SEEING the White Cliffs of Dover in the early morning sun is one of the best sights in the world, according to a Whitfield man.
    Philip Stucken, 22, of Farncombe Way, has just returned from a round-the-world trip.
    He set off in April 1990 for what he planned as a six to 12 month world tour.
    But it took him 15 months and he had more than his fair share of adventures.
    Philip, a former Dover Grammar School boy, decided to travel the world after studying geography at Nottingham University.
    In India Philip was attacked by a monkey. "I was trying to take a photograph of a baby monkey and its mother didn't like it," he said.
    After visiting the Taj Mahal, he took a bus ride to the Himalayas.
    He trekked up to the base camp of Annapurna, one of the highest mountains in the world, but suffered from altitude sickness at 16,000 feet.
    He took a break on a tropical island in Thailand before visiting Singapore and Java.
    In Australia he worked as a transport supervisor for the Government and spent Christmas Day on Bondi Beach.
    Philip said New Zealand was beautiful and unspoilt. He went mountain trekking and sea hiking - pulling his canoe up onto deserted beaches to cook his food.
    After another week on an Indonesian tropical island, he visited Hong Kong and spent two months in China.
    "In Kashgar, one of tile cities in the world that is furthest from the sea, I had the best fish I had ever tasted," he said.
    One of his most uncomfortable journeys was a three-day ride across a desert in a rickety old bus.
    He spent six days on a train from Peking to Moscow, and discovered that it was used for black market activities with Russian dealers anxious to obtain hard currency.
    While Philip was walking back from a disco in Moscow with one of the black marketeers, his companion was shot with a flare gun.
    He couldn't go to the police because he would have been in trouble anyway, so we had to treat his injuries," said Philip.
    There were many bargains to be had in Budapest, including compact discs for 30p, hardback books for five pence and a 2,000 kilometre train journey for £2. It was on that train journey that another man Philip was with was arrested for trying to smuggle roubles.
    Philip visited his grandparents who live near Frankfurt before catching the ferry from Ostend to Dover.
    "Seeing the White Cliffs in the early morning sunshine was one of the most beautiful things I have seen," he said.
    Back in England after his 15 month absence, Philip was struck by how expensive things are here and that the water tastes "funny".
    "I made a lot of friends and contacts throughout the world, and I have become more tolerant of other cultures," he said.
    "I would recommend anyone to go and do the same. It's very interesting."   
    Now he is sorting through thousands of photographs he took during the trip, thinking about writing a book of his adventures - he has more than 600 pages of diary notes - and hoping to find work.