BANGKOK - The steel- hulled long-tail boat slams violently against some unusually high waves churned up in the Chao Phraya River by a far-off typhoon. I brace myself as the captain signals he’s about to veer hard left and abandon our original course. He aims his arrow-straight boat at a small canal leading off the river and soon we are floating on calmer waters.

HUAY NAM RIN, THAILAND - The morning sun glows red through the trees. The mountains they call the Golden Triangle — where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet — frame the scene from our balcony in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

HUA HIN, THAILAND - They see me before I see them. The first one I notice, as I climb the scores of steep steps, is staring straight at me. Gradually, I become aware that I’m the target of many more eyes.

BANGKOK - When I arrive in Asia, the contents of my luggage includes six pairs of high-heels, two kilograms of jewelry and hundreds of dollars in hair products.

BANGKOK - I follow Etienne de Villiers through the flower-filled lobby of the legendary Mandarin Oriental Bangkok — the most welcoming entrance in the industry — and up a staircase to the property’s mezzanine.

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND - Bangkok might get all the publicity, but Chiang Mai is the place you’re more likely not to forget when visiting this ancient land.

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.