The mountainous Northwest of Vietnam is not only dramatically beautiful, with towering peaks and dramatic tumbling rice terraces, it is also home to a plethora of colourful tribal minority groups that have largely retained their traditional ways of life. This a land for trekking and cultural discovery.

A visit to a longhouse is often the highlight of a trip to Sarawak, offering a glimpse into the lifestyle of the various tribes who have for generations lived in the remote interior of Borneo. While there are many areas in Sarawak where longhouses can be visited, Ulu Ai is one of the best.

This tour takes in three of South East Asia's most diverse and fascinating countries. Commencing in Saigon we head into Vietnam's rice bowl and the Mekong Delta. This fascinating area is flat and lush and is quite unlike anywhere else in Vietnam and with it mix of Khmer and Vietnamese people make this a diverse and interesting region to explore.

Thailand's cultural and social roots are firmly set in the countryside, in fact, when Mahatma Gandhi said of his home country "... the real India is in the villages". He could just as easily have been referring to Thailand, a country whose political and cultural birth was in the "million rice fields" of the ancient Lanna Thai Kingdom.