BANGKOK - The flower ladies sit in the stifling heat of a Bangkok morning delicately threading the petals of exotic orchids and jasmine flowers onto strings.

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND - The rumbling of some loose boards over a makeshift moat trumpeted our taxi’s arrival at the entrance of a regal-looking compound guarded by a large gate, a stone wall and a watch tower.

JAMES BOND ISLAND, THAILAND - The middle-aged couple hurried past the hawker selling island excursion tours in the lobby of Phuket’s Sheraton Laguna hotel, hoping the chap wouldn’t bother them with his sales pitch.

AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND - This is one of Thailand’s poorest communities but it’s filled with some of the country’s richest treasures.

SAPA, VIETNAM - The gentle swaying of the Victoria Express rail car awakens me in the early hours of the morning – when the darkness of night begins to give way to the beginning of day. Billowing black mountains silhouetted against a moonlit sky reveal themselves when I peer through the car’s picture window as the train cuts through Vietnam’s dense jungle en route to this northern outpost, renowned for its dramatic mountain landscape and tribal hill people. It’s not yet 5 a.m. but already me...

HANOI - It was just past 7 a.m. but already the streets of Hanoi’s Old Quarter were clogged with thousands of noisy little motor scooters, the transportation of choice for the six million citizens of this lovely capital, also known as the City of Lakes.

BANGKOK - While we wait for our lessons to begin at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok Hotel’s world renowned Thai Cooking School, members of the class introduce themselves to each other.

CU CHI, VIETNAM - It’s not hard to pick out the tourists brave enough to have crawled through one of the narrow tunnels that were used so successfully by Viet Cong guerilla fighters in the Vietnam War.

JIOUFEN, TAIWAN – A famous painter lives in this old mining town that clings to a mountainside. He took a different road to artistic fame. Hsi-hsun Chiu is not just famous for what he paints but what he paints with — hot asphalt.

KINMAN ISLAND, TAIWAN - For more than 60 years, it rained bombs on this tiny island.