Vietnam brought me back to life. When I arrived  in Ho Chi Minh, I had a deep feeling that I had failed. I had struggled to take pictures in Loas and Cambodia that I truly loved. My sole purpose for going on this journey was to take pictures and discover who I was as a photographer. What added to this feeling was I had gone to the War Remnant Museum, when I had just arrived and I remember feeling so moved by the photography. How it exposed the truth about the Vietnam war and thinking at that time, that this is what photography was about. A big part of me wanted my photographs to mean something, to tell a story. I wasn’t there yet and I judged myself for it. I was suffering because I had certain expectations of where I should be at this point and I felt I was nowhere close.  Ho Chi Minh made me stop, accept the fear of not knowing and just let it go. I cried a lot. Spent a lot of time in my dormitory, hardly went out. I moved to different hostels until I accepted that it was my mindset that had to change and not the place.

I will be honest when I had decided to go to Myanmar, I didn’t know what was happening and didn’t research it enough. I had planned it as part of my adventure through Asia. All I was really excited about, was going to Bagan. I had only discovered what was happening when I was speaking to the other backpackers. The question I ask myself now is, do I regret going? And the answer is no but I do regret going and not knowing about what the people of Myanmar were suffering from. I do regret going in as an ignorant person.

My time in Thailand was different this time. I felt more like a traveller rather than a tourist. I know it might sound a bit obnoxious but it’s true to me. I went to places I didn’t go to before. Did things I didn’t do before.

After the very chaotic and action packed India, Nepal felt much calmer. It was a journey of learning about myself and about people.

First stop was India. First time travelling alone. First time staying in a hostel. First time quitting my job to pursue a career in photography. A lot of firsts!

My journey of leaving my buying job in retail and pursuing photography full time.