A reaction of sheer curiosity is what we have grown accustomed to expect whenever we mention our trip to South America.

Because the place is not visited extensively by regional travellers, we often find ourselves fielding a whole host of questions, ranging from the geographical location of South America to the minute details of individual locales.

Here are some of the questions we often encounter:

Where in South America did you visit?

Argentina and Chile. We started our trip in Buenos Aires, and travelled down the length and breadth of Argentina as far south as Rio Gallegos, which is located on the same latitude as the Falkland Islands. From there we crossed to the Chilean side and made our way slowly up north to one of the main attractions of Chile, the Atacama Desert.

What were some of your particularly memorable experiences?

Driving the largely unpaved Carretera Austral in a Renault Kangoo van. It's a bumpy road connecting some of the remotest parts of Chile in the south. We love the remoteness, the wild landscape and the little towns that dot the route, some little more than an outpost with less than a hundred inhabitants.

Travelling between Salta in Argentina and the Atacama desert in Chile we saw salt lakes for the first time, fantastically coloured altiplano lakes, the world's biggest opencast copper mine at Chuquicamata, flamingos living on earth's driest places and moon-like landscapes. And in this most inhospitable of places we befriended some of the most hospitable inhabitants.

The San Telmo neighbourhood in Buenos Aires has a surprise at every corner. We discovered old world cafes and Milongas (Tango Salons) that seemed to belong in the 1930s. At the open air Sunday markets we not only found amazing varieties of collectibles on display but were also entertained by the buskers and spontaneous tango dancing of the portenõs (Buenos Aires locals).

We spent a magnificent four days on the Navimag ferry, which is a cargo-passenger ship that supplies the inhabitants of remote island communities between Puerto Montt and Puerto Natales. It's a great way to see the rugged and beautiful Chilean coast with its waterfalls and glaciers.

How did you get around without speaking Spanish?

For the fun of it, we took a one week crash course in Spanish when we arrived in Buenos Aires. But of course it wasn't nearly enough. We found the Lonely Planet Phrasebook indispensable for words and phrases that came in extremely handy during the course of our journeys.

Was it safe to travel in South America?

We never felt unsafe at any time. We did meet with some petty thefts in Santiago, Chile but this is not totally unexpected of big cities.

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Ken Sng, 39, has been dabbling in photography since 1992. Having found inspiration through coffee-table books and National Geographic, Ken's approach to photography is about looking 'beyond' the picture. In his own words, capturing that great picture is all about "keen observation, anticipation, planning, discipline and creativity". Getting into that creative frame of mind is especially challenging, since he says that "everyone is a photographer" nowadays - hence finding the picture which has not been done or thought about before is so much harder.

For Ken, travel is about purpose. He candidly describes himself as someone who does not take holidays - "sitting still and relaxing" is something he finds hard to do. His ideal trip would be at least six months long, with his own transport, camping out, combining photography and writing, and with a theme or objective - like retracing some famous journey.

He hopes to visit Cuba and North Korea someday, before they become like the rest of the world. Visit www.shortakes.com to see more of Ken's photography.