'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.' With this sentence Karen Blixen opens her account of life on a coffee plantation just outside Nairobi. It was the 1920s, and this was British East Africa, not Kenya - part of the (by then fading) British Empire. The book presents a vivid, if at times uncomfortable, picture of African colonial life and the relationships between colonists and native inhabitants.
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The scent of wood smoke hangs in the air. Children play in the dusty soil. Small pigs, chickens and dogs wander at will between the wooden houses. And inside one a blacksmith is at work, shaping a machete over glowing coals. This is Phou Taen Khamu, home to some of the Khamu people, one of Laos’ minority ethnic tribes.
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There is something infectious about a person who displays a real passion for a subject. You find yourself getting drawn in, even if your own interest, up to that point, was only superficial. Such a person is Alex Hansen.
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Nothing makes you feel more welcome in a country than to be invited into someone's home, however humble. And language is no barrier to connecting with a friendly hostess and her curious children.
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A woman crouches beside the fast-flowing river, panning for gold. Hers is a simple life in a rural village, but success here could change it forever.
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Travel is not just about the places we travel to; it is about the people we meet along the way. And when such meetings develop into friendships that are sustained long after the journey has been completed, that is precious indeed.
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In street photography the moment is everything; press the shutter too soon, or too late, and as Cartier-Bresson said, the moment is lost.
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I am passionate about travelling and at the moment, when travel is on hold, I am naturally dreaming of where I will go when we can all travel again.
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I went to Syria in 1996, when it was a very different country. Today I can’t help wondering about the fate of the people I met there.
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When I told people that we were going to North Korea, or the DPRK as they prefer us to call it, I got one of three reactions. From our traveller friends, ‘wow, that will be interesting’. From others, either ‘why on earth would anyone want to go there?’ or ‘gosh, you’re brave – hope you come home again!’
