House Hunters International

I saw this episode of House Hunters International yesterday at the gym. I didn't get a chance to watch all of it, but no worries! It's online.

You need to watch this episode. It's the craziest, messed up shit I've ever seen on this show.

Most HHI shows are about people moving abroad to accomplish their dream of having a scuba shop on the beach. Or they have to move for work. Or they are buying a second vacation home.

This crazy-ass episode is about a young couple - a Parisian and his Nepalese/American girlfriend. He lives in Paris, she lives in NYC. He decided he didn't like corporate life and didn't want to have a boss anymore. (normal so far). So he decides to study French cheese making techniques so he can build a diary farm hours from any civilization in Nepal.

WTF?

Yeah. So he gives his criteria to the real estate agent. North facing, high elevation plot of land that is at least a few hectares. It can't be near any village, at least 2-3 hours from Kathmandu, and needs to be accessible by road.

Remember, both of these people grew up in cities.

I only had time to watch the first location. I burst out laughing on the elliptical when the real estate agent gives them a tour of the property and points to a pile of stones and says, "look! The stones are all right here so you won't have to carry them when you build your house."

Good amenity.

The couple nodded like that was a real perk. Actually, that's the only perk, besides the view. There's no electricity, no hot water. There is water but you need to pump it.

There is brave and there is crazy. Brave is leaving your corporate job to start a scuba business in the Caribbean. Crazy is building your own house of stone and mud in Nepal.

Hey, I don't like working in a cubicle for a bunch of bosses either. But I also like healthcare and electricity. Maybe I'm crazy.

The most shocking thing about this episode was these people were calm. Who the fuck can look at a pile of stones and not panic? Yeah, we do DIY projects around the house all the time. We don't build a house on the side of a fucking mountain far away from any other living soul.

Hell, I get upset when there's no hobby store nearby. If you drive 20 minutes or more to the supermarket, you are flipping rural, man. You live in the stix.

This is rural x 1000.

Oh I know, this is the part where you defend them from my crazy rant. "This is no different than what the pioneers did."

Oh yes it bloody is. The pioneers fled their homelands because of famine, poverty, disease, pogroms, and oppression. They stayed and died, or they left in droves to America. They settled in neighborhoods with people of similar culture. When they heard the promise of land and gold, they made west, together, into the unknown.

Scary and courageous yes, but they did not leave a developed  country to live by themselves making cheese. And the pioneers never heard of healthcare and electricity. So they didn't know any better.

I thought the people living in remote cabins in Alaska were nuts. This is another layer beyond that.