The diverse Lesser Sunda Islands, stretching eastwards from Bali, offer the most amazing landscapes and a glorious cornucopia of weaving for textile lovers.

Discover Thailand through the favourite passion of the Thai's themselves - Thai food. Enjoy a gastronomic tour of the land's finest restaurants, visit Thai markets, farms and kitchens, witness chefs in action, study in Thai cooking schools.

Learn the Indonesian art of batik painting, study traditional Indonesian dance and theatre, learn to make the highly intricate carved masks worn by Lagong dancers and submerge yourself into two of Indonesia's most powerfully independent identities: the Javanese, the 'rulers' of Indonesia, and the gentle, aesthetic Balinese.

Northern Laos especially presents many great trekking opportunities. Not only is the terrain very mountainous and largely swathed in forest, it is also home to a dazzling array of highly colourful minority tribal people who still pursue the traditional slash and burn (swidden) farming methods, unchanged for a thousand years.