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

DA NANG, VIETNAM - As far as I’m concerned, you can’t have too many spa treatments. And Fusion Maia agrees. The resort on a beautiful stretch of oceanfront linking Da Nang with the historic trading town of Hoi An, is offering an innovative concept designed for people addicted to exfoliations, wraps and kneading like me.

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.

WULAI, TAIWAN — Two unsuspecting tourists are coaxed on stage by some lovely local dancers and allow themselves to become part of the show at the Aboriginal Heritage Centre.

HALONG BAY, VIETNAM - Our journey to the land of the “stone dragons” began on a disappointing note one clear autumn morning.