Mick Shippen

These days Angkor may be an anthill of tourists, but a visit to Cambodia’s stone-hewn treasure is still an essential travel experience, writes photographer Mick Shippen. As the gateway to Angkor, Siem Reap is Cambodia’s most visited town. Located just eight kilometres from the ancient temples sites, the town has benefited from the massive influx […]

Emerging from five decades of isolation, Myanmar’s recent bold and welcome decision to open its doors to the world heralds a new era for the country, its people, and for cultural travellers. There can be few cities that remain as intriguing and unexplored as Yangon. Known to the British as Rangoon, the city is situated […]

Melbourne is known as Australia’s city of arts, food and culture; and with good reason. It is home to excellent museums, galleries and theatres that attract culture vultures from all over Australia and the Asia-Pacific region eager to open their minds to new visual and aural experiences. With its cosmopolitan population and distinct Greek, Italian […]

Mick Shippen discovers the charm and beauty of Luang Prabang, a once hidden jewel of Southeast Asia and now one of Laos’ most popular destinations. Few countries conjure up such a sense of mystery and intrigue in the traveller’s mind as mountainous landlocked Laos. Regarded as Southeast Asia’s sleepy backwater, for many years Laos’ communist […]

In an article adapted from his book Enchanting Laos, writer/photographer Mick Shippen gets stuck into the local cuisine that has many outside influences and regional delights. It only takes a short time in Laos to realize that the country marches, or in the case of this slumbering backwater, strolls rather casually, on a diet and […]

Laos moves at its own unhurried pace but in the vibrant riverside town of Pakse, the mood is distinctly upbeat. Here, day is broken by a dawn chorus of seductive banter and vigorous bargaining between traders and customers at Talat Dao Heuang, the country’s largest fresh market. In rural Laos, the majority of its 6.3 […]

Mick Shippen takes a stroll through modern day Shanghai and finds traces of a once opulent past as it quickly reshapes its destiny and leads China into the future. Looking up at a muscular bronze statue of Mao Zedong erected opposite the Bank of China, communist flag fluttering on its rooftop, it is immediately apparent […]