I am an interpretive planner, writer and visitor experience advisor. Here are some of the projects that have been keeping me busy for the last while.
Manila has proven to be one of the most interesting places I’ve had the privilege of photographing. I have already written about the historic Intramuros district and the outgoing (and photogenic) people who live and work there. We had another chance to walk within Manila’s old walls and photograph its people. I hope you enjoy …
To walk through Saigon is to feel large, white and sodden. In the months to come, when I look back on this once-in-a-lifetime Asian adventure, I’m going to kick myself. I’m doing it already: “Why aren’t you getting more done? Why aren’t you seeing more? You’ll never be back here again.” I’m one of those …
Singapore’s National Botanic Garden: An Orgy of Orchids I’m smitten with orchids. I’m not really sure why; I suspect it’s simply their exotic beauty, though my friend Dave insists that their sensual curves and lips appeal to the repressed heterosexual in me. Whatever the cause, I caught orchid fever about fifteen or twenty years ago, …
Backroads, sloughs and mudflats make for one happy naturalist. This week, I left the bustling, chaotic cities of Asia behind, and wandered through sloughs, alleys, back roads, mud flats and farms on the lush green island of Langkawi, Malaysia. It was a most welcome change. I’m finding the rich cityscapes of Asia absolutely fascinating, and just …
“This is Burma. It is quite unlike any place you know about.” -Rudyard Kipling I never in my life imagined I’d be visiting Burma, or Myanmar as it is now known. Yet here I am, bouncing along a narrow, rough country road toward Yangon (Rangoon, as Mr. Kipling would have known it.) Men in traditional …
Arriving in the Philippines this week was quite an experience. A huge number of the ship’s crew are Filipino, and as we pulled into the port of Manila there were traditional dancers, a marching band, and hundreds of family and friends of the crew waiting to reunite after many months apart. It was really quite …
… if you don’t like their driving, you can stay off the sidewalk. Traveling by ship is an endlessly luxurious way of getting around, but one of its few drawbacks, especially here in Asia, is that the cruise ship ports can be an awfully long way from the action. This week, for our visit to Ho Chi …
Behind that adorable exterior lie some potentially nasty surprises. This week, I left beautiful Australia behind and began my journey to southeast Asia. Our first port of call in the exotic East was Bali, and it was everything I imagined it might be. What a creative, expressive people the Balinese are. On every street corner is …
Last night, I slept in a treehouse in the middle of the rainforest. It was pretty incredible. We were docked in Cairns, Australia and we had a rare night on shore. Having already explored the city and its environs a bit, we decided to head further afield. We rented a car and booked a place …
Continents are like people, I suppose. Leave them alone for long enough and they start to go a little crazy. Witness Australia: this remarkable land, once part of a vast supercontinent called Gondwana, has been left to drift on its own for millions of years… and what a strange diversity of life has arisen on …