum Purchased by Henry Ford for restoration, picturesque Grist Mill, the school where Mary had her little lamb, chapel. The Wayside Inn continues to be an excellent restaurant – where we will have lunch one day

DeCordova Museum, in the town of Lincoln ten minutes from Sudbury, is a top-quality art museum that specializes in large outdoor sculptures

Boat trip to Provincetown, Cape swim? From Boston, there is a regular passenger ferry to the tip of Cape Cod. We could take the ferry, then spend the day on the cape. Or a whale watch trip from Boston or from Newburyport or Gloucester

Boston (2 days): a show, walking tour, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science, New England Aquarium, Quincy Market, Harvard campus. There are numerous things to see and do in Boston and – across the Charles River – Cambridge. On Saturday, we could take in a matinee in the theater district. The top museums are the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, and the New England Aquarium. Each is world quality (admission fees)

There is a well-marked walking tour of Boston that highlights the many historical sites (including cemeteries). Along it are Quincy Market (where we can have lunch), with lots of nice shops and Faneuil Hall (where the Boston Tea Party was hatched)

Salem, Newburyport, Plum Island. Famous for its witch trials in the 1600s. National wildlife refuge on Plum Island

Ed and Alice

Happy Nepalese New Year!

Hardy Fuerer

Alice L introduced me to Hardy Fuerer at the UNDP Compound’s mailbox way back in 1979. He was just back from one of his numerous trips to the far flung corners of the country, this time he had some bottles of rakshi airlifted from somewhere at Humla. Apparently apricots were in abundance there and he had befriended some villagers who make their own hooch from the surplus fruit.

He was the UN pilot extraordinaire, having flown over the Swiss mountains to qualify him to work for the “air bus” or “air ghari”, a Pilatus Porter, to reach at the remotest regions and mostly unpassable by road. His cargo and passengers were unpredictable: these could be medicine, books, hardware, sheep. And rumors of running contraband to a certain training area, but this was never substantiated. The return trips were mostly light so the need to look around for items to ferry back to Kathmandu.

Sad to know that he passed away in 2005.

In 2000, Hardy Furer returned to the country he loved: the Everest View Hotel (rooms are provided with oxygen tanks, the elevation was that high) was to hire him to take tourists there. However things did not go the way he would have wanted to. His health was not at its best, having lost one lung and part of another to pulmonary problems. He was unable to obtain a visa to stay in Nepal, and his condition worsened until his death. He was given a simple Buddhist cremation.

For nearly twenty years, he was a fixture in town. With the Civil Aviation authorities, he extended the number of air strips to 30. One of the more colorful characters at that time, his flying record shows zero accidents. A story goes that he drove his Land Rover (or was it a Peugeot?) into the main road or rather piloted it, hitting a good number of cars. Remember, it was okay to park cars in the median of the road? Some consultants complained that the Pilatus left without them, because they were unable to arrive at the airstrip on time.

His UN flying days were over when the Pilatus was exchanged for a Twin Otter and turned over to Royal Nepal (RNAC). He returned to Switzerland and after years of treatment he left for Nepal.

He lived his piloting life in Nepal with a lot of drive, gusto, and passion. The UN plane’s number was 9N-AAW. Which some people shortened to “Alpha Whiskey”.

Do you have any Hardy stories to share?

Joyous Easter

From Moutain to Sea: Kaya ng Pinoy

In May 2006 and May 2007, two teams of Filipinos – three men and three women, respectively – successfully conquered Mount Everest.The First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition was led by former Undersecretary of Transportation and Communication Art Valdez, and composed of climbers Leo Oracion, Pastour Emata and Romi Garduce, and Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino and Noelle Wenceslao. The three Filipinas completed the more ardous traverse through the north route in Tibet and the descent on the south face in Nepal.

These amazing feats started as a dream for Valdez who, as president of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines, announced in October 2003 that he was forming a team to climb Everest.

Valdez and his historial team are dreaming again. Plans are in to conquer the seas in a craft that ancestors used thousands of years ago."The Voyage of the Balangay 2009-2013” aims to replicate of the ancient vessel based on the balangay boat excavated in Butuan, Agusan del Sur in the 1970s; using the same boat building technique and method of construction as the balangay of the 4th, 13th and 14th century A.D. – plank built, lashed lug, edge pegged and shell-first construction.

On completion of the balangay, the team will embark on a four-year voyage around the Philippines, then around Southeast Asia, and to Micronesia and Madagascar in 2011. The boat will then sail across the Pacific to the Atlantic in 2012, all the way around the world and back home to the Philippines in 2013.

The crew will include five Everest mountaineers – Oracion, Emata, Dayondon, Wenceslao and Belarmino – plus medical doctors Ted Esguerra and Voltaire Velasco, and Fred Jamili. Other members of the crew still to be chosen will include master sailors, academics and scientists.

The boat will be built on a 1,000-square meter site provided by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which is cooperating with the project. The site is located at the Liwasang Ullalim beside the Folk Arts Theater in the CCP Complex on Roxas Blvd. The wood for the boat has already been sourced from Tawi-Tawi and will be shipped to the construction site. Construction is expected to take three months.

“In celebration of the Asian Century, it is time to honor the Filipino pioneering spirit, which we established during our ascent of Mount Everest. This next epic voyage is yet another chance to inspire our countrymen and fellow Indo-Malays to believe in ourselves and in our oneness again,” Art Valdez, the expedition leader, said.

He also launched the book 'Live the Dream' about the Everest expedition.