Hi, I'm Etienne Jackson. A long time ago I remember sitting on a flight back from Africa to the UK. I had just been on my first big trip overseas - a six week backpack around Kenya. It changed me forever. On that long flight back I was sitting next to a wonderfully interesting Australian lady who was reminiscing about some of her travels. She showed me her passport and it had a magnificent and imposing Chinese visa stamp in it. Even though I had just been on the trip of a lifetime, I stared at that visa and wished some more, never believing I'd get there. After a sequence of incredible events, less than 3 months later I was standing on Chinese soil with my own magnificent and imposing visa stamped in my passport.
Fast forward to today. I've been very lucky to have travelled around the world several times and visited so many incredible places that I wanted to share the experience. So, a number of years ago I resolved to write a book about it. This book started out as a travel narrative, but changed dramatically into something else entirely. It's related to that flight I took many years ago, whereby you have an inkling that events that seem on the surface to be unrelated still share a strange connection that you can't quite put your finger on.
Well, hopefully you've got enough to be going on. I hope even more that, after reading this, you decide to read the book. I've learnt recently that it's a much better thing to give someone something that has far more use-value than the cash value given in exchange. I sincerely hope that this is true of this book and that you find it useful in your life. Thanks and good luck!
