This year we decided to welcome the new year with the family in India. It was my second time in India and I had already visited most of the places we went to during this trip, however it was a very different experience, for starters this time I wasn't backpacking, but it also felt like the country has moved forward a lot since I was last here. Much better infrastructure, somewhat cleaner and just more modern technology in general.

We visited New Delhi, Varanasi and Rajasthan (by car, train and motorcycle), it's never a proper Costa family trip if there are no motorbikes... Here is what we got up to.

Alexia and I were keen on getting a long trip in the bag in 2023, we wanted to go somewhere warm where both of us hadn't been so the Philippines seemed like the right place to go. It was the off season so we didn't have to plan much in advance, we booked our stays and travel as we went.

I was keen on getting some diving done so we headed to Coron first, the diving there in incredible. It's all WWII Japanese sunken ships, and you get to go inside and check out these amazing wrecks. It's a must go if you are in the Philippines. We then headed to El Nido by ferry, it was nice because it was the off season, but I wouldn't call it the most authentic place in the Philippines, however we did stay in a lovely hut.

We finished the trip in Siargao, my favourite island of the trip, it feels more like Bali was 10 years ago or so, still authentic and not too crowded. There's good surfing, nice places to stay, plenty of empty beaches and friendly people. One of the highlights was spending a night in Sohoton, we found an empty beach and stayed there until sunset, all by ourselves. That area of the Philippines reminded me of Raja Ampat.

Anyways, here are the photos of the trip :)

Back in 2014, I was reading a book at home when I came across an article on the Pamir Highway - it showed some spectacular photos of snowy mountains and nomadic villages, it was an instant bucket-list addition. 5 years later, I found myself at the heart of it; the best part? It was a work trip.

The Pamir Highway is one of the highest international highways in the world, with the Aik-Baital Pass reaching 4,655m. Snowy mountains, dirt roads, hundreds of rocky valleys and lakes all make the Pamirs a stunning adventure suitable to anyone willing to explore a seemingly untouched culture by tourism. There's not much along the way, limited petrol stations, few villages and certainly no motorbike mechanics between Khorog (Tajikistan) and Osh (Kyrgyzstan). 

My cousin Alex and I decided to rent some bikes and head out into the unknown. You can read the full article I wrote on the Petro Camp website here.

Here are some photos of the trip:

Giving some petrol to a group of locals who had run out

A 'petrol station'. The mountains you see behind are in Afghanistan.

The Tajikistan border.

Customs. The officers gave us delicious watermelon.

We went fishing.

We did a 4 day horse trek around Song Kul.

The snow stopped coming in mid February, the sun showed up and we had blue bird days for longer than I can remember. To get good snow we had to hike further and higher - we called it the Month of Missions. We had to figure out ways to entertain ourselves, so we hiked, skied the sea in Shakotan, used snowmobiles to access peaks that were too far to skin, hiked peaks just off road passes and hit Kurodake opening day on March 1st for some sweet powder. Truly, a Month of Missions.

Shakotan

The peak you see in the distance was our objective

What's a sledding day without a breakdown? We abandoned one sled and used a rope to tow each other on skis

Lake Toya

Andrew working out the best route to the peak - we skied both sides off the peak

Orofuretogedake - great line

Kurodake opening day

The line

Mitch, always at the front

Vince dropping in

One of the best skiing experiences I've ever had. It started out as a nice sunny day, but when we got closer to the summit the weather turned and the clouds rolled up. It took 4:30hrs to summit, we climbed a vertical of about 1,700m and reached the crater around 3pm. The top was cold, we stopped by the hut near the summit, but it took me a while to realise that that was the hut - it was undistinguishable form the terrain from a distance due to the rime, the temperature was -20 degrees Celsius. On the way down, the clouds cleared and Bron and I enjoyed an whole mountain all to ourselves. A dream come true.

I moved to Japan's Northern island for the winter, Hokkaido. I have come here to work for the winter season and ski Japan's famous fluffy powder all winter long. On my first weekend here there was still no snow around, so I packed my 600cc Mitsubishi Mini Pajero and road tripped across the south of the island. The autumn colours were definitely impressive - my first taste of living in Japan.