It’s the time of year when everything slows down. People are on holiday, still trying to digest the last of the Christmas leftovers. The television is full of re-runs and bad movies, the papers are full of feel-good pieces about cats stuck in trees and the internet is full of ‘year in review’ posts in the absence of any ground-breaking stories.
I’d hate to disappoint.
January
After far too much food, drink and fun with family and friends in Melbourne, Lauren and I continued our Australian road trip in early January with a trip to Tasmania. Blessed with both weather and luck for a week, we avoided forest fires, basked on deserted beaches and added another city (Hobart) to our ever-expanding “we could live here” list.
Leaving my adopted home behind, we flew to my real one. Ahead lay two months of driving through New Zealand with the aim of standing at the top of the North Island, the bottom of the South and as many points in-between as we could manage.
We kicked things off with a bang — diving at the Poor Knights Islands, sleeping in a railway carriage in Raglan and dropping 100m into a cavern in Waitomo. Now that’s the way to start a year!
Tasmania’s incredible east coast beaches
Amazing diving in the Poor Knights Islands
Trains and tipis in… Raglan?
Dropping in on the Waitomo Caves
February
The NZ road trip continued at a frantic pace in February, with so many highlights that it’s hard to narrow them down. The remarkable run of sunny weather continued, giving us sunshine and blue skies as we attempted the Tongariro Crossing. Wellington — long my favourite Kiwi city — turned on the charm, and we stayed in our hiking groove with a multi-day walk on the Queen Charlotte Track.
I also passed a big milestone this month, and looked back at what I’d learned over 15 years of travel in what ended up becoming the most popular post I’ve ever written.
A long day in the mountains: hiking the Tongariro Crossing
A glorious stay in the Kiwi capital
Hiking the Queen Charlotte Track: the hard bit
15 life lessons from 15 years of travel
March
Our final few weeks in New Zealand were no slower than the rest, making our way from Fiordland all the way up the west coast of the South Island to Farewell Spit, before turning around and heading back to Christchurch for a few days with family and friends. Along the way we spent a night on beautiful Doubtful Sound, walked on glaciers, tumbled down sand dunes and more. It had been a madcap, wonderful two months.
Returning to our second home of South East Asia, we relaxed for a few days in Kuala Lumpur before eating our way through a sweltering Penang. How much chicken saag is too much, I ask?
The beautiful solitude of Doubtful Sound
That time I walked on a glacier
Bidding farewell at Farewell Spit
The Friday Photo #156 – Looking up in Kuala Lumpur
April
We’d planned to spend several weeks in Malaysia, doing a rough loop around the peninsular. Instead, as so often happens, our plans changed in a heartbeat and we crossed the border into Thailand instead. After ten days soaking up the sun on the little island of Koh Lipe, we returned to our favourite hideway on Koh Yao Noi and did… well… nothing. Burned out from months of non-stop travel in Australia and New Zealand, we needed to recharge our batteries, and that’s exactly what happened.
Finally dragging ourselves off the island, we flew back to our second home of Chiang Mai. Within twelve hours of arriving we’d extended our two week stay to a month, and settled in to work, nap and eat. Not always in that order.
Travel plans, and how I can’t stick to them
May
Finally, a totally relaxed month! We barely left Chiang Mai for our entire time there, taking only a short break up to the relative coolness of Chiang Dao for a few days. Where, of course, I promptly came down with a nasty dose of food poisoning and stayed in bed almost the entire time. Oops.
Mid-May we headed for the airport – but only to fly as far as Saigon, where we’d planned to base ourselves for another month. We made a poor choice of accommodation (hint: a room with no windows is fine for a couple of nights, less so for several weeks), but otherwise had a great time eating soup multiple times a day.
And, apparently, not writing about it.
June
Towards the end of our stay in Vietnam we took a trip up to Hoi An to celebrate Lauren’s birthday. She’d never been to this gorgeous Vietnamese town before, and we had a wonderful few days relaxing beside the resort pool, seeking out the best cao lầu restaurants and buying at least four hundred custom-made dresses. Most of them weren’t for me.
We parted company shortly thereafter, Lauren headed for Los Angeles while I took the long way round to the US — via Australia. I’d finally gotten my learner motorcycle license back at the start of the year (more for insurance reasons than anything else), and had to sit another test within a year. This was likely to be the only chance I’d have, so I braved a chilly Melbourne winter’s day to dodge my way around cones and between painted lines to the satisfaction of the examiner. Success!
Late in the month I endured a long and painful travel day (MEL – AKL – LAX – SEA) to rejoin Lauren, collapsing into my friends’ spare bed in Seattle approximately a decade after I’d woken up in Melbourne. After the jetlag subsided, I decided that I was, in fact, very happy to be back in the Pacific Northwest.
The Friday Photo #165 – Dusk in Hoi An
July
After Seattle we headed down to Portland, our home for the next month. I’d long wanted to spend more than a few days in this hipster, foodie city — and we found the perfect place to do so, renting a ‘Tiny House’ in a great neighbourhood through Airbnb. Nominally in town for my third Word Domination Summit, the highlight was always going to be the city rather than the conference this time around.
I lost track of the number of delicious meals that I ate (although my waistline certainly didn’t), and that — combined with an unexpected run of good weather — made me wish I had a lot more than a three month visa. I know I say this about a lot of places, but Portland really does make the shortlist for somewhere I could spend a very long time.
Lauren’s parents came out to join us at the end of month, and apparently I made a good enough impression upon meeting them for the first time that they didn’t immediately instruct their daughter to break up with me. Yay!
After my recent stays in resorts and apartments, it was about this time that I realised that I was becoming a terrible backpacker…
A summer in the Pacific Northwest
Why I’m becoming a terrible backpacker
August
The start of August saw us heading out on an Oregon day trip, opting for mountains and waterfalls rather than beaches due to the first inclement weather we’d seen in many weeks. Even then, the clouds lifted late in the day, leaving us with stunning views of Mount Hood. The Pacific Northwest really doesn’t get any uglier.
Unwillingly dragging ourselves away from Portland, we didn’t travel far. Although we’d not set out with any plans to spend time in Tacoma, with accommodation prices half that of the big city 45 minutes north it ended up be a great option for a couple of weeks. Beer and clam chowder featured heavily on the menu, and I even found time to spend a day “helping” film a music video for my friend’s band as we cruised around Seattle in a sexy black Lincoln. As you do.
From west coast to east, we swapped forests for skyscrapers with a week in New York. I may have fallen back in love with this metropolis one more, the same as I do every time I visit. Three days in Montreal was extended to five almost as soon as we arrived, this gorgeous, fun-filled city turning on perfect late summer weather for our time there. I’d go back for the bagels and poutine alone…
The Friday Photo #173 – Stunning Mt Hood is stunning
Returning to New York
Montreal, you surprised me
September
The first half of September found us back in the US, albeit much further south. With only a couple of weeks left on our visas, we decided to squeeze in a last minute road trip through the great southwest. We flew into Phoenix and picked up a rental car, the rapidly-setting sun adding an extra degree of difficulty as I tried to remember which side of the road to drive on. Nobody honked at me, so I guess I got it right.
From Phoenix we headed north to Flagstaff, taking in hiking in the Grand Canyon and trying to break the car in Monument Valley before returning south to visit our friends Dani and Jess in Tucson for a few days. Highlight: the remarkably non-environmentally-friendly pizza joint with an outdoor air-conditioner. Yes, really.
The road led east from there, taking us into the New Mexico wilderness and visits to the stunning (and nearly empty) White Sands National Monument and decidedly odd Roswell. After that the Lone Star State beckoned, many hours of driving taking us first to Big Bend National Park (complete with tarantulas) and then, finally, to Austin. I felt right at home in this little enclave of quirkiness, and celebrated my birthday with an enormous meal of barbecue ribs. Because, well, Texas.
And then we went to Mexico.
Hiking the canyon: A day without wings
Monument Valley: Have rental, will travel
Sleds And Sunsets At White Sands (And Why You Really Need to Go There)
Roswell, You’re A Really Freaking Weird Little Town
A Muddy Adventure in Big Bend National Park
October
Our loose plan was to spend six months in Mexico, the first three in a little town on the Pacific Coast called Sayulita. We’d arrived at the right time, the end of low season meaning we could find a place to rent reasonably easily. When our friends Steph and Mike arrived a couple of weeks later, it was a different story.
We soon settled into an easy routine, revolving mostly around working during the heat of the day, lying on the beach in the late afternoon and drinking overly-large margaritas at night. Taco stands, quesadilla restaurants and the lovely ‘chicken lady’ sorted out mealtimes. A couple of other bloggers turned up this month, meaning we had a little community of friends around for the first time in forever. I loved that almost more than the location itself.
I got to take part in a baby turtle release (it was so good that I did it twice!), and the end of the month saw the Day of the Dead celebrations, complete with skeletons, mock graves, parades and — as I was coming to realise was an everyday occurrence in Mexico — fireworks. Oh so many fireworks.
The Friday Photo #185 – Go little turtle go
The Friday Photo #187 – Death With A View
The Friday Photo #188 – Flickering candles for the Day of the Dead
November
Despite (or perhaps because of) not travelling more than 50 miles from Sayulita the entire month, November was fantastic. To celebrate our two year anniversary, Lauren and I left the laptops behind and spent a few days in the village of Yelapa. Inaccessible by car, getting there was half the fun, involving three buses, a water taxi and walking up a river to our accommodation.
Once we got there (and into the hammock), though, any trials of the trip were quickly forgotten. With little more than a beach, a few bars and restaurants and a friendly toad who didn’t want to leave our open-air room, it was the perfect way to celebrate the life we’ve built together. In a reflective mood, I also posted a couple of pieces about my time on the road so far — the good, the bad and what the future might hold.
The Friday Photo #189 – Making new friends
The Friday Photo #190 – Watery goodness at Yelapa
Reflections On My Second Year Of Travel
42 Of My Favourite Things From Two Years Of Travel
December
After three months, and with tourist numbers swiftly growing as the holidays approached, it was time to leave Sayulita earlier this month — although not before twelve days of parades and fireworks leading up to the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. After an overnight bus ride that surprised due to the high levels of both comfort and cost, we arrived in Guanajuato early one morning and immediately fell in love with this beautiful colonial city. Much cooler than on the coast (it’s above 2000 metres), it’s probably the first time I’ve worn anything with long sleeves this year — a nice change, for a while at least.
We had an early Christmas that may have involved beef tenderloin, four different kinds of cheese and watching terrible movies (*cough* Home Alone), and as the year draws to a close I’m typing this in a chilly little apartment in the mountains on the outskirts of the city, listening to the dogs bark and coyotes howl at the rain.
It’s been another great, fascinating, wonderful twelve months. It’s had its hard times — I’ve struggled a little with homesickness, for starters — and as usual, what I see when I look back at the end of the year is not what I thought I saw when looking forward at the start of it. But — again as usual — I wouldn’t change any of it. My needs, desires and travel style are changing and evolving, and so am I, but it’s all still underpinned by a curiosity, a wanderlust and the desire to live a life I truly love.
Have I achieved that this year?
Yes, I definitely have.
See you in 2014.
A Slice Of Life in Sayulita
The Friday Photo #193 – Gorgeous Guanajuato
So that was 2013… is a post from What's Dave Doing?.
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