After less than 24hrs in Singapore

In late 1998 I ended up with an opportunity to move from Australia to Singapore. An opportunity I grabbed at. However, having arrived in Singapore with 2 large suitcases, within 24 hours I had left one in my boss' office and was on my way to Taipei, capital of Taiwan for a business trip - a business trip that lasted just over a year living out of a hotel. Welcome to Asia...

Well, living in the city and armed with my brand new Nikon F50 and (slow) kit Tamron 28-200mm lens, I began the journey of street/documentary style of shooting. My biggest regret now is that I didn't put any value in the negatives, just the prints, and now I have little of either from that period of my life.

Above is a shot from outside the front of Lungshan Temple on Kuangchou Street. Manka, now known as the Wanhua district, is the first part of Taipei to be developed. It is also the site of the city's oldest temple, Lungshan Temple, which serves as a center of social activity as well as worship for local residents.

An interesting legend relates the temple's origin. It is said that a man once left a Kuanyin (Goddess of Mercy) amulet hanging on a tree, and when night fell the amulet began giving off a brilliant light. The people of the neighborhood soon discovered that the charm had the power to grant wishes, and they naturally wanted to build a temple for the goddess. Construction on the site where the charm was found began in 1738, and the temple was completed two years later. Numerous renovations have taken place during the more than 250 years since then. The temple is laid out in the shape of a square within a square.

The unevenly cut stones that pave the temple's courtyard have their own history. In the old days, the Taiwan Straits were known as the "Blackwater Channel" because of their rough and perilous nature. To help stabilise their ships, immigrants from Fukien province used slabs of stone as ballast; it is these same stone slabs that now pave parts of the courtyard in front of Lungshan Temple.

September 21st 1999 Taiwan suffered a massive 7.6 earthquake, which while on the 17th floor of my hotel was a little terrifying. This was the second most deadly quake recorded in Taiwan; the first was in 1935. For some reason the momentum of my work activity seemed to decline after that event and it wasn't long before I was returning to Singapore.