About
Over the last few years I have become used to summarising my entire background in the space of three minutes, so often in fact I have entertained the idea of carrying around handouts to save me the trouble. My quasi-American/Canadian/New Zealand/French/Jersey accent (and yes, I have been called out on all of them) often throws people off when first meeting them and thus begins the following tale: I was born and raised in Hong Kong by my Swiss father and Filipina mother, where I attended an International school at which I was taught under the British system. And despite speaking three languages fluently including German and French my Chinese vocabulary is entirely limited to the odd swear word and the street I live on. ‘Field trips’ at the aforementioned institution involved exploring the breathtaking Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia, crawling through the claustrophobic CủChi war tunnels in Vietnam, conquering the formidable Mount Kinabalu in Borneoamongst many other escapades. Holidays with the family included spending weeks on a sailboat swimming in crystal clear turquoise waters and island-hopping between Sardegna in Italy and Corsica in France, wandering amongst the imposing trees at Redwood National Park in California and both moutain-biking and carving powder in the Swiss Alps. Needless to say I had the most brilliantly mind-expanding youth one could ever hope for and have since been deeply ingrained with an addictive desire to expose myself to new cultures as often as my bank balance will allow me.
Following that I moved 7352 km on the whim of chasing endless summers in Sydney, where I basked in the scorching Australian sun for five years in between chalking up further travel conquests including a surreal visit to the very unique city of Tokyo and a road trip through the stunning North Island of New Zealand before relocating a further 16,988 km to my current base, the magnificent London. I obviously have a penchant for British colonies. I have covered four continents this year alone with every intention of visiting the remaining three before my thirties. A trek through the tundras of Antarctica, anyone? (I am serious, hit me up my fellow wayward travellers.) I also happen to be a fashion photographer, and now that Europe is my playground I am excited to be able to fully explore another corner of the world.
This is my personal travel blog where I will archive my past and future adventures and where I will occasionally post about places I have been afflicted with unfaltering and persistent daydreams to visit, such as the floating gardens of Xochimilco in Mexico Cityor Hotel Kakslauttanen in Lapland, or should I ever happen to marry the heir to an oil fortune, the final frontier itself: outer space. Occasionally I will write about these experiences, share some of the absurd tales and situations I have found myself in though I do apologise in advance that my literary capabilities will never come close to that of my photographic abilities. I also want to share portraits and stories of my beautiful friends and family, the ones who I happen to cross paths with so surprisingly but welcomingly often in all parts of the globes and the new ones I make in foreign countries, only to later find out we share the most unexpected mutual acquaintances. They are the reason why living out of a suitcase has been remotely tolerable, and why I am able to call so many places home. This is the diary of a third culture kid.
THE CULTURE KID
