I finished my PhD in optical engineering in May of 2008 and decided to take some time off to travel. I bought a one way ticket to Kathmandu and in September I headed off to Asia. After spending almost two months trekking in the Himalaya of Nepal I flew to Bangkok and travelled through Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and Singapore before visiting China, Japan and Korea. My journey ended in May 2009 and I came back to England with many wonderful memories and the desire to do it all again one day.