NZ...finally!

I've been wanting to visit New Zealand for a long time. I finally got the chance this year. I went down for two and a half weeks to visit friends and try to line up a job for next year. After travelling around Asia, I knew NZ was going to be very expensive, so I decided to hitch hike to avoid transportation costs. I managed to cover close to 2000km! I flew into Christchurch late on December 30th. After a shitty night of "sleeping" in the airport, I walked out of the airport early in the morning on New Year's Eve and began my journey south towards Queenstown. I got very lucky and managed to catch a ride with some guys that were heading there too. Perfect! We arrived in late afternoon to beautiful weather. I got a hold of my buddy Jarrod and he said I could crash at his place. Here's the view from his deck:

Jarrod had invited some friends over for dinner, so we had a great feed then headed out for NYE celebrations. Nobody was feeling up for the madness downtown, so we went to a friend's house that overlooked the town and watch the fireworks from up there. It was a bit of a rough night with so little sleep and more than a little jetlag, but I survived.

I had only planned on sticking around Queenstown for a couple days, but ended up staying for a week. I was just having too much fun to leave. I finally dragged myself away and headed towards the west coast. On the way I remembered that I should call another friend, Annette, in Wanaka. Turns out she was headed out on some canyoning missions, including a first descent, and she invited me to come along. Sweet! Here's where I crashed, on top of Annette's house:


A view up the highway towards Haast Pass, which leads to the west coast:


We headed to the Landsborough River valley, to explore some new canyons. We drove over in the morning, loaded all our gear into a jeep, then rode mountain bikes a few miles up the valley. We found a good camping spot adjacent to the canyons we wanted to explore, then packed up and headed up one of the canyons:





It was a tough approach hike, at least by my lazy US/European standards. Quite steep with a lot of bushwacking, and over three hours long. The kiwis were all stoked about how easy it was. The canyon itself was nothing spectacular, but there were some nice sections and it was cool to be doing a first descent. After a long day, my knee was in quite a bit of pain. We sat around a campfire, drank a couple beers, and enjoyed the beauty of a cloudless full-moon night; a true rarity on the west coast of NZ. I woke up the next morning and immediately knew that I wouldn't be going on the mission that day, my knee was killing me. I hobbled around camp while everyone else packed up, wished them good luck, then found a nice spot to read. I spent the day enjoying the sunshine and hating the sandflys. Vicious bastards! When everyone finally made it back they said the second canyon was much better than the first. Dammit! Oh well, it was still a great trip and I was happy to there. After this I headed back to Queenstown so that I could tag along on a canyoning trip there. Jarod, his buddy Michele, and Michele's son Jeano, were heading to Dunedin to get a sewing machine repaired, so I tagged along for that trip as well. We had a beautiful drive, camped out on the very scenic Otago peninsula, and then got up the next day and did some surfing. Well, at least I tried to surf:


After this is was time to head north. I left Queenstown in pouring rain and hitchhiked up to Christchurch. It took me seven rides to get there, but the last people to pick me up (still in pouring rain) were so nice they invited me to come stay at their house. The next day they gave me a tour around the downtown area to show me the earthquake damage. It was sad to see how much they'd lost, but inspiring to see people continue to push on despite nearly constant earthquakes. I hitched a bit further north to see my buddy Bazz in Hanmer Springs. I spent a couple nights there, then decided that since I only had two nights left in the country I better get moving. I hitched up the east coast to a place called Kaikoura:


I got there in the later afternoon. I hung out on the beach for a bit, then decided to climb to the top of the hill behind town to watch the sunset, with the plan of camping there. While I was sitting there, some locals showed up and started playing music and singing. They were playing christian music, which I'm normally not a fan of, but they were playing with such feeling and enjoying themselves so much that I couldn't help but enjoy it myself. I chatted with them a little, but mostly just sat and listened. As they were leaving, one of them came over and asked me where I was planning on spending the night. I made a non-committal answer, then he asked if I was planning on camping up there. I said yes, and he said it was too cold for that, why don't I come spend the night at their house. Wow! I came home with them and they fed me and gave me a place to sleep and shower. Then they fed me breakfast and lunch the next day and found me a ride back south. What great people!

I had heard of a place a bit west of Christchurch called Castle Hill. Since I had a late afternoon flight, I figured I could spend my last night up there instead of staying at a hostel in Christchurch. I didn't really know what it was, just that it was supposed to be a cool place. It was:

I camped on top of the highest hill, with fantastic views over the whole area. I had the place completely to myself. What a great last night in the country. I had a relaxed morning, then packed up my stuff and hitched back to Christchurch. I was a little worried about getting a ride since there's very little traffic out there, but it didn't take too long, and I made it to the airport with no stress. It was an amazing trip and I can't wait to go back next year.

Back to work.

After travelling around for a few months, I decided it might be nice to spend a bit of time in one place. Also, I like working in new places, as I think it gives you a better feeling for the place than just hanging out with other tourists; so I decided to take a job...guiding jetski tours. Yeah, not the best way to get to know the locals, but a pretty nice way to spend my days. I have to take photos of the clients with the company camera throughout the trip, so there's not a lot of opportunity to bust out my camera, but here's a couple shots. More will come, I promise.

Another quick stop in Thailand

After the pestilence of Laos, I needed to travel to Malaysia to start work. On the way, I met up with my buddy Daryn who was hanging out in Thailand, near Krabi. The trip down was a marathon: an eight hour bus ride, another five hour bus ride, several hours of tuk-tuks and dealing with immigration, an overnight train ride, a day walking around bangkok, another overnight train ride, a couple more hours in a mini-bus, and finally a fifteen minute boat ride. However, at the end of that I arrived here:

I only had four days, but we managed to do a lot in that time. Tonsai beach is famous for rock climbing, but that's the one thing I didn't do. I did however go kayaking, snorkeling, swimming, caving, and hiking. Not to mention a fair amount of drinking and slack-lining.


There were two "hikes" that had been recommended to us. The first took us to a really cool hidden lagoon. We scrambled over muddy rocks to the top of a ridge, then down over even muddy rocks on the other side, dropping down into a lagoon that's surrounded by cliffs on all sides. The water comes in and out with the tide through tunnels in the rock. Really a cool spot. The second hike involved climbing up through a cave that tunneled through one of the limestone headlands (the one in the picture above; we entered at the bottom right and came out about a third of the way up on the left). You come out in an alcove overlooking the whole bay, what a spectacular sight:

It turns out there's a climbing route that tops out in the same alcove, so we were lucky enough to borrow harnesses and ropes from some of the climbers and rappel down out of the alcove instead of going back the way we'd come. Perfect!

I had a great time catching up with Daryn and definitely enjoyed Thailand more than I though I would. It is definitely more touristy than some other areas in SE Asia, but it is a very beautiful place filled with very nice people. How can you complain?

OK, I know the music is hackneyed, the transitions are shitty, the shots are repetitive, and the overall production quality is fairly low. But give me a break, I'm just learning the editing software, and I don't have the patience to spend any more time on this thing. So with that resounding recommendation, here's a taste of what I do during the summer:

Canyoning Ticino 2011 from Zachary Browning on Vimeo.

After leaving India, my original plan was to fly to Bangkok, then travel overland from there to Cambodia and Laos. However, since Bangkok was inconsiderate enough to get flooded right when I was supposed to be arriving, I booked an onward flight to Phnom Penh to avoid the supposed travel nightmare. However, this left me with a long layover in Bangkok, so I decided to put backpack in left luggage at the airport and take the quick train trip into the city. The downtown area was not flooded, but the water was still rising and they were preparing for the worst. Everywhere I went looked like this:

I spent a few hours in the city, took a shitty tour in a tuk-tuk that involved stopping at every tourist trap in the city, but finally convinced the driver to take me to a streetside foodstand for lunch (by offering to pay for his meal). I had awesome BBQ chicken, along with some BBQ mystery meat, rice, and a bowl of mixed greens. Total price for my lunch and his: 50 baht (about $1.65). Now that's what I was looking for! Headed back to the airport and caught my evening flight to Phnom Penh. While going through customs I met a german guy named Dennis, who agreed to share a tuk-tuk with me into the city. Since he'd pre-booked a guest house (and I, of course, hadn't) I decided to see if they had a room for me as well. Dennis and I got on well, and neither of us had any specific travel plans, so we decided to travel together around Cambodia. We spent a day in PP, which is a very laid-back mellow city, then headed for Siem Reap (the town closest to Angkor Wat). We booked a "VIP bus", which was not only a misnomer, but also managed to break down and strand us on the roadside for four hours. Awesome.

I had very mixed feelings about Angkor (Angkor Wat is one specific temple, the entire complex of ruins, covering thousands of square kilometers, is referred to as Angkor, meaning "city" in Khmer). It was absolutely crawling with tourists, and the requisite touts, food stalls, and nicknack shops to go with them; but the ruins were absolutely stunning. And once you got away from the more popular ruins, you could find some space to yourself. I would say the hassles are worthwhile, and highly recommend anyone to visit this place. We rented bicycles from town and spent three days riding around the area. I didn't bring my good camera on this trip, but here's a few shots to give an idea of what we saw:







After three full days of ruins, we were ready for a change. We hopped on a bus to Battambang, which is Cambodia's second largest city...with a population of 80,000 people. On the way, the bus stopped in a village with this charming dish on offer:


There's not a whole lot going on in Battambang. We hung out by the river in our hammocks and generally fell into the laid-back lifestyle. One of the main tourist attractions is the "Bamboo Train" which started out as a local form of transportation. Basically, they put a bamboo platform on two axles, hook up a six hp motor, and take off down the train tracks. Everything can be picked up and taken off the tracks in seconds to let oncoming traffic pass. The "train" with the most passengers has the right of way. Supposedly actual train service is supposed to resume sometime in the next couple years, and the bamboo trains will be banned.



After Battambang, we headed down to the coast to spend some time on the beach. We went to Sihanoukville, which turned out to be quite a shithole, but we still had a good time and found a nice beach. After a few days there, Dennis headed for Thailand, and I headed for one last town in Cambodia: Kampot, which is a couple hours to the southeast. I decided to rent a motorcycle for a few days, so I could explore some stuff off the beaten tourist track. Best idea ever! I had three days of awesome riding, including some riding in Bokor National Park where I think no westerners have been in quite awhile. I did 400km in total, including over 50km of rugged off-road in the middle of nowhere. Riding through the jungle on the first day:


I stayed at a place called "Utopia", which might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but was still quite enjoyable. It was built out over the river, so you could swim right from the deck, and there was a great rope-swing on the other side of the river.



The second and third days I rode up to Bokor National Park, which sits on a thousand meter high plateau overlooking the ocean. A spectacular setting with some very cool geology and no tourists outside of the well-trafficked main attractions. This is where I got to do some exploring off-road (well, actually on a very old road).





I thoroughly enjoyed my riding, and was thoroughly exhausted when it was done. If you haven't ridden a dirt-bike, you have no idea how much strength and energy it requires to ride through rough terrain. The evening of the third day I rode out through the rice paddies. My last evening in Cambodia:


From Cambodia, I wanted to go to Laos, but since I wanted to go to northern Laos I decided to go via the modern transportation available in Thailand instead of the very slow and very old buses available in Laos. I stopped for a few days in Koh Chang, an island just off the Thai coast, just across the border from Cambodia. I caught up with Dennis there and just relaxed on the beach for a bit. A tough life. Here's the sunset from the ferry heading to the island:


My $5/day accommodations:


The beach:


I managed to catch a nasty cold on the way to Laos. One day after I recovered from that I got food poisoning. Out of ten days in Laos I was sick for nine. I saw some beautiful scenery, and rented another motorcycle and had another good ride, but I wasn't really in the mood to take pictures. Here's one of the three that I managed to get.

The mountains there really were incredible. I really want to go back in good health and on a motorcycle. Taking buses through those mountains is NOT fun. So, new goal, purchase a motorcycle somewhere in SE Asia. I'll get on that...

Enfield Part 2

After the first part of my trip I headed back to Rishikesh to regroup and get a few issues worked out with the bike. Of course dealing with stuff in India takes time, so I got a bit of a late start on the day I left. Rode until about 4pm, when I saw large black clouds forming ahead of me. Oh shit, find shelter! Found a scuzzy looking hotel just in time before the skies opened up. This would have hurt:

The next day I made it up to Gangotri, the headwaters of the Ganga. Here's a shot looking down the valley during the drive up:

What a stunningly beautiful place! Huge peaks all around, but a much narrower valley than at Badrinath, so you only get occasional glimpses of them. Without knowing, I made it just in time, as the whole town closed down just a few days after I was there. I spent two nights, and the day in between I hiked as far as I could manage up a side-valley. Rugged hiking at over 3000m when I've gotten used to sea level.

From Gangotri, I needed to backtrack all the way to where I spent the first night, then from there I could head northwest along mountain roads towards the Ton river and eventually on to Bilaspur, for my friend Vipin's wedding. I needed to hurry so I'd have time to see as much as possible, but I was really tempted to stay a night in this place, just 20km down the valley from Gangotri:

After many kilometers on some amazing mountain roads, and some awful mountain roads as well; and after a memorably horrible hotel in a shithole called Rohru, I decided to scrap a part of my planned route and go to Shimla. Shimla is an old British hill station, and it's a tourist trap, but it's probably the cleanest town I've been to in India, and it was a good rest after too much time on the bike. From there it was a quick hop to Bilaspur for the wedding. If you've been to an Indian wedding you'll know that there is a lot of drinking involved. Me+alcohol+camera=bad news, so I don't have any pictures of the wedding, but I had a great time, met some awesome people, and learned more about the culture of Himachal Pradesh...and I got drunk. After two days of Arvind telling me to have "just one more", I was finally able to escape the madness and headed to Manali, where I met this guy:

Manali sits high in the Beas river valley, at the foot of the famous Rohtang Pass. It's another touristy place, but it's really a gorgeous setting and I was lucky enough to be too late for the main tourist season; meaning I got a nice room for cheap and didn't have to put up with too many dreadlocks and baba pants. The weather wasn't great my first day there, and I needed to sort out a broken shock on the bike, so I waited until my second day to ride up the pass. I really lucked out as the weather was perfect, and I'm pretty sure the pass shut down for the season a couple days after I was there as a big storm came in. Here's a shot from the way up the pass, you can see the road switchbacking up on the upper-left:

Made it to the top! Around 4000m:

Went a few switchbacks down the backside just to get a better view. It's stunning scenery, and it convinced me that I have to come back and do the whole ride over to Ladakh. Until this point I was planning on selling the bike when I left, but this made me decide to keep it so I can come back next year and do that ride.

On the way back to Manali I saw a sign for a ski area and had to check it out. The terrain looked quite boring, but evidently they ski on something other than snow...

Reflections

I am not a spiritual person, but if you insist that I have a soul, I will, in turn, insist that it resonates not to the metronome of some higher power, but instead to the cacophonous rhythm of nature. The mountains are my cathedrals, the trees my minarets, the snow my holy water, the desert rocks my altars. The appreciation of natural beauty is not some conceit constructed by the human mind, but the inescapable result of our origin; proof that we do not stand separate, but are an integral part of the natural world.

India on the Enfield

I spent the last three weeks riding around northern India on my Royal Enfield. The following pictures are from the first part of the trip, from Rishikesh to Badrinath and back. I'll do another post about the second part of the trip.

I left from Rishikesh in the late afternoon, after two frustrating days of trying to get everything done that needed to be done before I could leave. Eventually I said "Fuck it!" and left without completing all I had planned to do. As usual, this was the best choice. As soon as I was on the road I felt much better about life and realized I didn't really need all that preparation anyway. The first night I made it to Devprayag, which is the river confluence that officially starts the Ganga River (Ganges). After a night in an awful shithole of a hotel, I began the very scenic ride up the Aleknanda river.

If you look closely, you can see a bulldozer in front of the bus. That guys tried to kill me. He almost managed to push me off the road along with a big load of dirt. One of many close calls. Riding in India keeps you on your toes!

The Aleknanda Valley is just gorgeous.


I rode about 220km, making it to Badrinath (3000m elevation), which is at the very upper end of the road. One of the headwaters of the Ganga. As if to make up for my previous night, I found an awesome hostel, brand new and I was the only person staying there. In fact, I was the fifth foreigner to ever stay there! A great room, in a great location for only 120 rupees ($2.50). I woke up the next morning and took a hike up to Vashundra Fall, a 45m waterfall 5km up a side valley.

I met this little guy on the way.

More 6000+ meter peaks than you can imagine.

Neelkanth, almost 7000m, shot from the middle of town. It's a little bit scenic up there.


My breakfast spot. Two samosas smothered in chick peas and chutney, for about 40 cents.


After I left Badrinath, I rode up to Auli, which is a small ski area. You can take a cable-car up from the town of Joshimath, but there's a beautiful road and I have a motorcycle.

At the top of the road with Nanda Devi (7800m) in the background.

Indian road signs are brilliant. I couldn't stop for a picture of every funny sign or I wouldn't have made it anywhere, but this one really killed me. I guess beating them with your belt is probably more effective than buying them an in-car DVD player.

On the way back to Rishikesh, I took a detour up to Chopta. No pictures because the road was too awesome to stop. Perfect blacktop through high-altitude jungle with almost zero other traffic. If you've traveled in India, you know that's a rare gift and I enjoyed it to its fullest.