New Year Breakdown – Springbrook, Australia

“When I was eighteen, I just went off and travelled… I didn’t have anybody watching me, or criticising me. I didn’t really have any money, but it didn’t seem to matter. People were so helpful and generous. My family reported me as a missing person. The police saw my truck parked in the street. They were like: ‘why don’t you call your mum? She’s worried about you.”

Metal Menagerie – Chiang Mai, Thailand

  …There is welding equipment all over the place, and the artists are all clad in protective overalls and home made masks that protect their faces from sparks. Noi shows us around proudly. There are steel horses, elephants, monsters and mutants… My original Thai tourist visa has expired. To get a new visa, I need…

Plastic Monks – Ayuthaya, Thailand

  Facing each other across the Chao Phraya River, in Ayuthaya, Thailand, two temples present a stark historical contrast. Wat Tha Ka Rong is a bustling modern complex, something between a strip mall and a church. A stone’s throw away is Wat Chaiwattanarm, a crumbling ruin dating from the early 17th century. (Top photo: what…

Saddle Sore – Angkor Wat, Cambodia

…There is a vertiginous weight about the structures.  Passing through the gates into the temple enclosure, struggling up the endless steep stairways, I am acutely aware of the intention of Angkor’s architects: impress the bollocks off people – make them feel very small… Me and J-man get on the slow train out of Bangkok.  Actually,…

Khao Sarn Snaps – Bangkok, Thailand

…a small demonstration is under way.  A group of about fifty people stand on the steps.  A few of them have small placards.  What they are doing is completely illegal under the martial law regulations… The King of Thailand is old and frail.  The govermnent is venal and unpopular.  The people are angry and hungry…