November mornings can be magical in India. Mist shrouds waterways giving everything a deep and moody calm. The Taj Mahal is just opening its doors to visitors and there is still a quiet about the place. You can just sit and look at this amazing structure as its spirit talks to you. The Taj is a romantic gesture by Shah Jahan to the memory of his wife. It is made entirely of white marble with inlaid semi-precious stones.

Security at the Taj is now very strict which includes the river and its banks. By chance we found our way to this boat and its brother duo.

Datia Palace, also known as Bir Singh Palace is situated nearly 75 km from Gwalior City in Madhya Pradesh. It is a full 7 floors high! This palace was also built by Bir Singh Deo as was the Jahangir Mahal in Orchha and also like that palace, this one too has had only one night slept in it by its owner since becoming a reality the early 1600s.

This Palace was reputedly made by spending 35 Lakh Rupees (78 thousand US dollars) and it took nine years to build it. It is situated on an isolated rock on the western side of the city Datia.

The night before the official start of Thadingyut Light Festival gets the ball rolling with thousands of visitors that quickly swells to many thousands. Even then, it never loses its sense of calm and friendliness.

Trying to capture the immense gold stupa of Shwedagon in a single shot is near impossible. The legend of Myanmar's most famous stupa is that it is 2500 years old. The top "umbrella" is gold and loaded with 5448 diamonds and 2317 Rubies. The oval "bud" at the top is also solid gold and encrusted with donated jewellery, rings and it is topped with a huge 78 carat diamond. The seemingly tiny "flag" at the top is also ornately decorated. The stupa's "bell" is made of brick, but gilded in thick plates of solid gold.

Night falls on Ubein Bridge just outside of Mandalay. Iridescent evening light.

Travelling a whole day in a speeding longboat along the snaking, thin ribbon of water known as the Irrawaddy River might not sound too comfortable? Less so when you think this has only recently been opened to foreign travel. Even less when you hear this is deep into Opium territory, a highly protected, quiet place. We arrive on our first night in the south lake late in the day and climb the steps to yet another mass of stupas and a gold Buddha. The very next morning we have lunch with a "Forest Monk", as they are known. We eat through breakfast, then lunch all the while drinking strong coffee and discussing his past military career, the opium trade, politics and the school he is attempting to create.

Year 2000. We arrive at Wat Pho on a steamy morning. Dramatic skies were brewing with massive cumulus clouds infiltrating Bangkok’s skyline. It was definitely going to rain like a bastard! This is one of Thailand’s most important Buddhist temples. As with many of the world’s oldest cultural icons, Wat Pho had statues that took on the most human of qualities. Gold is everywhere and the skill and craftsmanship is unparalleled. We had a Thai massage that day on the Wat grounds while the streets flooded with the downpour that afternoon.

We travelled across the Indonesian island of Java to stay close to the world’s largest Buddhist temple, Borobudur. Borobudur was constructed in the 9th century and was abandoned as the Hindu religion came into play in Indonesia. It was buried by volcanic ash and hidden for close to 1000 years until, it has been said, a farmer struck his plow on the tip of the temple. In 1814, after hearing of this discovery, Sir Thomas Raffles whom ruled Java at the time, initiated the digging of the site to reveal a huge complex. 4:30 in the morning we climbed a local hill by flashlight to await the moment the sun came up behind the monument.

An old tri-shaw takes a rest against the blue wall of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang, Malaysia

From the flanks of Mehranghar Fort you can look across the great and most colourful city of Jodhpur. This luscious sea blue colour comes from the Brahmin priest caste that lived there, but is now incorporated by most that reside there. It is an unforgettable punctuation of colour in an otherwise camel coloured expanse of the Thar Desert. Mehranghar Fort is a massive 15th Century complex perched on the top of a hill overlooking the town and was one of our favourite places to spend a day.

In the very centre of the teardrop-shaped island country of Sri Lanka is the perfectly named city of Kandy. It exists with the exotically rugged mountains that surround place names like World’s End, Lipton Hill and Horton’s Plain. We jump on a slow moving train that climbs from our departure of Bandarawela a place that encompasses old British pastimes of tea, hunting and colonialism. It clanks and rumbles through neatly trimmed tea rows and history plantations. The views are so spectacular that you sit at the edge of your wooden seat shared with locals and monks alike. This train ride should be a World Heritage Site, but it is maintained as a coal driven link from the past to the present for many who ride it.

I stand on the bumper of our Land Rover to get a better view. In our 5 day trip through the Western Desert of Egypt, I am learning how to drive on sand by our driver Kaled. We sleep on the sand or in old and dusty colonial era hotels: the feature of any of the small oasis towns freckled across our path. This may be the most adventure lone travellers can have? On the way, we find food and spend time with Bedouin, come face to face with 5000 year old mummified priests and explore 4AD cemeteries like Bagawat.

Viewing the 16th century Sri Virupaksha Temple from the top of Hemakutta Hill in Hampi is one of the great moments in life. Hampi seems made by giants and then by men. Huge rounded boulders are strewn across the hilly land. Rocks are piled high in places offering holes, caves and points in which Sadhus still make their meditation spots: sometimes for years. This is now a tourist destination and a backpacker hang out with a breezy relaxed pace. By making friends with the custodian of the temple, we were able to join him around midnight, and with flashlights in hand we unlocked a gate and climbed the tight steps to the very top to sit and watch the stars move across the sky.

Temple ruins in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. Southern Group.

Shwezigon Pagoda on one of the Thadingyut Light Festival evenings. The calm of candles and prayers continuously interrupted by fireworks being launched from the outstretched arms of men and boys. Handfuls of fire crackers thrown to the air. Oblivious monks pray.

A total of 1054 Stupas packed into a tight enclosure date from the 17th and 18th centuries. Well worth the long boat trip here. A warning to those that venture these distances - this is a confining place. Along a very thin ribbon of water you see lush green hills, but just beyond are the no-man’s land of the opium trade. This is a there and back again location. We had arranged a room overnight in the only hotel at the very tail of the river. Later that night our boat Captain pulled us into the night to join a local festival to the monks that involved the village in a tug-of-war contest. Our faces were met with surprise and then joy while we joined in the struggle.

To say you have seen Angkor is a mistake. Seeing Angkor Wat means that you saw a fraction of Angkor city. The city itself was once the largest and most futuristic in the world with over a million citizens at one time. It is 200 square kilometres with 74 accessible sites. Just try and see all of them. We spent 7 days trying hitting the very best preserved sites, but also hiking out to some that felt like we were the explorers. As the evening draws near, bussed in visitors start to think of their next meal and a mass exodus takes place, some on the backs of elephants. Best visit at 5:30am and again around 4:30pm as the sun sets to feel the power of the place.

There are rivers in the world that you know are the birthplace of religion, politics and history of man, but it is the Nile that encompasses all of these. Egypt, as I came to learn is the location of great religions, side by side, from the same seed. 3 days in a feluka on our way North, found us coming short of our target by a day. The winds were low and even the perfectly designed boats flapped their sails like a bird looking to take off. Our Captain Ziggy cared little. We had purchased an entire cooler of beer, enough for a football team and we had our Reggae tapes. His second make liked my headlamp, so I gave it to him to keep. The four of us gained a quick friendship in that time.

Karnak is Egypt’s largest temple. It is now stripped of its ancient colours, but still amazes. It was built in pieces over 1500 years of pharaohs and was in its glory from 1550 - 1069bc. Yep, that’s b.c.! Egypt to me was scents: fusty smells of millions of visitors lining inside the great Giza pyramids, millennia’s of dust and sand heated under sun, 5000 year old mummified remains with bandages torn by animal and wind. It was a blanket of tope littered with aspirational colour. It represents a continuous cycle of history being found and lost. No place feels like time travel as this place.

If there is a “very best way” to see your first glimpse of Asia, it is with the tactile, sensory overload of Bali, Indonesia. Early morning walks along the paddy walls with the fragrant smell of smoke and the sound of children playing is arresting. Time passes you by sometimes slowly, other times as if it is blinked away. This is a spiritual place. Everything is more vibrant and life feels more vital. Love permeates everything and is there to discover when you decide to leave modernity to those that know how to use it. These were my feelings 20 years ago and time has passed for both of us. We have both had to get with the times, yet the spirit of love remains.