INN PAW KHON, MYANMAR - The boatman frowned at my instructions. “Inn Paw Khone,” I told him, naming a village built on stilts toward the far end of Inle Lake, in central Myanmar.

SAPA, VIETNAM - All I knew was that the cable car was now running. I did not plan to take it, let alone imagine that it might prove the highlight of my trip. My guidebook scorned the venture, saying it would relay more people in an hour to the top of Vietnam’s highest point, Mount Fansipan, than the number of climbers who summit it in an entire year. With the cable car, the guidebook said, “the appeal of standing alone on a remote peak” would no longer be an option.

HANOI - They walk with poise and grace through the city streets. Some guide heavily loaded bicycles, others balance wares at either end of a bamboo pole. They are the urban street vendors of Vietnam, mostly rural women who rarely see their families, selling everything from pineapple and bok choy, to teacups and plastic brooms.