Despite my epic travel plans—spring hiking trips in the Southwest, summer in Scotland and Alaska, fall in the Columbia River Gorge and winter in South America—2020 was apparently the year to stay home. Even though this year did not go as planned, I’m continuing my annual tradition of sharing my favorite photographs of the year. (I snuck in some epic adventures before the pandemic!)
I rang in 2020 in Chiang Mai, Thailand then stopped in Singapore before heading to New Zealand where I spent three glorious weeks traveling around the North Island until early February. Then, I flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia for work to run a photo trip through Cambodia and Vietnam. The trip was amazing although COVID complicated things a little bit with logistics. Thankfully, I always avoid connecting flights in China so my flight home was not affected by the China flight bans. I flew back to the U.S. via Japan in late February and wore a mask for the entire 28-hour journey. I thought I’d left COVID in Asia but clearly, I was very, very wrong.
I went to visit my parents for a week and picked up my car to drive to Austin for several SXSW photoshoots—the entire reason I’d flown back from Asia. The minute I got back to Austin, everything started to unravel—COVID was spreading in the U.S., SXSW was canceled and over the next few days, it became very clear that 80% of my work for the year was gone. For me, no travel = no work.
Since my 95-year-old grandma wasn’t in good health (unrelated to COVID), I left Austin after less than a week to drive back to South Carolina. Her nursing home had already shutdown due to COVID, but they brought her out on the patio for us to have one last visit with her. She was in good spirits, and I’m grateful for that visit because she passed away a month later during the middle of the lockdowns. Funerals are always difficult, but they are even worse during a lockdown.
Since I didn’t have any work in Texas, I stayed on my parent’s farm for most of the year and spent a few months remodeling their house. (At one point, I had to crawl on my stomach under the house (and duel a lizard corpse I mistook for a snake) to cut a toilet pipe with a three-foot long saw. ) We remodeled a bathroom, hallway and two bedrooms including my old bedroom, which I hadn’t lived in since shortly after college. For the first time in years, I fully unpacked and moved in the furniture I’d built with my dad into my room – a bookcase and mahogany triple chest. (They’d been on display at my parent’s furniture store for years since they don’t fit in a suitcase.)
When you’ve spent you’re entire life building your life (and career) around travel, it’s a devastating blow to be stuck in your hometown. (Since I travel fulltime, I don’t have my own place in Austin (my usual home base) anymore and staying with friends like I normally do just didn’t feel safe.) I’ve developed a massive amount of anxiety and low-level depression related to COVID and being stuck in America—the hardest part of travel is always coming home. Since I do most of my routine health care abroad (which I wrote about here), I only had a major medical insurance plan to cover freak accidents when I got back to the U.S. It was a total nightmare sorting that out and oddly enough, that plan was the best I could find despite the pandemic.
While a majority of my family—aside from my parents and myself—have gotten COVID, they were mostly mild cases aside from one person being hospitalized for two weeks with double pneumonia. A multifamily gathering at Halloween, which my parents and I avoided, led to a majority of these cases. The others cases spread through households. (Since March, I’ve avoided people as much as possible and go grocery shopping at 6 a.m. when the stores open decked out in my mask and safety goggles. I’d rather look back at this year and laugh at how overly cautious I was than look back with regret wishing I’d done more to be safe.) One of the worst parts of being stuck in America are the constant arguments with friends and family over safety protocols especially the ones who see no problem in mixing households despite the CDC’s warnings and spiking virus cases. (Let my family’s Halloween gathering be a warning to everyone! Please be safe!)
I never thought it was possible to be nostalgic for 2008 yet, here I am wishing I could be back there. Sure, the world economy had collapsed, and I’d lost all of my work, but at least, I could travel! The lessons I learned in 2008, which I wrote about here, helped me survive 2020. The most important lesson of all: your savings can save you. It saved me this year.
One of the few good things this year were the amazing adventures I had before the pandemic. Writing this post has made me grateful for my New Zealand trip and how I always take advantage of every opportunity to travel. (In hindsight, I wish I’d stayed in New Zealand since they handled COVID well and are living a fairly normal life now sans masks! I’d also rather be in Asia where wearing masks was already the norm so everyone wears one with no drama.) I also started writing for the Washington Post this fall! I also just accepted some exciting travel jobs for the summer and winter 2021 for some exciting new adventures so fingers crossed those actually happen!
As soon as I’m vaccinated and it’s safe to travel, I’ll be back on the road fulltime, which I hope is by the summer. Even though travel will be much different and masks will the norm, I’m excited to get back to on the road!
Wellington, New Zealand
On my first trip to New Zealand in 2009, I only visited the South Island. This year, I decided to spend three weeks on the North Island starting off in windy Wellington to visit a friend I hiked Kilimanjaro with a few years ago. Wellington instantly became one of my favorite cities in the world – it’s a beautiful city with great food, beer and the best peanut butter I’ve ever eaten. (Stop by the Fix & Fogg peanut butter window!) There were so many amazing craft breweries and a ton of outdoor/nature spaces including this view of the cable car over the botanic gardens. (My other favorite cities in the world include Vancouver, Charleston, Luang Prabang and Austin.) P.S. Wellington is known for its wind so flights are often diverted or have to attempt multiple landings. The flights were canceled the day before I arrived due to fog, but I lucked out with good weather!
Tongariro Crossing, New Zealand
The epic Tongariro Crossing hike was on the top of my list on the North Island. The roughly seven-hour trek covered 19.4 km (12 miles) through some of the shooting locations from Lord of the Rings. I met a Dutch girl at the hostel the day before who ended up hiking with me. It was her first solo trip and she ended up spending the next week driving the Coromandel with me and hiking. Even when you’re traveling solo, you’re never really alone. (I stayed in Taupo and paid for a shuttle drop me off at the beginning and pick me up at the end, which is what I’d recommend. Check the weather beforehand and plan to go on a clear day to avoid the notorious wind and fog.)
Cathedral Cove, New Zealand
To cut costs, I took buses for the first part of my trip then rented a car for roughly the last week to reach some of the more remote areas. Cathedral Cove is one of the most popular spots in the Coromandel Peninsula in the northeast corner of the island. It’s an hour hike from the small beach town of Hahei and best visited during low tide in order to walk through the cave to the beach with the famous Te Hoho rock. Sunrise corresponded with low tide so we got out there early to avoid crowds. Other highlights in the area include Hot Water Beach, Waihi Beach and kayaking to Donut Island from Whangamata. Hiking the old railway trails on Karangahake Gorge was also amazing. I’ll do a separate post on these in the future!
Hobbiton Movie Set, New Zealand
I couldn’t go to New Zealand and NOT take a photo of Alfred the Globetrotting Gnome at Hobbiton – the filming site from Lord of the Rings! You have to take a guided tour—I recommended getting the first one of the day to avoid crowds and take advantage of the light. The light hits the hillside in the morning so that’s the best time for photos! I stayed in nearby Matamata, which was a small, cute town and the closest location to the Hobbition. There are day trips from the big cities but due to transit time, you won’t arrive early enough for the best photos!
Muriwai Gannet Colony, New Zealand
On a day trip to the Similian Islands in Thailand two months before my trip, I met a lovely couple—Cherie and Nick—from Auckland on their honeymoon. They invited me to stay with them on my trip in New Zealand and we took a day trip up the west coast. One of our stops was a gigantic gannet colony of birds high on a set of cliffs called Muriwai Gannet Colony. It was stunning, and I never would have known about it if it wasn’t for them! Locals always know the best spots!
Alpaca Farm, New Zealand
Since I’m literally obsessed with alpacas, I booked an alpaca farm Airbnb near Otorohang, a 15-minute drive to the Waitomo glowworm caves. When I arrived, I noticed there was a one-week-old baby alpaca right outside my window. It was the cutest thing ever! I literally spent the entire afternoon photographing the alpacas, and it was fantastic! This probably one of the main highlights of my year!
Chau Doc Market, Vietnam
There’s nothing I love more than photographing produce markets especially the ones in Asia. It’s a great place for street photography—candid shots of daily life. Morning food markets are often filled with locals and very few foreigners. I spent a good hour walking around this market, which is in Vietnam near the Cambodia border. I try really hard to capture candid shots of the market and the locals. I’m not a fan of posed portraits so I try my best to be respectful and unobtrusive.
Beng Mealea, Cambodia
Since I’ve been to Angkor Wat before, I arrived two days before my work trip started to explore some of the lesser known temples outside of the main complex near Siem Reap. I took a day trip a couple hours north to Koh Ker, a pyramid-shaped temple that reminded me of the Mayan ruins in Mexico, and Beng Mealea, which was my favorite. Beng Mealea is similar to Ta Prohm, the filming location for “Tomb Raider,” which is famous for the tree roots that have overtaken the temple. Unlike many of the temples in the Angkor Wat area, Beng Mealea wasn’t rebuilt. Instead platforms were built to allow visitors to walk through and over the ruins to admire nature at work. That’s what I loved the most about it. It was built in the 12th century and follows the same floor plan as Angkor Wat. (I recommend booking a tour through Klook. I hate day tours, but a day tour is the cheapest and fastest way to visit due to the distance. I enjoyed the trip.)
Homemade Biscuits
Since food is a big part of travel, I wanted to share my biscuit photo! I had a safe, solo Thanksgiving in Austin and made homemade biscuits from scratch to celebrate. I layered them with Tumble 22 hot chicken and slaw for a tasty feast. I did a little photo shoot before devouring this one. [While I spent most of the year helping out my parents, I came back to Austin for a freelance project that was postponed from March. I self-isolated for 14 days and got tested before going back to visit my parents again afterwards.]
Blue Ridge Parkway
I normally miss fall because I usually leave for warmer climates by early October. This year, I made it a point to do a safe, solo road trip through the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park in mid-October inspired by a story I wrote for the Washington Post. I literally turned the car around and stood on the side of the road for this shot in a field near Fancy Gap, Virginia. Everyone should drive the Blue Ridge Parkway once in their life. For more details, check out my blog post about the trip.
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