Asan Hu Travel notes, book reviews, life updates, and the occasional epiphany. 2026-08-02T00:00:00.000Z https://asanhu.github.io/ Asan climbing Kilimanjaro 2026-08-02T00:00:00.000Z https://asanhu.github.io/posts/climbing-kilimanjaro/ Oh Kili, how do I even begin talking about this experience, the toughest and most physically demanding challenge in my life so far.

So let’s start with WHY: why kili and why now? As an English literature major, my first time hearing about Kilimanjaro was through Ernest Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro, I wasn’t sure whether he actually set foot on that mountain as it’s a fictional short story, but the name was engraved in my mind ever since, it just being super remote, far away, like knowing Ernest Hemingway himself doesn’t change my life at all. It wasn’t until Sondra (my ex-colleague while I was still working for TikTok) went for about 2 weeks and came back with her updates on celebrating her 30th birthday via climbing Kilimanjaro, and that’s how I started getting to know more about this mountain beyond just its literal meaning and admiration of her standing atop the highest peak in Africa when turning 30, that was the year of 2021. Five years later, as I am about to turn 30 myself, I really couldn’t think of a more memorable way to celebrate this milestone in my life, and I signed up for this trip too.

Since growing up, I rarely celebrated my birthdays except those big decades and the coming of age. I don’t really buy the concept nor do I see the joy of birthday celebration as I didn’t contribute to anything to deserve this celebration (okay I understand that every year of surviving this turbulent world is worthy of celebration and people just need an excuse/occasion for partying). The same applies to my 30th, a big decade in life I know, but I wanna do something to make more sense of the celebration, something that makes me truly proud.

Everything worked out so well, that makes me believe it’s fate that brought me to the mountain with the right company and the right timing and the right location. Being in Abu Dhabi really makes it easy to get there, with my best friend Christelle who’s adventurous and willing to go on this journey with me, with all the practical recommendations given by Jonathan (who’s my failed hinge date but turns out to be super helpful as he went through the same journey around a similar time several years ago and recommended such a wonderful trekking agency to me). All dots were connected so perfectly and it’s time to follow the serendipity and set off on foot.

Now, onto the journey: I had to admit that I severely underestimated how tough this mountain trekking can be. Kili is not just a random mountain, but an almost 6000-meter-high altitude mountain, which requires several days of acclimatization, it’s a must-have process to prevent high altitude sickness as much as possible, but it doesn’t mean you won’t have any. Little did I know that nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headache, not to mention the extreme dryness and peeling off skin all hit me hard. We chose the 7-day Lemosho route with the summit on the 6th day (precisely the night of the 5th), while the first day of 4 hours trekking gave us some sweetness and overly optimistic expectations, day 2 and 3 struck so hard with almost 10 hours’ trekking on the second day and 6 hours on the third. Day 2 and 3, I suffered from high altitude sickness and every step of the way makes me want to vomit. The sun hanging over our heads with beaming sunlight dried us out and peeled off our skin severely. There were so many days I wanted to beg the guide to take me down and I just found every step forward to be so hard and couldn’t see myself moving any further. There were so many times while I was resting on the stone with my tears sliding down and evaporated so soon that I lost all the feeling but pain and drowsiness.

Thank god I didn’t give up eventually, as day 4 and 5 started turning towards positive sides, nausea was gone ever since I took the high altitude sickness pills and the anti-nausea pills, the treks were significantly shorter too, so my hopes grew high again. We saw the snowy peak from multiple angles, feeling it closer and closer; we climbed and kissed the rocks, we danced salsa on a flat peak and saw ourselves standing above the clouds! The pride and adrenaline kicked in and I started looking forward to the summit night, the truly agonizing summit night.

I still remember almost every minute of the summit night so well even a week after, regardless of how much I wanted to erase the pain from my mind. Omar (our lead guide) for the summit, holding our hands together, prayed to God, that 10 seconds of silence before departure seemed so precious. We set off, first on the 1-hour rocky path with each step a big stretch, and we had to stop almost every 15 minutes to catch our breath. Then the endless zig-zag path, I swear I’ve never hated zig-zag so much in my life that we probably spent about 4 hours there with the never-ending path. All I had in my mind was staring at Omar’s footsteps, mindlessly following him left and right. I tried to put on music but all those “liked songs” seemed so annoying that I just wanna shut them off as my brain really couldn’t process anything more than following the footsteps. 3 hours in, our water bladder froze, I cheered secretly every time we needed to let others pass through first so that I could take more micro breaks to catch my breath. I didn’t want to ask the time, as the more I knew, the more desperation it brought, I want pure silence and sole ignorance, all I know was following and breathing, zero expectations.

The moment when we reached Stella Point, the sun hadn’t come out yet, but my tears jumped out, and I screamed “fuck yeah” so loud as if I hadn’t screamed anything before in my life. There is something you almost lost hope for but suddenly emerged at the least expected time, and this was exactly that thing at that specific moment. But this is not yet the end, it took one more hour to reach the Uhuru Peak (the highest peak, or the “freedom” peak) from Stella Point, the sunlight started beaming at us from dimness to full blown. We saw the glaciers on the way, the yolk-like sun on our back, the almost flat path towards the destination, the signpost at the peak seemed so close yet so far, and I strived, every step on the way, and finally we were there.

I made three wishes, and kissed the signpost. I hugged my teammates so tight with tears ricochet, and turned our way back, this time, embracing the sunrise on our faces and beaming smiles with so much pride in us.

Descending took us about 10 hours spanning across 2 days, 4000 meters decreasing in elevation seemed crazy, and we were almost running down hills, in the end I couldn’t even feel my toes anymore. But the pride of reaching the summit and the hope of getting back to the hotel with a hot shower and a soft bed took over us, that everyone was panting but with tremendous happiness.

This is the official end of the journey, and I wanna acknowledge the fact that there’s no way I could have done this without the 6 guides leading us every step of the way, the chefs making delicious food, the waiters waking us up every morning and every day with hot water and drinks, the 45 porters carrying all the equipment and resources and our duffel bags and setting up everything before we reached every camp. They are the main reasons why every time I want to give up, I had to cheer myself up and march forward regardless of how exhausted and sick I was as they’ve done everything possible for us to achieve our dreams on this mountain.

]]> on Gilmore Girls 2026-07-19T00:00:00.000Z https://asanhu.github.io/posts/on-Gilmore-Girls/ I started watching Gilmore Girls for the second time, episode 1 season 1, I couldn't find nor am I in the mood looking for an alternative to fill in the gap. What is so special about Gilmore Girls that every time when I watched it, be it in the background, or with full attention, the warmth just filled up in me. The mother-daughter intimate relationship, growing up and always coming back to the little Stars Hollow town, dining and chilling at the same place, and always walking on the same street, the feeling of settled, homey, comfort makes you want to smile and I had to say I saw myself in both the daughter and the mother.

Stars Hollow, the little and tight-knit fictional town in Connecticut, with probably less than a 1000 residents, where everyone knows each other, seeing each other grow up and grow old, everyone's daughter is everyone's daughter. That just resonates with my life so much. I grew up in a small village town with about 1 thousand regular residents living in it, and half of them carried the same last name as I do (Hu), each new cry of a new born, each newly knot-tied couple is a whole town's celebration. Almost everyone has their houses built by themselves, no high floors, with max-5 floor low-rise houses. The river flows through the village and that's what I jogged along since growing up. They know where I went for primary school, middle to high school and my college, where I worked, where I lived and they care about my relationship status more than I do (not a fun thing when your life becomes the whole town's chitchat topic). Life is simple, repeated, and peaceful.

That kind of intimate mother and daughter relationship, the way they grow up together, experiencing different stages of life, the loves, the heartbreaks, the fights, the mistakes, the regrets...that kind of intimacy and closeness is something I always long for. I started boarding school since the age of 12 (middle school), and my life before undergraduate was mostly about competing for a higher rank in grades, caring about appearance and outfit is being irresponsible for your future, is what I learnt as the first principle when growing up, I don’t have a childhood friend like Lane, no one is beside me all the time except myself, having an early boyfriend during your puberty is something one should be ashamed of, especially the kind that drags your grades down. Sometimes, as I look back, there’s always some sense of tragedy in the early years of my life, that lost freedom, that lost care-free childhood, that lost pursuit of creativity, everything is about competence and competition, I felt very sad about the younger self and whoever is experiencing that same pathway in life.

On journalism, surprisingly similar in career ambitions with Rory, I always strived to be a journalist since growing up and applied to journalism schools for my master’s though none of them really worked out. The excitement and nervousness I had when seeing my first by-line printed out on a Shanghai-based English newspaper, and my street interviews series released on multiple channels...I gave up my pursuit of journalism when I failed to be admitted to any of the top journalism schools, and pivoted to the technology sector, which turned out really well too. In another world, if that journalist ship sailed off successfully, I wonder who and how I would be.

There can’t be more differences between my life vs Gilmore Girls’, but also can’t be more similar. It’s so easy to project myself onto them, and make wishes that in another world, I will find great joy in a life like that.

]]> when life knows no time 2026-07-14T00:00:00.000Z https://asanhu.github.io/posts/when-life-knows-no-time/ The night before I intentionally left my phone uncharged, and woke up in the morning without knowing the time. As the sun shined out bright through the window, I assumed it's probably approaching mid-day, and started the morning procedures and put on a travel documentary of Armenia on Youtube. When I wrapped up everything and finally put my phone on charge, i found out it's only 8:57AM.

The feeling was fantastic as you live completely following your biologic clock, and let the things flow naturally themselves without being pressed by the time. The knowing of time gives us freedom in a golden cage. If I did look at the time as the first thing in the morning and most likely woulnd't get up immediately when knowing it's 8AM. Getting up before 10AM in a vacation while recognizing my exhaustion during the hiking trip is a crime! I would patiently enjoy the "earned freedom disguised in a time trap" on my bed waiting for the clock hit 10.

And now, without knowing it, I got my freedom completely back to me and enjoyed the time as it is.

How should I put it? Ignorance is a bless.

]]> weekend getaway in Armenia 2026-07-13T00:00:00.000Z https://asanhu.github.io/posts/weekend-getaway-in-Armenia/ Armenia has always been on my list. Initially, the idea was mostly for finishing the visits to three Caucasus countries as I've been to Georgia and Azerbaijan, I think somehow, there's this tendency in my mind to complete the loop, close the gap, even though there's no such rule in place at all.

I almost did it early this year in May but Air Arabia was always extra cautious compared to others as Armenia, unfortunately in this case, shares the border with Iran. Flights got cancelled when I finally made my mind but it didn't happen.

I started internalizing this philosophy that everything happens for a good reason. If you look at things from a longer and bigger perspective, what i'd say, look at yourself and your surroundings from afar (in distance and time), you'll realize you are actually blessed by those little hiccups in life that saved you from an unfortunate experience, or granted you with bigger blessings. So every experience is good experience.

That cancellation of flights back in early May was such a fortunate hiccup that I didn't end up wasting my time when the weather was still cold and not fit for hiking and embracing nature at Armenia. Since it's going to be my first visit there, I was glad to have the chance to give it full justice.

And this time, a four day long weekend but mostly I devoted my time and energy (both social and physical) for the Mt. Khustup overnight hike with Armenia Geo. Being the only non-Armenian in the group felt special, and I considered that as a great chance to actually mingle with people meaningfully as we went through the pain and the rewards all together. Luckily most people speak decent English and approached me easily and I immediately felt welcomed.

My first camping experience, the first 3AM hike(which i didn't feel like a struggle at all), and the first time i felt not being completely depleted afterwards and was almost always at the front of the group. My endurance improvement surprised me and i managed to use squats, core, hanmstring and other parts of the muscle to relieve the pressue from my knees.

The ascent was pretty manageable and i was for a while leading the group as the first two went too far ahead sometimes. The view on the way up was green, not the Abu Dhabi type of green where the color felt like being copy-and-paste in an overly organized and artificial manner. The green at Khustup was lively, you can see the green in slightly different color coding, and the wild flowers standing themselves out with strikingly distinctive orange, yellow, white, etc. It's an acrylic painting in nature with breathable color palette.

At the peak of Mt. Khustup, we went above the clouds watching it gradually climb up. Goats, the wild kings in the region, running around from one rock to another. Everything felt so real and surreally magical at the same time. It was beyond everything I've asked for, and as I recalled it, the timing couldn't be better either, as if we were to start an hour later, we could barely see the view above the clouds.

Now the people, as I always say, it's the company that makes the place even more memorable. David owns one of the largest grape winery yard in the country, and is experimenting AI-made wine (I assumed it's the AI-guided distillation process). Tigran, CTO of a LA based robotics delivery firm while advises the government in civil engineering, met his partner in a science fair in Armenia (geeky romantic). Alex, post-doc in theoretic physics in a university based in Stockholm (and i jokingly compared him with "Sheldon Cooper" from The Big Bang Theory). Surprisingly, the main guide in the hike Jora speaks fantastic English and conversed me the most. In the end, he told me he could feel people really love me in the trip and i felt super warm and almost welled up.

Me and Alex actually grew something in the trip (at least from my perspective) but quickily dismissed itself, he was with me during the hardest part of the ascent and descent. And I felt tremendously safer when he held my hands firmly and always looked back to find me if I was behind. He is a very reserved and shy boy and for a moment I wish I could stay longer in Armenia and get to know him better. But c'est la vie, in a trip, we experience things on a double speed, life was accelerated and feelings amplified. When life returns to its routine, we carefully put those lovely memories in a vault somewhere in our mind and open it whenever we want to remind ourselves that life is more than a routine but occasional excitement awaiting.

]]> thursday at home 2026-04-02T00:00:00.000Z https://asanhu.github.io/posts/thursday-at-home/ I’ve been feeling super drained this whole week so far, I assume it’s because the recklessly packed weekends and travels I’ve gone on for the past ... month? I always tried to live my life and days fully, and I think my physical robustness has hit a cool down button and forces me softly to slow down on the ever-running treadmill.

I chose to work from home today, and slowly rose up and started my morning with a 20 minutes swimming and 15 minutes of sauna. For the past few times, I’ve tried working out in the gym (and ofc in the sauna after) without bringing any of my digital devices (most notably, my phone), and I don’t care what other side benefits it will bring me (and I’m pretty sure there are plenty, but they are not the priorities now), the feeling of being in the moment itself and the pride I felt of being able to focus in my workout feel so rewarding, the endorphin rises to a level that’s so enriching and joyful.

This morning I continued watching the Google DeepMind documentary talking about how the founder Demis Hassabis started as a pro chess player and somehow resigned in the middle of a game, “waking up” to the call from a bigger world, decided to fully utilize his intelligence and network to tackle real life-changing problems in the world, such as....folding a protein using computational methods for scientists to understand the structure and thus quickly carry on the follow-up research, protein folding was known to be one of the hardest challenges in biology and now he is onto his next AGI challenge. The documentary struck me in three ways: 1. “We are all sort of connected and we are all parts of a bigger world that’s way beyond ourselves”. 2. The seemingly most ordinary man walking on an Oxford street could be thinking about tackling the hardest scientific challenges, we are all so ordinary while so exceptional at the same time. 3. A response from Elon Musk towards folks who questioned how could a man unknowledgeable in aerospace engineering and rockets build SpaceX and he said it’s exactly why he could be the one who created SpaceX, being ”clueless" can be a blessing as it allowed him to bring "first principles" thinking to the industry, rather than following the traditional "leaves/details" of established aerospace engineering.

I am very glad that the day started in a very positive and mind-opening way and I started appreciating the human mind even more and with more genuine curiosity about the exceptional and ordinary people surrounding me.

]]> on Before Sunset (the movie) 2026-03-15T00:00:00.000Z https://asanhu.github.io/posts/on-Before-Sunset/ There is some magic about a film like Before Sunset, Before Sunrise and the last one I haven’t watched yet. The magic is its being authentic and smooth and letting the conversation flow without cut-off from the director’s self-acclaimed genius transition. Watching Celine and Jesse initiating their conversation with a bit of awkwardness, which resembles so well of how my own dates usually started, makes me smile, from the inside out.

There is some magic in just observing how their conversation flows, how they pivot their topic (and I noticed it’s mostly Celine who pivoted to a new topic), how they deal with arguments or differences in their opinions, how they reconcile and grow their affection to each other even stronger.

Throughout that hour and a half’s nonstop conversation, I started recalling my past conversations with those memorable dates and realized the potential out of them if we could’ve really had a bit less expectation and a bit more organicity in how we met, and also a bit more faith and hope in how it might turn out without being too rushy or stressed about it.

I don’t remember how long exactly between their two dates, 6 years? There are feelings so raw, so strong, so affectionate, that time couldn’t really wipe off the freshness in the memory. “Memory is so good but also bad that it’s in the past”, “Memory is so good and we are blessed with the desire hoping something better will come too to form more memories of it”.

They are just two people who luckily met each other and dared to take the adventure with each other, and they live the same sort of drama and chaos and anxiety and trouble in life and haven’t figured out where everything leads, trying to find an answer but not really stringent about it, trying to make peace and sense of all those pieces in mundane life, and their one-night, one-day dates are what keeping their hope on.

Desire is good, that you always have something to look forward to, as long as you are not too frustrated about not getting it.

I think it might be my favorite movie so far that I just felt so warm and reflective after observing the whole conversation, while not really disappointed at their open-ended result of the date.

People we meet on vacation and grow some affection with, are a thing worth celebrating, and I should embrace it with pure authenticity and open-mindedness.

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