So it's now 2010 and I'm going to hop on the blog bandwagon with a year-end/decade-end review. Looking back at the "Aught's", I've been pretty lucky and fortunate enough to see and experience many parts of the world. My first big trip was through Europe in 2003 and I was hooked! That was followed by a trip to Asia in 2005, Africa in 2008 and the Himalayas in 2009. In total, I've set foot in 20 countries and 5 continents:

Not too shabby. Where will the next 10 years take me? We'll have to wait and see...

So Boxing Day/Week Madness is upon us once again here in Canada. This is when we, typically nice and friendly Canadians, head to the malls and fight other people for parking spots, that last door crasher deal sitting on the shelf, and the honour to spend hundreds of dollars just to save $20. Nonetheless, I headed out bright and early Saturday morning to pick up some deals myself. One stop was at Kitchen Stuff Plus where I had such amazing, out-of-their-way customer service that I just had to send them a note:

Boxing Day shopping is usually a time where customer service ceases to exist and stores focus on getting people in and out with their purchases as quickly as possible. My experience at the Yonge and Eglinton store Boxing Day morning was quite the opposite.

I went into the store at 8:15am looking for the advertised Henckels Stylus knife set. I walked around and could not find it so I asked one of the sales people (whose name I did not get). She said "I have to be honest with you. I've been here since 6am and I can't find it either. But I'll be glad to put your name down and call you when our warehouse guy comes in and finds them for me." I gladly left my name and number and left the store. Not 15 minutes later, I received a call from Perry notifying me at the knives have been located and there will be a unit waiting for me at the cashier.

It is service like yours that all stores and companies should strive for. Thanks for the great experience!

- Baron Lam

The Globe and Mail is currently running their Journalism Dream Contest where they're going to send one writer and one photographer to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Even though I've been published before, I'm a much better photographer than I am a writer. Now, I'm not saying that I'm an amazing photographer, but rather that I'm a horrible, horrible writer. Spend two minutes reading this blog and you'll quickly see this fact. But I digress...

What I need you to do though, loyal readers (the three of you know who you are), is to vote for me. Every. Day. Until November 22nd. But wait! There's more! As an incentive to vote, for every ballet you cast (for me), you will get one entry into a draw for a new laptop or DSLR camera. Sa-weet!

Brunch is one of my favourite things in life. The food and the company on a (sometimes hungover) Sunday morning - you can't beat it. My experience this past Sunday was just amazing!

We showed up at the Eglinton location of Boom Breakfast Company around noon only to see a big line of people waiting for tables. As I got my name onto the waiting list, I asked the manager for a rough guess on how long it's going to be. He said 15 minutes, but it was moving faster than that. 5 minutes later, he's walking around with a jug of coffee pouring everyone a cup! Then he comes back with waffle quarters and starts to hand them out to kids! With this little act of great customer service, I was immediately hooked on this place... The wait really was only about 10 minutes, but I would've waited all day. The menu and food was just as incredible. My only complaint? No liquor license = no breakfast Caesar :( But I suppose I'll live with that one...

On a related note, this week is also Customer Service Week... So be extra nice to all the people helping you this week!

I've been back home from my trip through the Himalayas for a few days now and have sort of been disconnected from the interweb for a few reasons. Firstly, my cable modem conveniently crapped out while I was gone and I had to wait for a Rogers tech to come out. Secondly, as if I didn't put my body in enough physical stress on a 12-day trek up to Everest Base Camp, I decided to play ultimate for 3 days straight immediately after I got home. My body hates me and it wants to sleep.

Rather than documenting our Everest Base Camp trek day-by-day like I did last year with Kilimanjaro, I'm going to tap into the 600 or so pictures I took on my trip and present some of my favourites. If you'd like to see all of my pictures in all their glory, head over to flickr and enjoy!

Otherwise, here's "People of the Himalayas":


traditional meets modern


homeless Bhutanese children wandering the mountain roads


little Buddhist monks on break


Bhutanese children playing on their way home from school


homeless woman in Kathmandu


resting man


typical overloaded Sherpa porter


first place Nepali Everest marathon runner


young boy working hard


local yak herders

Another year, another adventure.

I will be flying out tonight to Kathmandu, Nepal via Delhi, India to begin on a 3-week adventure to Everest Base Camp. Along the way, we'll be spending about a week in Bhutan - the happiest place in the world. As great of a trip this is going to be, I'm also excited that this will be the first trip I will be geeking it up by staying connected via BlackBerry. When I can, I will be blogging here (assuming my server/internet doesn't die while I'm gone), but most likely, my updates will come via twitter, and indirectly, via Facebook for you twitter-less peeps.

That's it for now! I gotta go pack... Behave yourselves and I'll see you on the flip side!