EAST ASIA & SOUTHEAST ASIA

This huge and varied chunk of the globe, east of Central Asia and north of Australia, is a place where many of the great cultures of the world thrive and mix. In East Asia, you’ll find a wide, intermingling influence of Chinese civilisation, in among Japan’s shrines and bullet trains, Taiwan’s Buddhist monasteries and tea plantations, and mainland China’s Great Wall, folksy hutongs (alleys) and thrillingly vigorous megacities.

Light out for Southeast Asia, and you will encounter a beautiful melange of countries rich with both natural and cultural highlights, including Cambodia’s incomparable Hindu-Buddhist temples of Angkor Wat; Thailand’s hill villages and elephant packs; and Vietnam’s masterfully crafted colonial towns and stepped rice paddies.