O Christmas Tree. Photo by Derek Wallbank

Singapore Supertrees lit up for the festive season, on a warm winter's night.

Christmas comes in its own way here in Singapore. In a land where it's 90 degrees daily, those idyllic Victorian winter images from the movies are nowhere to be found. But that doesn't make it any less festive. Here the iconic Supertrees are lit on a clear winter's night, red on green, merry and bright

Lockdown Lifted. Photo by Derek Wallbank

After months of lockdown, a chance for levity in Marina Bay, Singapore.

After months of a circuit-breaker lockdown in Singapore, this was one of the first trips we took outside where we just sort of let loose. It's a silly image, but stands out to me as a great example of how resilient our kids can be sometimes. After enduring all of the enduring, all my daughter wanted to do when she first got to go out and about was to be silly. And there's a great wisdom in that, I think.

Pilgrimage. Photo by Derek Wallbank

Buddhist monks on a pilgrimage reach Wat Chedi Luang, a temple in the heart of Chiang Mai, Thailand

The Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai is one of the great temples of Thailand, built in the 1400s and towering over the city. It's also standing in ruins. There are no plans to fix it. That beauty in brokenness speaks to me in 2020, amid everything that's going on, and stands as a reminder that something seemingly imperfect, ravaged by time and events, can still stand proud as a beacon for others.

Summit at Angkor Wat. Photo by Derek Wallbank

The summit of Angkor Wat, in all its glory, but also its fragility.

Angkor Wat is one of the wonders of the world, and I got to see it just before coronavirus shut all travel in Asia. What struck me at the pinnacle of the pinnacle of southeast Asian architecture, was just how fragile it all is. There is beauty all around, intricate detail, yet the scaffolding supports on the right, and the warnings not to clamber up at center-left show the delicate nature of the things we think of as timeless and iconic. Indeed, they're only so timeless because of the supports, because of all that care.