A three minute video clip taken high noon on 22nd May 2008 captures the moment perfectly. Choked with emotion and squinting into a blister­ing sun a determined Nueng takes the last few strides to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. Squeez­ing oxygen into his lungs he turns to the camera and requests to sing the King’s anthem. The words are muffled and his voice breaks with emotion but nothing can subtract from the poignancy of the moment – marking the pinnacle to four years of intense training, and in that a victory for the human spirit over adversity. As the first Thai to reach the sum­mit the odds were stacked high against Nueng. When he decided upon his attempt in 2003 there was little inter­est for mountaineering in Thailand. However, inspired by the dream of honoring the King’s 80th birthday by conquering ...

Songkram Jutjarat has a love of dogs, he takes them off the streets and away from the danger of landing on plates in Thai and Vietnamese eateries - he tells Traversing the Orient it’s a tough battle. Amid loud growling and gnashing teeth, dog catchers round up the homeless hounds in Thailand’s Lopburi and sell them to the butcher’s knife in Vietnam. Any­where from 40 to 80 dogs at a time are crammed into trucks, their destiny priced at around US$10 a portion, unless the trucks cross paths with the Thai police first. A legal spot fine of a mere US$60 per truckload sees the thieves release the stolen dogs, only to return another day or move on to another territory. Songkram Jutjarat – nickname Golf - is from Lopburi, for the last ten years he has co-run/owned a small restaurant called Mali in Bangkok’s Sathorn Soi 1 district. Three years ago ...

Tom Cockrem explores a religious festival that blends icons of Catholicism with the ancient tribal traditions of the Ati-Ati people History in the Philippines is never far removed from the people’s daily lives. It’s intrinsic in their artworks, reli­gion, cinema, and especially their festivals. It is doubtful that any country in the world puts as many days aside for celebratory events as do the Filipinos. And they do it in grand style, with an energy and passion that can leave the visiting observer literally breathless with excitement and with awe; as I discovered in Iloilo on the central Visayan island of Panay. This was my second visit to Iloilo. The first time I came to do the city plazas and their churches – grand old Spanish colonial survivors. This time I had one of those festivals in mind – the Dinagyang. ...

Journalist and Author Raymond Nadeau meets up with photographer, Steven Burton, sharing the pageantry, splendor and bodacious beauty of India’s joyous and notorious Festival of Colors. While there is certainly much to lament these days, from failed economies to social unrest to global warming, it’s easy to forget that there are still places and moments filled with celebration and color.  Children still play pranks on their friends and elders squealing in innocent delight.  Passions are proven to not always be destructive. And, color, in all its splendor still distracts from otherwise grey realities transforming the mundane into something sublime. Steven Burton, a New York City based photographer,  captured just such a vivid reprieve from the ordinary on his recent trip to India where he  chronicled India’s annual Holi festival. Holi - the festival of colors – the jubilant, strangely ...