Pieces of Asia
Introduction
December 1999 - April 2001
By 1999 my life in London was becoming a blur. In moments of reflection I yearned for greater things than those which the city could offer me, but fear always got in the way of any action I might have wanted to take. It took the actions of a colleague (she resigned and took off to New Zealand) to inspire me: if she could travel the world, so could I. Within a few months I had resigned myself, joining two friends, Tara and Caroline, in leaving London and heading to India.
Pieces of Asia documents, in pictures, the proceeding 17 months' exploration of South Asia, South-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand. For the first five months Tara, Caroline and myself travelled everywhere together. Then, following a disagreement during trekking Annapurna in Nepal, the two girls decided to go their way without me. From then onwards I was on my own, and the journey became the story of the people I met along the way, as well as the places I visited. From the crumbling Buddhist stupas of ancient Bagan to the air-conned malls of downtown Singapore, whether chartering a fishing boat to Komodo Island or climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, every glorious day was an adventure. And of all the people I met, one of them - Cathie - was later to become my wife.
This site began as a means of communicating my travel experiences to family and friends back home. My ancient Canon SureShot point-and-shoot kept me in good stead until Vietnam, where I finally gave in and upgraded to a Pentax MZ50 SLR. From then on my photography was about learning what was possible with all that new functionality... though I like to think my pictures also improved!
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