The stately and fantastical architecture, the history hanging in the air of the markets, the scent of jasmine in the ladies' car of the train, the gardens and street vendors and balloon-wallahs and intellectuals in old libraries - it will all take you in if you let it.

BBC: Mumbai: India's Tinseltown

Even street food is being gentrified: at Quan An Ngon in Ho Chi Minh city, bejewelled ladies wash down their stuffed pancakes and hot-and-sour soup with sips of chardonnay.

ECONOMIST: As communism crumbles, a great cuisine revives