Travel

Pokin had wanted Mesa Verde since Arches. Nicholas had been saying no since Arches. Too out of the way. Then we woke up in Farmington and somebody …

We were in this corner of the state because of some badlands. That was the whole reason for the routing. Pokin found Bisti, decided it would …

Nicholas’s work wanted him back. That is how a road trip stops being a road trip. The car stops pointing away from home and starts pointing at …

Pokin wanted new states. That was the entire brief. Not a park. Not a view. Not a photograph. Just the question of how far east we could get before we …

Great Sand Dunes was never really a decision. Once you have gone to Black Canyon, the dunes are just the next thing east. The map makes the choice and …

Day four had the same question as every other day. Where do we point a camera at the galaxy next? Black Canyon of the Gunnison was the sensible …

Day three was a border. Nicholas has been to Colorado before. Pokin has not. Chestnut has not. I had not. So three quarters of the vehicle were about …

Day two began exactly like day one. Nicholas had calls. Long ones. I had assumed the whole point of a spontaneous road trip was that nobody could …

Do you realise the last time we went on a proper spontaneous road trip was 2014? Twelve years. Twelve years of flights and hotels and airport lounges, …

A while back I posted a preview. One frame, color graded on a phone in a freezing lodge, with a promise that the real versions were coming once we got …

We had one last day in Kathmandu, and we had missions. Mission one: Manoj needed shoes. The man had spent three weeks walking slowly behind Pokin over …

We woke up very early at Surke and braced for the worst, because the weather report had promised the worst. Then we looked outside. It was not the …

The trek was officially behind us. We’d said the goodbyes, handed out the red envelopes, eaten the farewell dinner under the golden dragon …

Our last full day in Lukla. On the way in, Nicholas and Pokin never actually saw the town. They were sick, we took a helicopter straight to Phakding, …

Time to say goodbye to the Gurkha Inn. The plan was simple. Hike from Phakding back up to Lukla, get there early, and have a buffer day before Steve …

Remember this? A speck of a monastery floating in the mist on a far ridge above the village, a whole valley away. Back when we first spotted it, it …

A few more nights in Phakding. The plan: let Pokin and Po On finish recovering before we head down to Lukla, meet back up with Steve and Alice, and …

People have been asking about the astrophotography. Fair enough. We’ve spent the last several posts talking about Nicholas destroying his body …

Rest day in Phakding. Pokin and Po On are recovering. Nicholas is about 40% better but still coughing. Everyone’s supposed to be taking it easy. …

Nicholas spent the evening listening to Pokin cough. Tengboche is at 3,860 meters (12,664 feet). Lower than where they’d been, and the heated …

Nicholas came straight off the mountain to breakfast. No shower. No change of clothes. Sleeping bag rolled up, camera packed, ready to go. The plan …

Three for three. That was the goal. The Sherpa Memorial timelapse had worked. The Kala Patthar Milky Way over Everest had worked. One more clear …

You’d think after summiting Kala Patthar at 1 AM, shooting the Milky Way over Everest, trail running back down at dawn, and getting maybe two …

12:30 AM. The alarm went off. Nicholas had skipped dinner again, gone straight to bed after speed-running the entire length of Everest Base Camp, and …

One hour of sleep. That’s what Nicholas got between returning from the Sherpa Memorial astrophotography session and the alarm going off again. …

There are no photos in this post. It was pitch black, well below freezing, and Nicholas wasn’t about to pull out his phone to stage a portrait …

While Pokin headed down to Tengboche, we headed up. Nicholas, Po On, Kerman, and me. Destination: Lobuche, about 4,940 meters (16,207 feet). Higher …

Nicholas didn’t sleep. By the time he got back from the stupa, explained the disaster to Pokin, and started packing away his gear, the alarm was …

Nicholas had been planning this shot for months. Long before we left Vegas, before the trek even started, he’d mapped out a narrow window where …

The group split up this morning. Steve, Alice, and DB headed out early for Chukhung, continuing the Three Passes route as planned. Nicholas, Pokin, Po …

Rest day in Dingboche. And by “rest day” I mean “hike straight up a mountain to 5,000 meters (16,404 feet) for fun.” The logic …

We woke up in Tengboche to the kind of morning that makes you briefly forget you’ve been coughing for three days. Blue skies, mountains …

The plan was to hike from Namche to Deboche today. That didn’t happen. But what did happen was arguably better, at least for a bear who …

This was acclimatization day. Two nights in Namche, one day to let your body catch up with the altitude. The plan was to use it for a day trip to the …

We arrived in Namche in fog so thick we could barely see the building across the street. The town could have been three houses or three hundred. We …

The advice at lunch was simple: fill your water bottles. At least two liters. Because from here on, there wouldn’t be many places to stop. We …

The drink stop at the cafe was exactly what we needed. Sit down, breathe, pretend the last few hours of stairs didn’t happen. The crew at the …

7 AM in Phakding. Today’s mission: hike to Namche Bazaar. Seven hours of uphill. While sick. Contemplating the hike ahead. Or possibly going …

The mechanics finished. The door closed. The rotors spun up. And we lifted off from Lukla with no guide, no group, and a maintenance guy riding along …

They walked us across the lot to a helicopter. A Kailash helicopter. Tail number 9N-AJJ. The real deal. Whatever that guy at the counter had tried to …

Remember how the last post ended with “hope for the best”? Yeah. About that. Nicholas and Pokin woke up with full-on fevers. Not …

Two years of planning. Months of stairmaster training. Masks on every flight. Hand sanitizer applied with the frequency and enthusiasm of a nervous …

Three flights. Two continents. One very comfortable bear. And a cursed set of airline tickets. We’re headed to Nepal for the Everest Base Camp …

Pokin went to Panama with her forum. She brought me. Smart. She also brought Chestnut. Unnecessary. The Waldorf. Travel companions. One essential, one …

Most people pick a cruise based on destinations. How many islands, how many beaches, how much snorkeling. Nicholas and Pokin picked this one because …

Here’s how this happened. Drew calls Nicholas on a Wednesday night. “Hey, I’m going to be stuck at a resort in Kauai for a few days …

Bruce had been working out of the home office for weeks, and we’d already dragged him to Bryce Canyon and Zion. But we weren’t done with …

Day two of the Bruce visit. After Bryce (where I was cruelly left behind), we headed back to Zion. Our usual routine: bike the canyon, hike the …

We’d barely recovered from Pokong’s visit when the next houseguest arrived. Bruce, one of Nicholas’s engineers from Colombia, came …

When we were last in Hong Kong, Nicholas asked Pokin’s brother Pokong why he’d never come to visit. Then he told him to come. Then he told …

This started in Korea. In Seoul, our friend’s wife wanted a Labubu. If you don’t know what a Labubu is, congratulations, you have a normal …

After Korea, we flew to Hong Kong to visit Pokin’s family. This is what we do. Every year or so, Pokin’s dad and her brother Pokong come …

The whole reason we went to Jeju was this mountain. Hallasan. South Korea’s highest peak. 1,950 meters of volcanic rock with a crater lake at …

We stopped in Busan on the way to Jeju because people told us we should. It’s Korea’s second biggest city, right on the southern coast. …

Korea has been through a lot of wars. Seoul was nearly flattened during the Korean War. Most of the country’s wooden palaces and temples have …

Day two in Seoul. Nicholas is still limping. The knee is “fine.” He needs it to be fine because there’s a big hike planned at the …

We’re in Korea. Pokin had just wrapped up her forum in Seoul, and Nicholas flew in to meet her. With fresh stitches in his knee. From a bunny …

After eleven hours of canal transit, Cartagena was our last real port day. Old stone fortresses, colonial courtyards, streets painted every color, and …

I woke up in the dark. Not because anyone asked me to. Not because there was an emergency. Because today was the day. The Panama Canal. The full …

Costa Rica wasn’t on the original itinerary as anything special. Just another port day. But it turned out Nicholas’s family has old …

Christmas at sea. Two weeks of me claiming the best spot on the balcony. I’m in. The Coral Princess, departing Fort Lauderdale, heading south …

Five of us went to Mammoth Lakes for Pokin’s birthday. Nicholas, Pokin, Po On, Eric, and me. None of us had ever been there. Pokin wanted …

Meet the Fredriksson brothers. Nicholas’s great-great-grandfather Johannes on the left. His older brother Andreas on the right. Johannes …

The family was celebrating Midsommar. A whole day of activities planned. Apparently my bud didn’t think to pack me. So I got left behind while …

This was the whole reason for the Sweden trip. Nicholas’s mom’s dad, Papa, was born in Örebro. This was home base. Laxå, a small town …

Stockholm was a family thing. Nicholas’s mom’s dad, Papa, was born in Sweden, and she’d always wanted to bring her kids here to see …

Last day in Salzburg. Three days of mountains, and we still hadn’t properly done the castle. The Hohensalzburg Fortress — the massive thing that …

Salzburg promised us better pretzels in Munich. So we took the train over and arrived that evening. Munich wasted absolutely no time being Munich. …

Day 3 in the Salzburg region. We’d already hiked Kapuzinerberg, wandered the fortress walls, and gotten chased off the Untersberg by lightning. …

After yesterday’s failed Sound of Music pilgrimage, Nicholas decided that if the famous hills wouldn’t have him, he’d find his own …

Let me explain how we ended up in Salzburg. Nicholas wanted to run across a field yelling “THE HILLS ARE ALIIIIVE.” That was the whole …

On the way from Prague to Salzburg, everyone told us we had to stop at Český Krumlov. “It’s a fairy tale town.” “You’ll …

We were not expecting much from Prague. The plan was simple: Pokin had a YPO Forum trip here, Nicholas flew in to meet her, and then we’d …