Journeys East

This vast region encompasses some of the most visited places on the planet, as well as some of the least known. Contrast the gleaming temples of Bangkok with the impenetrable jungles of Borneo; or the remote archipelagos of southern Burma, only recently opened to foreign tourists, with the neon-and-glass skyline of Singapore. Somewhere between these two extremes, however, lies a middle path where travellers find just the exotic world they came in search of, where wondrous Buddhist monuments rise from a backdrop of rice fields and smoking volcanoes, or where dancers dressed in luminous silk and gold perform in front of ancient carved-stone temples.

For a generation of travellers, the three countries of French Indochina – Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – will forever be associated with the wars, civil strife and political repression that only drew to a definitive close in the 1990s. Now, however, this magical part of the world is fast re-defining itself. Drawing on the natural splendours of its jungles, mountains, rivers and idyllic coastlines, as well as the extraordinary monuments of its ancestral past – which include such wonders as Angkor Wat –  Indochina offers unique experiences for visitors looking for a taste of traditional Asia – a world that’s fast disappearing as development gathers pace.