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no zen to hide behind
no philosphy to shore me up
no religion to heal my pain
I wonder if I can survive

a little extreme perhaps........but then again, maybe not?

Malacca

A tribute to medieval Chinese expansion, Portuguese, Dutch and British colonialism. Built on profits of the spice trade and holding on today through the margins of global tourism. Gives a sense of the marginal risking all nature of early colonialism. It might on the whole be bad thing, but you have to admire the courage and resolve of some of the pioneers.

An antidote to the antisepticness of Singapore - Malacca has dirt, smells, visible history, not much to buy and feels like the real world. Returning through customs to Singapore, a notice in the immigration hall proudly announces that the Mayalsian customs has iso 9000 in promoting chaos.


McDonalds delivery


Chinese temple


Street side shrine


Dutch Square

Back in Singapore I relax in the bland comfortable smoothness and efficiency of the place - do I prefer it here? Is ease and comfort preferable to the rough and real?. Given the choice would I take a week in the Raffles Hotel and heavy duty shopping to a backpack through Asia?

With all this in your face its hard to hold onto the thought that in samsara these are all false choices. To gain enlightement you sit in a cave, your room, a garden - not in air conditioned hotels musing about the world.

Best bits of the trip: Humpbacked whales off Moreton Island, Darling Harbour from my window, thunderstorm in the rainforest, crusing the Straits...... but not the shopping (although speaking of digital cameras?)

Singapore

"Singapore the New Asia. vibrant, multi cultural city, sophisitcated city state where tradition, East and West meet in comfortable companionship, intermingle harmoniousely.. and with imagination"

No problems, no issues then, a lush yet sterile place where people are free to pursue their true purpose - shopping. Or 'Disneyland with the death penalty' as William Gibson said. Sitting in my hotel room reading his article is most probably a crime here. Firstly, as a thought offence and secondly its wasting time when I could be depositing my euros in the unikit 21st century fantasy malls.


Welcome to Singapore


Hard Rock Cafe


Orchard Street - main shopping drag

For those who dont understand or believe in globalisation, take a trip to Singapore. A template for the new century. On the main streets Prada, Cartier and Louis Vuitton vie for space. Mao Tse Tung once the greatest fear of capitalism is a minor clothing line and fashion accessory . In the back streets workers of Indian descent, who back in India would be fixing bikes, are stripping PC's for hard drives and recycling Sony TV's. The pecking order of rich and poor is the same but more higher tech. And everything has been subverted to a marketing media device.

for other pictures see travel daze

Australia

Travel - processed by zillions of computers - permission to board, permission to fly - in transit, life on hold until told to move - bar coded - permission to enter - life controlled by binary code
In the air, everyone asleep or engrossed in their personal entertainment centre, 300 people and no communication, separate journeys, isolated lives, compliant consumers. Looking at people beside me and constructing fantasy lifestyles of who they are - why not just ask them?

Brisbane - the suburban dream, an outpost of provincial America. Some people say that cities on the Pacific Rim are effectively extensions of the USA - the new 52nd state.

Sydney however, is an international city in its own right. If you have the money its paradise living on the seafront. The inner city has a strange kind of sleeze hanging in the air. A hangover from older times or something inherent in its nature?

11,000 miles away from my problems, but they travel with me, everything is in the head, but I just don't have to face up to them right now - is this the reason for travel? But it is also space to let new thoughts come in to your head, to get to know yourself a little better through a different context



Sydney Harbour Bridge

The experience of new places is in reality the usual mix of wonder, curiosity, mundanity and ugliness. Often there is a feeling of disappointment, as the real encounter can never live up to the multiple images we have from previous media experiences. How to overcome the simulacra - I knew what Sydney Opera House would look like, the struggle is to see the reality and loose the expectations.

Sometimes the unexpected does get you - walking in to my hotel room and seeing Darling Harbour by night (see Hotel Daze) - literally breathtaking. How wonderful the world would be if we never saw photographs of our destination before arrival, and we could just explore the unknown.



Sydney


So why am I a photographer - is it just a way of making myself look at things more clearly (some kind of zen practice), or am I just creating another set of fantasies, filtering out the everydayness and promoting romanticised memories. But then again I find travel interesting because I approach it as a social scientist (after all its my profession), how does this place work, what is its cultural mix and how does this relate to its geography. Is my photography therefore just visual social science?

Whatever it may be, the importance is both in the detail, variety and contrasts of everyday things. And in visually exploring the feelings created by the natural world. Alain De Botton explores these themes in the Art of Travel, which turned out to be an excellent travelling companion. Alain discusses seeing in terms of drawing, but I thinks photography will do also.



Opera House

for other pictures see travel daze