Southeast Asia From Above: My Drone Adventures Before Drones Were Everywhere
- Alex Borghi
- Aug 9
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 11
By Alex Borghi
Long before drones became a normal part of travel photography, I was already carrying one with me through Southeast Asia.
Going through an old hard drive recently, I discovered footage I hadn't seen in years. Suddenly I was back in Bangkok, Cambodia, Bali and Indonesia, looking at these places from the sky at a time when seeing a drone in the air was still something unusual.
I flew over some extraordinary places: Bangkok's Golden Mountain, Lumphini Park, Victory Monument and the Grand Palace; the White Temple in Chiang Rai; temples in Roi Et; the Royal Palace in Cambodia; Tanah Lot in Bali; and Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta.
And then there was Mount Bromo in Indonesia. I didn't just fly around the volcano — I flew the drone inside the volcano, capturing a perspective and an experience that I will never forget.
Some of those flights also came with stories I will never forget. I was even arrested on two different occasions while traveling with and flying my drone — once in Thailand and once in Cambodia. Those experiences deserve stories of their own.
Looking at the footage today is like opening a time capsule. Southeast Asia has changed, drone technology has changed, and the rules surrounding where you can fly have changed enormously. But the landscapes, temples, cities and memories captured in those files are still there.
I'm now restoring and re-editing this old footage with modern technology while keeping the character of the original images. Over the coming weeks, I'll be sharing some of these flights and the stories behind them. Footage coming soon.
This isn't stock footage of places I've never been. I was there. I flew these routes. And more than a decade later, I'm seeing some of these images again for the first time.
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