Denmark 1993-1999

a new life in europe - but still with a foot in asia

Shifting into Denmark - and shifting out again.

As you might recall from the last tab, during the summer of 1992 my wife and three boys moved to Denmark, while I stayed back in Singapore for a while longer. I worked as a freelance wildlife photographer and writer and had lots of projects going in South-east Asia at the time. I finished up the bird book BIRDS(1993) that I did together with Allen and Aileen Lau at Sun Tree Publishing. 7 February to 16 February 1993 I was in Thailand and accompanied Dr Pilai Poonswad and her team into Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary west of Bangkok near the Burmese border, more about that fantastic trip below. As I arrived back in Bangkok from the field, I wrote in my notebook for 15 February: ‘Incredible trip, only cost 478!’ That is SGD, Pilai generously covered most of the travel costs; in return I helped her get decent photographs of the elusive Rufous-necked Hornbill at nest and other forest birds for her reports and presentations.

30 March 1993 my time in Singapore was up, I boarded a plane for Århus, Denmark and arrived the next day, the last day of March, and early spring in Europe. The rest of that year I spent mainly settling into the house I had bought in Milepælen, a development of 15 houses in a cluster some 15 km north of town. I bought the house in 1992 without having seen it, my X wanted to live there and for once she was actually right, it turned out to be a good place to bring up a family. I rented an office space in Århus town and enjoyed riding my bicycle 2x15 km to work every day; I would go as fast as I could on my 10-speed, it was a great way to clear your mind and drain the excess sugar out of the bloodstream.

I marketed my photos and article on a freelance basis, and the next year I got the opportunity to travel back to Indonesia sponsored by ICBP (International Council for Bird Preservation, later BirdLife International); the organisation wanted photographs of endemic birds from the island of Halmahera for a conservation campaign. I travelled to Singapore 9 February 1994, from there to Bogor, Java and then on to Balikpapan (Borneo), Manado (Sulawesi), Ternate and then by boat from there to Halmahera. On the way back I caught up with friends and clients in Singapore and I was only back in Denmark 16 March 1994.

Later that year, BirdLife International was formed and I got the opportunity to work for a while for the Danish partner organization, the Danish Ornithological Society, DOF/BirdLife. I was the society’s first International Officer. I started in August and attended the inaugural World Conference in Rosenheim, Bavaria, southern Germany. I drove down there in my old Mercedes, so that the Danish delegation would have wheels during the event, to go from hotel to venue and such. I picked up two of my new colleagues, Knud Flensted and Michael Grell, on the way, and we covered the 1,230 km on 11 August 1994, returning together a week later 19 August, a hell-of-a-drive on the German autobahns. It would be my one and only major international conference; unlike many in the nature conservation movement I never got to enjoy these giant gabfests. They serve a purpose I suppose; it is just not me.

Remember, I lived in Århus, Jutland and the DOF office was in central Copenhagen, Zealand some 300 km away, the commenting time in those days was about 4 hours each way by ferry and train, so I just worked Mon-Wed some long days and evenings at the office and the rest of the time I was home with my three small children and my freelance assignments. I moved my own office and store room into some rented space near my home, just a few minutes away by bicycle. It was a pretty hectic time for me, and to complicate matters further I busted my Achilles tendon 12 January 1995. I had to have it glued back the next day, the only time I have been operated on, or been to a hospital period. Since I couldn’t commute to Copenhagen very well on crutches, I was four weeks on sick leave, but I didn’t waste that time entirely. While confined at home I wrote Culture Shock Denmark (Times Editions, 1996), a fun little project that ended up making me a lot of money!

However, the DOF/BirdLife work didn’t (… make me a lot of money). The commuting to and fro Copenhagen, being away from home took its told. My kids needed Daddy’s attention, my wife’s business was doing poorly at the time and she was sinking into debt. Maybe also, NGO work just isn’t me, I don’t know, maybe I do better in the private sector. I lasted at DOF until end of April 1996, and then we parted ways. I had a meeting with my wife’s bank and cleared her debt. Then I started helping her in her business and drove all across the country as her sales representative. I had become a salesman of women’s fashion wear! My neighbors in Milepælen, Skødstrup made fun of me: “Morten”, they would say, “Tell us about the direct career path to become a dress salesman!” They were all ‘normal’ people; one was a doctor, another an IT technician, another worked as an economist for the municipality, you know: regular professionals!

My X had many faults, but she was a pretty good clothes designer and had an excellent team in Indonesia to help her, see my ‘Bali’ tab for details. Her clothes were easy to sell and I drove across the country from east to west and north to south and secured some big orders from major shops all over Denmark: in Esbjerg, Ålborg, Viborg, Holsterbro and of course the mail prize: The capital, Copenhagen. I would polish up the Merc and drive across and show my samples to the buyers (always women …) and try to get them to sign on the dotted line, they often did! By participating in international fashion fairs, we secured customers in Norway and Germany as well. I never drew a salary from my X’s company, I paid for my own travel expenses and on top of that I actually helped provide working capital for the production. At the time, I felt my X’s efforts were the best way for us as a family to secure a financially sound future, apart from my investment returns and meager bird photo income.

Next we had to go to Bali to process all the orders and get them delivered on time. Monday 9 December 1996 I arrived back from London where I had spent the weekend as a guest speaker addressing the AGM of the Oriental Bird Club about birds in South-east Asia. Then 12 December my X, I and the three kids left for Singapore and Bali on a grand tour that lasted over Christmas and New Year; we arrived back in the cold only 20 January 1997. The twins (8 years, Adam turned 5 while in Bali) were allowed some time out of school and just studied a bit while we stayed in Indonesia, Danish schools are quite good that way.

Later in 1997, after we got back from Bali, my X’s business started doing better, as the revenue from the orders I secured in 1996 started flowing in. My X had money to hire a ‘real’ sales agent, she bought a van to make sales trips and opened a shop in downtown Århus to retail her line of clothes as well. My X didn’t really need me any longer. I concentrated on my freelance work: I promoted my Culture Shock Denmark book with guest lectures and interviews, I continued travelling to Asia and the UK to improve me bird material and network, I wrote two more of my bird books which came out in 1998.

In October 1997 I took one of my sons, Daniel (he was 9 then), on a trip to Los Angeles, CA, USA to see the movie studies; Daniel had a strong interest in movies and English language media culture at the time, in fact he still has! When Daniel and I came back, my X had bought a dog, Simon wanted one. I DID NOT want a dog in the house. I didn’t have the time, nor the interest, we couldn’t afford it either, my X’s economic situation was still precarious. And another thing, I also hated pointless TV console games. Home computers, the Internet, mobile phones were catching on at the time, I saw some merit in that and the twin both had computers, but I did not want idiotic, endless Mario Brothers nonsense for the kids on TV. My X bought this s*** one day anyway, while I was not in. I came home one day and the kids were so happy: “Look, Dad, what Mummy gave us”, they sat there jerking on some stupid joystick in front of the TV, instead of being outside kicking a ball around. What could I say?

One evening my X and I had a big argument; I kicked the poor dog down the stairs when he was chewing up the house and realized that this wasn’t working. That night I cycled up to our office nearby and slept on the floor. I never moved back. The next day I called up my wife on the phone and asked if she wanted to try again, but she said: “You don’t have to come back”. I am not really an emotionally person but that night I couldn’t sleep. I knew I wouldn’t be there to see my kids grow up.

So I stayed in the office cum store room every night from then on, there was a small bathroom at the back where I could wash up. I would get up early and bring the boys to school; then I would pick them up at the daycare centre later and make dinner for them at night at our Skødstrup house, play with them outside, help them with homework and such. But at night when my X came home from work I would cycle back to the storeroom; I lived like that for the next two years.

During those years I saw my Dad a few times every year, he would drive down from Norway to Denmark each summer and see my sister and me and visit old friends from his early life in the old country. See the ‘My father’ tab for details about my Dad. During Easter vacation 1998, I packed up all three boys and flew from Århus up to Stavanger in Norway for a trip up to see the Old Man and his wife Ingrid and my other family there. I took the boys out to see Preikestolen along Lysefjorden not too far from my Dad’s place; my brother-in-law Tommy drove us out to the trail-head with his son Martin, Daniel stayed at home with my Dad and Ingrid. Sometimes Daniel and Adam were fighting a bit in those days and I didn’t want any pushing or shoving going on at this place: If you look at the photos below you will know what I mean! On the Wikipedia photo, Preikestolen is full of people; on that cold and wet day in early April we were the only ones there.

Adam was only 6 and I had to carry him on my shoulders for part of the two-hour hike to the cliff. So going back it was Tommy and Martin in front, Simon (10) in the middle and then me and Adam, a bit slow, at the rear. Almost back at the road I caught up with Tommy and Martin and asked: “Where is Simon”? Simon had left the trail! Now I know what the sensation of ‘cold sweat’ feels like! Tommy took care of the kids and I ran back to look for Simon. He was behind us: He had left the main path, following a false trail north into the Norwegian wilderness; but he had the good sense to turn back when he realized he was going in the wrong direction and the trail petered out: Well done, Simon!

During that visit, my Dad and I sat up one night and had a long chat. It was a bit hard for me to tell him that my marriage was in reality over. But my Dad took it well, maybe he wasn’t so surprised; my X and I never had that much in common really. One evening when we were all watching the news, there was a short announcement that Tammy Wynette had died; it was 6 April 1998, she was only 55 years old. No one else in the room paid any attention to that, but it was a shock to me; I had all her records and saw her perform live 20 years prior.

That year was a busy-busy one for me. 8-22 January 1998 I did a quick trip to Singapore to catch up with friends and clients, I had two bird books come out that year, and during that visit, 14 Jan 1998, I signed an important contract for two more bird birds, see below for details of all this. Then I did the April trip up to see my Dad, and 21 May to 18 June I had a long trip to Thailand, working with Pilai Poonswad again to photograph hornbills both in the South and later at Khao Yai National Park. In between those two stops I flew up to Chiang Mai briefly 2-6 June 1998 and drove a rented car up to Doi Inthanon to photograph montane Indo-Chinese species, so I greatly improved my general coverage of South-east Asian birds during that field trip. I spent the summer with the kids doing short drives around Denmark and taking care of them while my X worked. I started Adam in school, Primary 1, that August. I knew my marriage wouldn’t last, but he didn’t, and I just tried to give him the best attention and care I possibly could while it was possible. I had a short trip to London and Rutland, England 21-25 August 1998 to attend the Rutland Bird Fair to network with nature friends and publishing clients. Otherwise my big project for that year was a 60 day trip throughout eastern Indonesia to improve my coverage of Indonesian birds, more about that below. Including stopovers in Singapore, I was gone from 14 October to 18 December 1998.

It was becoming increasingly clear to me that I didn’t have much of a future in Denmark. I never really planned it that way, that was just how it turned out for me. My marriage existed in name only, my work was all somewhere else. In March 1999 I did a quick trip out to Singapore again to meet with Periplus Editions and Nature's Niche about projects, more about that later in the 1999-2013 tab.

15 April 1999 my mother turned 70 and had a big party for all her former colleagues, friends and family at some function rooms in Tivoli Friheden in Århus. My X and I were friendly enough at the time and we both attended, but we arrived and departed from the party separately, the whole situation was a bit odd. Later that summer we had a formal separation: I signed every bit of asset over to my X, since she had the kids to take care of, except the house in Skødstrup which I had paid for in full; I let her have half but maintained 1/2 ownership of that major asset. Later in 2001 when she sold the place I was supposed to get half the revenue, but my X kept the money and I never saw a cent. In reality I never took a knife or a fork or anything else out of that shared home, only some of my clothes and my ‘Own Works’ collection of books I had contributed to. My X got to keep the kids and 140 m² of house, full of furniture and machines and STUFF.

I felt I owed Simon (now 11) a trip abroad, just the two of us, like the one I gave Daniel in Oct 1998. So when I got invited to The Pacific Northwest Danish Cultural Conference in Oregon, USA in July 1999 I took Simon across with me. After the conference, we drove out to Yellowstone National Park and camped and looked for the animals there, you can check below for some details. But that summer, my time in Denmark was drawing to a close. I had agreed with Ng Bee Choo (now Bee Choo Strange) in Singapore to join her company, Nature’s Niche Pte Ltd, as Marketing Manager. I figured that if I could sell oil field services, bird photographs, articles and even women’s fashion, I surely could sell nature books and gift items!? I applied for and obtained a 1-year Employment Pass in Singapore, sponsored by Nature’s Niche.

I hung around Skødstrup long enough to start Adam in Primary 2. It was difficult to say goodbye to him. The twins (11) had each other, but Adam was still young; he was 7, a happy kid, bright and strong and active. “Dad, I hope you get fired soon from that job in Singapore and come home”, Adam would say. But I never did, I am still here, in Singapore, the 1-year contract turned into 20+ years and still counting.

My X on the other hand was happy to see me go. She was in total control now, the way she liked it. “As a single mother I can get much more money from the State than you ever gave me”, she would say. Sunday 22 August 1999, my X drove me to the train station and saw me off, I took the train to Copenhagen and the Aeroflot SU 557 flight to Singapore arriving 23 August 1999 18:00 Hrs. What my friend Iain Ewing would later call my ‘second life’ had begun.

a new life in skoedstrup. jutland, denmark

In April 1993 I settled into the new house in Skoedstrup near Aarhus, Denmark. I took some picture of the kids, and one of them took this portrait of me in return.

The house I bought was in a so-called Andelsbolig, i.e. a 'shared community' some 15 km north of the city of Aarhus. 15 houses were built in a cluster on a big spread of land. The land and the common facilities were financed together and shared among the proprietors, but each homeowner was responsible for his or her own unit.

The design was a bit funny, there were three different levels including the two bedrooms you can see below the steps in the half-basement. Daniel and Adam are shielding their eyes from the bright, low Nordic sun.

This is the same view of the back of the house, a bit more from the east. The small garden was mainly covered in tiles, which suited me fine, as I am not much of a gardener!

There were no roads immediately around the houses, and as such no vehicular traffic; it was a very safe environment for small kids, so ideal for us as a family. You walked from your front door straight into a playground and ball park.

The units were partially built together like terrace houses, this is the front of our place; Simon is standing guard. Notice my beloved 10-speed bicycle at the wall, I went everywhere on that one, even to the supermarket for groceries and into the city of Aarhus 15 km to the south!

some danish results

The year I arrived in Denmark, a journalist from the local tabloid newspaper, Aarhus Onsdag, came to interview me at my office in town. This is the front cover of the 11 November 1993 issue. You know ... such an interesting life story!??

The headline is 'Oil-adventure made him bird-photographer' and I had to tell my gripping life story one more time. Behind me on the wall are the three poster I did for Juring BirdPark on Singapore birds, see the previous tab for details.

The hornbill order of birds has always been of special significance to us: This is the 7/1994 issue of Naturens Verden, the Danish language magazine I worked with back then. Pages 250 and 251. The headline says: 'New knowledge about the Asian hornbills'.

Pages 252 and 253 in that feature, with photographs from my trip with Dr Pilai Poonswad and her team into Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand.

And pages 254 and 255 with the Rhinoceros Hornbill from Malaysia.

And finally page 256 of the 1994 Naturens Verden feaure, with a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills from Singapore. Bizarrely, although I have been all over Java and Bali and Sumatra and Kalimantan, where it is supposed to occur, I have never seen this species in Indonesia!?

my favorite danish get-away: The west coast of Jutland

In the previous 'Aarhus 1961-73' tab, I have a big section on my work photographing birds as a teenager. One of my favorite places then was Agger Tange at the west coast of Jutland, and it was great to be back in the 1990s as a 40+ year-old! here I sit above the beach near my mother's place.

My mother bought this old bungalow in 1973 for DKK50K. We sold it the year she died, 2012, for DKK380K, DKK320K after renovations and expenses. Only USD50K for a 1 1./2-storey fully equipped house on freehold land! Here Adam, Daniel and Simon during one of our many visits.

In the 1990s I made use of the house a lot, just me and the boys and sometimes my mother, here I am picking raspberries in the back garden. The place was only two hours' drive from where we lived on the east coast and a good way to get away from my X for a while, she was becoming more and more of a control-freak.

You cross Limfjorden on a car ferry and get to Agger Tange just north of my mother's house. Compared to the 1960s/70s, the marshes had become drier and more overgrown, but it was still a grand place with wide-open spaces, the closest thing you can get to a tundra in little Denmark!

A brackish lagune provided habitat for ducks and rails and greebes and such. Nowadays access is prohibited during the bird breeding season 1 April to 15 July, in the 'old days' we didn't have to worry about that kind of stuff! .

Talk about 'the old days': I took this photo at Agger Tange 25 May 1969, I was 16 years old! It was used the next year in 1970 in the DOFT, the DOF/BirdLife journal, to illustrated a feature on the Kentish Plover, which is a rare resident in Denmark, the northerly limit of its distribution.

cormorants galore

When I grew up in Aarhus, Denmark in the 1960s, I had a birding body, Jens Gregersen, so when I settled back in the 1990s I looked him up. Jens was now an accomplished wildlife artist, and he was also in charge of a wildlife sanctuary some 40 km south of town, Vorsø. I took Daniel and Simon (both 7) down to see him, and here Jens arrives in his tractor from the island.

There is no bridge across to the island of Vorsoe, but at low tide you can walk - or like us get pulled by Jens! The kids thought this was cool; Simon said to Daniel: "Wow, just like Jurassic Park!!!". Spielberg's 1993 movie had just come and there was some similarity: Visiting the eccentric scientist living alone on a remote island surrounded by wild creatures.

This is Jens at his house on Vorsoe; he lived alone on the island at the time, but I understand he was later married and his wife joined him. His job was to monitor the environment, maintain the house - and kill any rats he saw! Otherwise the 62 ha island would be left completely on its own. Apart from the occasional journalist or school group visiting, the island was off limits to visitors.

The island was home to a huge breeding colony of Great Cormorant. In Denmark, the fishing community doesn't like the cormorants, but on Vorsoe they have a safe haven; Jens shows us around the colony.

This was June 1995 and late breeding season. Jens had built a few elevated hides from where you could view the colony; notice that many trees had died due to exposure to the acidic guano from the hundreds of cormorants.

I brought my big lens and took a few pictures of the cormorants as they would fly into the colony from Horsens Fjord with food or fresh nesting material. Many other birds and animals live in the Vorsoe nature reserve of course, today the White-tailed Sea-eagle has settled there as well, so I understand.

a brief career in the ngo business

In 1994 I took up a job with Dansk Ornitologisk Forening, DOF/BirdLife, i.e. the Danish ornithological society. I have been a member since I was a kid; the society has about 12K members and needed an International Officer to carry their international work forward. The office is in this old red building in central Copenhagen, the society occupies all four floors

In fact, when I later did Culture Shock Denmark (1996), I used this photo as an example of how little has changed in down-town Copenhagen, the city still has much of its old-world buildings and atmosphere intact.

At DOF, I had the privilege to work with many capable and passionate members of the international nature conservation community, such as Dr Lorenz Ferdinand (1921-2001) who was President of DOF from 1971 to 1988. Lorenz visited me while I lived in Singapore and supported me greatly later while I worked at DOF; we need more people like him!

This is my office at DOF/BirdLife; computers were gaining ground at the time, but we still had tons of paper to shuffle around! Knud Flensted was DOF's domestic conservation officer and worked opposite me, he took this photo with my camera.

NGOs - Non-Governmental Organisations - love big conferences! My first job for DOF/BirdLife was to attend the inaugural BirdLife International World Congress in Rosenheim, Germany, 14-19 August 1994, together with four of my new colleagues. I took this photo and later used it on page 15 in the book I edited for DOF: Fuglene kender ikke graenser (DOF/BirdLife, 1996).

Hey, what do you know: In Rosenheim I ran into an old friend from Singapore, my bird race body Lim Kim Keang from Nature Society (Singapore) who was also there. We had this picture taken during a break from the conference in the nearby German Alps, lifted here from Nature Watch, April-June 1997 issue.

Culture shock! denmark

As I mention in the introduction summary above, I broke my Achilles tendon in January 1995, shortly after starting that job for DOF/BirdLife. It was tough to commute on crutches by public transport every week back and forth on the icy winter roads, so I got four weeks sick leave until my leg recovered and the cast could be removed. I useed that month to write this book.

I had met Managing Editor with Times Editions in Singapore, Shova Loh, previously. She said they were doing a series of Culture Shock! books and the series was doing well; since I was moving to Denmark, would I like to write about that country? I agreed, and when I got the time I put the book together. It came out in 1996, the cover above if from the 2003 3rd expanded edition. This is the review i

This is a review from another Danish daily, Berlingske Tidende. I had finished my work at DOF/BirdLife by then and saw some potential for the book. The book came out on Times Editions in Asia, Graphic Arts in the US and Kuperard in the UK and Europe. I struck a deal with the Danish agent for Kuperard and promoted the book in Denmark for 10% of the sales, I also got 10% of the net sales as author f

I sent review copies to the Danish media, and the book was easy to sell. It was picked up by all the major newspapers and even featured on TV. This is Aarhus Stiftstidende 9 July 1996 issue. I also got the book placed at the major book shops in Copenhagen and Kastrup Airport.

I even got a review in the Danish language paper catering to the Danish-speaking minority in northern Germany, Flensborg Avis, 8 July 1996. Even if your Danish is not that strong, you might have noticed that three papers use exactly the same headline for the review: "Danes are like a ketchup-bottle". Otherwise the content in each article is different - I cannot explain that!?

Marshall Cavendish bought out Times Editions but continued to support the book, in the later editions I updated with this photo of all my four sons. Correction: Mark is no longer a citizen of two countries! Singapore does not allow dual citizenship, so when he turned 18 in 2020 he handed in his Danish passport - no great loss!

showing daniel the hollywood movie studios, CA, USA

While living in Denmark, I took care of my three boys a lot; you can read more about that in the 'My kids' tab. I don't think that life is a spectator's sport, I believe you should go out there and participate. When Daniel showed an interest in English-language culture and entertainment, I said: "Let's go ... I will take you to Hollywood and show you how they make this stuff."

Daniel had a term break in October 1997 and the two of us flew to Los Angeles. I rented a nippy Chrysler convertible 3.0 and drove out to find a motel along Ventura Boulevard near the studios. This is the view of the city from nearby Beverly Hills.

I sent this postcard to my mother dated 10 October 1997. It says I have been working hard to find movie locations for Daniel. Every morning I would collect what they called a 'shoot sheet' (cost: US$10!) covering major TV and movie work on site in the city. Two shootings we came across by just driving around the place; I know every corner of LA now, the card says.

Daniel wrote this card to his grandmother and I mailed it for him. It says that he has been to Universal Studios and Hollywood Boulevard where the celebrities put in their signatures.

And here is Daniel (9) in Steven Spielberg's footprints. It is Clint Eastwood above. I even found Spielberg's house and drove out there, so we could get a photo of him with Daniel. But you couldn't see the house from the road, and the guy on the intercom told us politely: "That is not possible". No harm in trying though, right?

We toured Warner Brothers and here Paramount studios. No, we did NOT visit Disneyland, this was an educational trip! But we did view a sitcom production and visited Nelson Gidding, an Oscar-nominated Hollywood script-writer that my Singapore publisher friend Eric Oey of Periplus Editions had introduced us to. Nelson lived in Santa Monica and bought us pizza at a nearby restaurant owned by Arnold S

and taking simon across yellowstone np, OR, WA, ID, WY, MT, USA

Having taken Daniel on a tour across California, I felt I owed his twin brother, Simon, a similar trip: Some man-to-man quality time, just the two of us together. Simon liked animals, so when I had to go to the state of Oregon in the US July 1999 I took Simon along. After my appointment, Simon and I drove in our rented car east into Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. This is one of our campsites

In Oregon I visited the Graphic Arts publishing house in Portland, they did the American imprint of my Culture Shock! Denmark (1996) book that was selling well. But my main purpose was to attend the Danish Cultural Conference in a lovely resort in Corbett, OR. I was invited to address the conference of Danish-Americans as a guest-speaker based on my book.

Simon and I stayed as guests at the magnificent Wright Hall, Menucha Retreat and Conference Center courtesy of the very generous organisers of the conference. All I had to do was speak to the participants and socialize with them and sign my book etc. It was pure business and pleasure! At night this little fella would visit the sprawling estate.

Right, I know: You shouldn't feed wild animals, and especially not Northern Racoons that can turn into somewhat of a nuisance around the house. But Simon and I couldn't help ourselves! What a great kid Simon (11) was then, everyone loved him at the event. I made an enlargement of this photo when we got back, you can see it on Simon's wall in the 'My kids' tab!

It is some 800 miles (1,300 km) across Idaho and Montana from Corbett, OR to Yellowstone, WY; but Simon and I covered that in one night! Yes, I drove throughout the night to save time and money while Simon slept on the back seat. When you are 46 you can do things like that. Here we have arrived, and Simon is waiting for the geyser Old Faithful to erupt.

I asked Simon what he wanted to do in Yellowstone, apart from camp. He said: "Find animals". So that is what we did. The American Bison was easy to locate; at Yellowstone, flocks of them come right out to the roads and even sometimes block traffic! Almost driven to extinction, this spectacular Bovid is now the national mammal of the US.

improving my indonesia material in the 1990s

From 15 February to 4 March 1994 I visited Indonesia and spent most of that time on the lovely island of Halmahera in the North Maluku Province. I was contracted by BirdLife International to go and photograph birds there. Most of the endemic species of the Wallacea zoogeographical subregion had never been photographed at the time. Here I walk on a logging road near the cabin where I put up during

BirdLife needed photographs of the unique species on Halmahera for conservation campaigns and for the British Birdwatching Fair in Rutland, which that year supported Halmahera bird conservation. This photo is from a supporting write-up in Birdwatch magazine, June 1994 issue, featuring one of the attractive endemics, notice that BirdLife and I share copyright.

The endemic Blue-and-white Kingfisher from that trip became one of my Indonesian best-sellers and turns up here again in a conservation proposal.

This is from another BirdLife conservation proposal for Halmahera where my Black Sunbird, female, graces the cover.

One of the star birds of Halmahera is the Wallace's Standardwing or Standardwing Bird-of-paradise. When he visited nearby Bacan in the 1860s, Wallace actually never saw this bird, as he was sick at the time; but he described it from skins that his chief hunter brought to him. In 1994, I and a BBC crew were the only ones with pictures of this bird - today it has been photographed to death!

At that time there was no illustrated field guide to the birds in this part of Indonesia, today there are several of course. But this meant that I only had a checklist with no illustrations to go by, when I wanted to find and identify and photograph the endemics. In this feature published in Nature Watch April-June 1995 I describe my trip, page 4.

more work in thailand as well

Remember, in the tab above ('1986-1993'), I report from a trip with Dr Pilai Poonswad and her team of hornbill researchers to Huai Kha Kaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand. At that time, Pilai didn't work in the south of the country and didn't have material on the Sunda hornbills; when she did a desktop calendar for 1994 (year 2537 in the Thai calendar), I had to help her with a photo of t

But later in the 1990s all this changed; the Hornbill Research Foundation started research and conservation projects in the 'deep south' of the country, i.e. the Malay-speaking provinces near the Malaysian border. This postcard to my Mum is dated 22 May 1998, I write her from Bangkok on my way south with Pilai and her team to help the Thais get photographs of the Sunda subregion hornbill species.

In those days with manual focusing cameras and deadly slow film speeds, there were not so many nature photographers around, good equipment and travel was more expensive as well. So I offered to put my limited photo skills at Pilai's disposal, in turn she introduced me to some amazing remote habitat and birds that I couldn't reach on my own. I used this image of Pilai and me for a feature in World

The picture was taken 25 May 1998 inside a hide that Pilai's team had built to study the Helmeted Hornbill at nest. We walked up there through the rainforest, two hours from camp, in the dark so we could settle into the hide before dawn broke and activity started. I used the same old image again 15 years later when I edited Hornbills of the World: A Photographic Guide (Draco Publishing, 2013).

In fact, as far as I know, this is the only photograph of Pilai and me together, although we have met and worked together countless of times. So when I needed a photo of Pilai and me while I was editor of Nature Watch, for a hornbill feature in Volume 17/4 Oct-Dec 2009, this by then 10+-year-old shot came in handy again.

And this is the photo I took that day from the hide, with a 500mm lens and a 2x converter; I used the mirror lock-up feature and cable release to minimise camera shake, Pilai's team didn't know how to do that. Later on, in the 2000s, Pilai started to work with Tim Laman of Nat Geo fame, and he got much better hornbill photos than I ever did. Even then, this particular image has survived well and 2

and eventually back to singapore

Throughout my period in Denmark, 1993-1999, I would keep in contact with my friends in Singapore and Indonesia and Thailand. In January 1996 I was still working for DOF/BirdLife, but I found time to travel out to see friends in Singapore; I was there from 18 Jan to 1 Feb 1996, arriving home just the day before the twins turned eight. I sent this postcard to my mother 24 January 1996.

Reading the card today, it strikes me how enthusiastic I was about the country. I write: 'a quick greeting from this unbelievable place which is just racing ahead' (it was just before the Asian Financial Crisis!). And: 'good thing I made the lay-out stage of Culture Shock, was out there yesterday and the day before... Business and pleasure ... to Fraser's Hill over the weekend ..sun every day and

26 January 1996, the birdwatching community in Singapore throws a party and I am the guest of honour, repaying the favour with a bird slide show. It is the late Clive Briffett on the far left; during visits to Singapore in that period, I would either stay with him, with Uli Bernard or with Aileen Lau (now Tan).

Same occasion, here you see Aileen on the far left. The late Subaraj and his wife are there as well, as are many other distinguished naturalists at the time. I am at the back next to Lim Kim Seng. And don't forget Ng Bee Choo with the bolster in front, some six years later Bee Choo Strange!

Two more of my Asian bird books came out during this period: This one on New Holland (1998). Jo Hemmings was the commissioning editor; we met in the UK during one of my London/Cambridge/Rutland trips, and she encouraged me to produce this one, an A-4 size souvenir-type introduction to SE Asian birds.

It was never my ambition to be the only bird photographer in the region. In fact, since I started in 1986 I constantly encouraged others to produce more and better material as well, and I early on saw myself as a writer, compiler and editor, rather than just a field guy. In this volume I supplement by own photos with images by Ong Kiem Sian, Pete Morris, Frank Lambert, Alan OwYong and others - eve

In 1993 I was a danish resident again, 40 years old