In 2005 I went on an overland journey through Pakistan, China, Tibet and Nepal. We started out in Pakistan.

We started in Islamabad, went along the Karakoram Highway to places like Gilgit and Karimabad. We saw Nanga Parbat. We crossed the Khunjerab pass into China.

And then, on the day of our return from Nepal (three weeks later) we heard that the region we'd passed through had been destroyed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake.

So most of the things you see in these photographs are no longer there. Many of the people probably aren't either. That thought makes me really sad.