Year in Photos: 2018
Is it already time again for the annual blog post? My, how it passes quickly.
It feels like 2018 was another banner year, full of fulfilling projects and exciting travels and a lot of time with friends across the globe. (Apologies to my family, who I thoroughly neglected this year as I attempted to answer the question of ‘How many countries are there in the world?‘ and continued the pursuit of a visit to all of them.)
As with similar posts in 2015, 2016, and 2017 I like to try to find time at the conclusion of each year to look back and where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to for the past 365, a round-up of sorts but also an expression of appreciation for this life that I lead and which continues to make all these travels and adventures possible, and a look forward to the coming year’s plans and aspirations.
I’ve chosen below not necessarily my favorite photo from a given month, but the one that most captures at a glance the tone or activity of that moment in time. Some positive, some reflective, some defining. (If you’re just looking for pretty pictures I took this year, you can also see those on my Instagram or Facebook Page now and going forward).
First though, cause I’m that kind of person, some stats:
14 countries visited (4 of those new to me – Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia)
51,010 miles flown on 13 airlines over 50 flights.
217 nights away my apartment (why do I pay rent, again?)
Something like 26,806 photos taken (of which only 7,202 made it into the archive but a far smaller sliver of that have seen the light of the web).
I’ve done another shockingly bad job of updating this page throughout 2018, obviously, and that doesn’t look set to change in the immediate future. I do still publish freelance articles on other publications from time to time, though, and I’ve included some links herein to pubs from this year as appropriate.
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January – New Years in Moscow & St Petersburg
As you may recall, New Year’s Eve 2017 found me in Moscow’s Red Square (well, or just adjacent in Hunter’s Row, but close enough) after a night at the Bolshoi, straining to catch the tops of the fireworks past the next row of buildings on Red Square. It was a limited success, but a great trip nonetheless. We continued on to Saint Petersburg, drank all the coffee and craft beers and eat all the pelmeni and Georgian food we could find, and occasionally even stopped somewhere cultural. It was an actual vacation – though also some small preparation for trip coming up just a month later.
I published a bit of a throwback in Jan, an LP.com article on 5 Wilderness Daytrips from Almaty, Kazakhstan.
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February – Vacation in Istanbul & Return to Russia
Istanbul, on the other hand, was pure vacation. I’m certain we did exciting cultural stuff, and we definitely ate some really amazing food, but what I remember the most are that it was five lazy days wandering aimlessly through beautiful neighborhoods in one of the greatest cities of the world. I know I’ve said this again and again, but if you’ve never been to Istanbul then you’re really missing out. It’s a place that even my jaded and travel-hardened heart melts for.
Later in February – just in time to miss Valentine’s Day, in fact – I headed back to Moscow and Petersburg to show around a group of students for 8 days. An easy excuse to spend more time in both cities, especially as I’ve really spent so little time in Russia and definitely want to find more reasons to visit.
As mentioned in 2017 I’d researched a Lonely Planet guidebook to Texas, which published in February. Check out Lonely Planet: Texas and Pocket Austin if you’re heading that way.
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March – Remembering the Wars in France & Belgium
An odd addition to my travel calendar, I ended up back in Europe this year retracing some of the important battles of WWI and WWII across northern France and Belgium. I’ve visited both before, of course, but as a much younger traveler and with much younger eyes, so it was a pleasure to have an opportunity to spend time in both; made even more poignant by the looming 100-year anniversary of Armistice Day that would be commemorated in November.
I also spent some time in March touring the regions of Kyrgyzstan on a work trip to train partners on how to make topographic maps – a nice little capstone to several years of work on a project to make new trekking maps in the country, and surrounded by such a great crew of colleagues to boot. Good fun, but I don’t think I have any photos of these weeks?
Two Central Asia pieces I’m fond of published in March, Life among walnuts, the ancient forests of Kyrgyzstan and Peaks and homestays: Tajikistan’s majestic Fan Mountains in pictures.
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April – Off Tibet’s Beaten Track
Guys. I spent like 6 weeks in Tibet this year. I was there once before, years ago in 2011 as a budget traveler, and ran as quickly as possible through Lhasa and the immediate surroundings to keep costs down. What joy, then, to go back this year with my own hired driver and guide to explore at length. April was all about Eastern Tibet, regions that have long been closed to foreigners and are still pretty far off the foreign traveler radar. It wasn’t always good, but it’s always something exciting.
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May – Into ‘Touristy’ Tibet
Touristy is a relative term, here. Chinese travelers can go anywhere and anytime they want in Tibet, but for foreigners it’s all strict schedules and constant accompaniment. So, May was in the ‘more touristy’ bits of Tibet including Lhasa and Namtso… but it’s not exactly Paris, you know?
As a bonus, I ended the month in Chengdu, my favorite Chinese city by far. Long has it been an exciting place for food and culture, but this trip introduced me to the beer and coffee scenes as well. Thanks mostly to a really delightful local friend, I always feel like I’m jumping right into the heart of Chengdu as soon as I land – and it’s the time of city that repays many times over any time you put into it. It is, to me, a central part of the China experience.
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June – Mountains of Kyrgyzstan & Kickin’ In Kazan
Any summer that starts with hiking for work in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan is already a good summer. Finishing up the last stages of that trail mapping project I mentioned earlier meant heading into the Jumgal region of Kyrgyzstan for a week or so of hiking. I lucked out – not only were my friends at Journal of Nomads along – but the weather was great and the company was good and I couldn’t have asked for a better week of nature to start the summer. I did end up running around at 2am in my underwear getting soaked in a cold rain and also accidentally destroying a village outhouse, but those are probably stories for another time.
And then, back to Russia…. for the WORLD CUP!
Lonely Planet: Central Asia published in June, which was VERY exciting since I wrote the Kyrgyzstan chapter and curated the book. Also an article from Jordan: Unexpected Petra: Sides of the Site You’ve Never Seen.
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July – World Cup: Russia
Holy crap. Every four years, I basically lose a summer of my life staying up all hours to watch the World Cup. This year, I just happened to do so from the stadium at several of the games.
- France v Australia, at which point I declared France was going to win the tournament.
- Iran v Spain, in which the Iranian fans lived up to all the positive stereotypes I’ve ever heard about the country.
- Poland v Colombia, in which Kazan was a sea of yellow Colombia jerseys for what seemed like a beautiful eternity.
- Korea v Germany, in which Korea inexplicably handed the Germans a first-round exit from the tournament.
- France v Argentina, which was one of the most beautiful games of soccer I’ve ever had the privilege to see, and when I definitely knew France was going to win the tournament.
I mean – what an experience. I’m not certain I’ll head to Doha in 2022, but Russia was such a positive experience that I’ll certainly look into whether I can fit any World Cup for the rest of my days into my travel schedule. For certain you can expect to see me in North American in 2026.
At some point in there NOMADasaurus showed up to Kyrgyzstan and we hung out, as well, but mostly it was soccer madness and then nose down trying to finish up a bunch of projects by the end of the month.
Two articles published this month, from Jordan (Of castles and caravans: northern and eastern Jordan) and Sichuan, China (Sizzling Sichuan: exploring China’s quintessential province).
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August – Again, Istanbul?
Yes, again. Look, it’s a really cool city. I spent a week in the city with my girlfriend and her daughter (both of whom desperately needed a vacation) showing them around one of my favorite places and meeting up with one of our favorite couples. In short, another vacation; which is really starting to sound like a bit of a theme for the year, isn’t it?
Despite having work to finish up in Bishkek, I also managed to sneak away at the end of August for a quick hike to Ratsek Hut with the half of Journal of Nomads that I didn’t hike with in May – one of these days I’m going to get them into the same mountains at the same time.
One more pub from Jordan: Hiking Wadis and Waterfalls on Jordan’s Dead Sea Coast.
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September – So Much Central Asia!
Look, any month that starts with the World Nomad Games, it’s hard to talk about much else. You know? September was super busy, though – started with #WNG and moved directly into a FAM trip with Journal of Nomads, Travel Tramp, JetFarer, and Travels of a Bookpacker across the highlights of Issyk-Kol oblast (a place I’ve come to know well these past few years). One day at home in Bishkek, and then off again – this time to Tajikistan, to scout out out the tourism potential of a beautiful area called the Zerafshan Valley that I very dearly hope to be able to tell you a lot more about in 2019. I spent four nights in my own apartment in September, if that gives you any indication of how busy it was.
I published my first piece for Thrillist in September: The Adventure Trip of a Lifetime is the World’s Hardest Country to Spell.
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October – Lands of Deserts – Jordan and Uzbekistan
A pretty quick trip through Jordan, this time around, though I did at least finally make some time to really wander around Amman at the beginning of the thing. Standard stuff, Petra and Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea, but always a pleasure to be back and especially to pull up a plastic chair in the alley outside Hashem’s for a feast to finish it off.
Uzbekistan, on the other hand, is like an old friend half-forgotten, but one of those rare friendships that can always pick back up even after years away. On the face of it I was there to make a presentation on behalf of Lonely Planet to a USAID conference, but that took about the first afternoon and then I skipped town for Bukhara – long ago my favorite part of the country. This was also the background to an adorbs photo of my girlfriend and I that I posted to my Instagram (for the first time), so there’s that too.
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November – Month of the Middle East
As a good friend pointed out, November was the month I just decided to be super extra and take an extended month-long birthday trip. And extra it was. Mostly I just realized I hadn’t been to a single new country all year and decided to remedy that by bouncing around the Gulf all month. It was awesome.
Started in Dubai with the girlfriend and her daughter then onwards solo to Kuwait (meh), Qatar (surprisingly lively), and Bahrain (definitely meh). Not the most adventure-travel birthday I’ve ever had, but always nice to get out and explore new places to scratch that particular itch.
One last publication from Jordan, to round out the year: How to get the most out of the Jordan Pass.
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December – A Saudi Surprise
Just a few months ago, the Saudi government (who has been talking about tourists visas for years but still has yet to introduce them) made a surprise announcement that they would be handing out electronic visas for attendees of a Formula E racing event in Riyadh in mid-December. Among the small but passionate group of travelers who think it’s pretty reasonable to visit all 193 of the world’s countries at some point, the news spread like crazy. Some great faces in there; among them Gabriela Here and There, Wild Junket, and Once in a Lifetime Journey.
Frankly I had very little expectation of what I’d get out of Saudi Arabia, especially the relative meh of Kuwait and Bahrain, but suffice to say the country absolutely exceed everything I could have imagined. In fact, I’m already bookmarking next December to go back to the Formula E event (which, on the surface I care 5% about but when they’ll give me a visa I’m more than happy to go!) so that I can spend a longer time in the country and really explore.
I’d already planned to make an end-of-year trip to Upper Egypt, so ended up just extending that a bit and flying straight from Riyadh to Abu Simbel. Upper Egypt is all the mummies and pharohs and tombs and temples of antiquity you could hope for – I’m currently publishing photos of it in my social media pages, so have a look if you’re interested in seeing more. And then, Dec 30th, I made it to Cairo and all of a sudden the year was over again. Funny how that keeps happening, isn’t it?
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Looking Forward: 2019
By the time January rolls around, there’s always three kinds of plans I have. Already booked, probably happening, and things I’d like to do this year.
So far, I’ve got flights booked for getting home from Egypt, popping up to Kazakhstan for a weekend getaway, hiking in Nepal, another visit (!) to Jordan, a trip back to the USA for a family event, and then a long weekend in Moscow on the way home from the US to Kyrgyzstan.
Also quite likely but not yet confirmed are a project in China for Apr/May and some projects in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (and maybe even Uzbekistan?) for the late summer. Plus, at some point, I promised to take a certain cousin of mine to Greece for a bit to celebrate her graduation.
Much less certain, but very much on the radar, are a handful of other things. For one, I’d be really stoked to get back to Saudi Arabia in 2019 and spend some time in areas beyond Riyadh. Then, as I look at a map of the countries I’ve visited, it occurs to me that I really need to push into Africa beyond just Egypt and Eritrea. I’ve sort of eyeballed a trip based on frequent flier mile program rules to Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia, and maybe the Sudans or Kenya. Plus everybody tells me how cool Oman is, so that’s certainly on the radar too. Girlfriend is pushing for a trip to Vietnam, which I’ve never been to, so I’d consider that an outside chance for 2019 as well. Plus every one of the most interesting bloggers I know seem to keep popping up in Pakistan – so that’s high up there as well. What I’m saying is, it just might be an interesting year.
As always, come with me on social media to follow along in real-time (or way-behind-time, as the state of internet may dictate).
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Though out 2018 you had a wonderful experience, i love this kind of blog where we get so much to experience and inspire our self. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Aman!