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And so Asia and trust me that's a big place for a
little wombat. A billion people in China, almost as many in India, the
world's highest mountains, lowest countries, coral reefs, rice paddies...
Probably the most famous images of the continent are
the Taj Mahal of India and
the
Great Wall of China. So this is where I headed to first. In fact
the picture to the right, of me on the Great Wall was my first and started
my whole life as a photo seeking travelling wombat.
 China's
not the only big country in Asia. India is huge too and even bigger
if you include Pakistan. Along with the Taj in Agra, the
Golden Temple in Amritsar also made a good photo opportunity. Set
in huge water 'tank', the home of the Sikh faith, it sparkles gold -
dazzling.
Pakistan use to be part of India, it's now a separate
Muslim nation full of friendly people and stunning mountains, many along
it's boarder with Afghanistan, broken by the famous
Khyber
Pass. I didn't go into Afghanistan, but here's me at the top of
the pass, trying not to get shot (everyone's carrying gun - tribal law
rules once off the road).
South East Asia alone has so many sights to
see and photos to be taken. Here are some of my favourite. Number one,
being
Angkor
Wat in Cambodia. Hidden from the world, deep in the jungle for hundreds
of years. The photo (left) is the largest and best-preserved temple
of a huge city that once was.
Trace fire across rice paddies, smoking grass through
a rifle barrel and the smell of napalm in the morning. Right next door
to Cambodia is Vietnam. There's a man who in history stands pretty proud,
for whatever else he did, his achievements include beating both the
French and the Americans.
Ho
Chi Minh mausoleum is shown in the photo to the right. You can hardly
see me. I'm on the first pillar, so look hard. It's a shame because
I have on my Vietnamese hat.
Probably the most famous sights in South East Asia
are those of
Singapore
where travellers have
been visiting for centuries.
Raffles is perhaps on of the most famous hotels in the world and epitomised
far flung travel. Unfortunately it's quite an expensive place to stay
and I couldn't even get in on account of no shoes or shirt. Nonetheless
I hid in the bushes out front to get my photo, so forgive me if the
photo is a bit leafy! To make up I also went and got my picture along
the waterfront in front of one of the famous lions head statues which
are easily recognisable as Singapore's national symbol. The lion head
symbolises courage, strength and excellence, as well as resilience in
the face of challenges. Sound familiar?
  Not
far from Singapore another travellers favourite in the region is Thailand
and it's
Grand Palace in the capital Bangkok, built in 1783 it is as huge
as it is spectacular and again a great snap. However Thailand is rather
crowded and a photo on one of the countries beautiful beaches just isn't
worth posting so I didn't hang around long. Instead I kept on moving
and soon found myself in Kuala Lumpur the capital of Malaysia and home
to one of the highest buildings in the world the instantly recognisable
Petronas Towers.
It's not easy to see Asia without the regional superpower having a great pull. Japan is an amazing place with the most bizarre culture and lots to see, do and get photos of. Here are three of my favourite (in order, the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dome, Mount Fuji and the Itsukushima Shrine:
  
 Another
one of my favourite places in the world, away from the crowds of Thailand
and Indochina is the Philippines. The problem is the Philippines doesn't
have too many famous sights but I thought this one was worth a snap.
It's the
Chocolate Hills smack bang in the middle of an island called Bohol.
No one knows how these near perfect little hills were formed, but once
a year the vegetation on them dies and go chocolate brown, hence the
name.
Gotta shoot, haven't been to Korea yet or for that
matter a tonne of other places.
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