Love it or hate it, buzzing, sweaty, exotic Bangkok is a city that really is larger than life. For some, the frenetic pace, heat, traffic and lack of personal space can be overpowering and are good reasons to pass through the city as quickly as possible but, for many others, the sheer dynamism is intoxicating.

A curious blend of the traditional East with the modern West, Bangkok’s every street has a surprise in hold for the visitor. Ramshackle buildings crouch next to exotic temples surrounded by delightful gardens, which are in turn overlooked by modern hotels and offices.

The chaos on the roads is mirrored by the busy traffic on the Chao Phraya River, which dissects the city and is regularly crisscrossed by long-tailed boats, river taxis and small rowing boats, all miraculously missing each other.

But traditional Thai life is never very far away. Weaving among the nose-to-tail traffic in the morning rush hour, saffron-robed monks can still be seen collecting alms, while just moments from the city centre whole communities live in stilt houses by the river, eking out a living using skills that have not changed in centuries.

Bangkok became the capital in 1782, but the absolute rule of the monarchy ended in 1932 when it was replaced by a system of constitutional monarchy. To this day, the monarchy is regarded with almost religious reverence and it is an offence, punishable by imprisonment, to insult the royal family. His Majesty King Bhumibol is the longest-reigning monarch in the world, having come to power in 1946.

Following the end of absolute monarchy, Thailand moved towards democracy, but this has been thwarted by the military, which has often staged coups in protest at government policies. The most recent was in September 2006 when a bloodless coup overthrew the Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Anti-government demonstrations took place in August 2008 and the Prime Minister, only elected in December 2007, was removed from office and replaced by Prime Minister Somchai in September.

Thailand is a tropical country so it is hot throughout the year, but the best time to visit is between November and March, during the dry season. During the rainy season, humidity is very high and the downpours are short but violent and the streets of Bangkok often flood.

Chiang Mai, meaning ‘new city’, is the capital of the north of Thailand and the region’s most important town. Ideally situated at the crossroads of northern southeast Asia, it is a bustling transport centre. It is also a great place to hang out in its own right, and an ideal spot from which to launch a trip into the surrounding region to see the hill tribes.

In addition to modern, urban sophistication, the city has managed to preserve some of its ancient atmosphere. Although Chiang Mai is considered Thailand’s second city, the lifestyle and atmosphere here is a world away from frenetic Bangkok, particularly in the old quarter, which has retained its traditional wooden houses and tranquil garden spaces.

Once the focus for trade in silk, timber and opium, Chiang Mai is now a hub for cross-border trade with Myanmar and Laos. It is also northern Thailand’s primary tourist destination. The city’s temples are its primary draw, but interestingly these still function as community centres rather than just as museum exhibits. A thriving craft industry, an increasing number of cultural and spiritual learning opportunities, excellent and varied cuisine, lively nightspots and good-value accommodation add to the city’s appeal, making it the sort of short-stay destination that people find hard to tear themselves away from.

Hanoi, the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is an elegant city located on the banks of the Red River with tranquil Hoan Kiem Lake at its heart. North of the lake are the bustling streets of the Old Quarter, each street named after the trade that used to take place there.

Much of the city was transformed by the French when it became a French protectorate in the 1880s and there are wide boulevards and large colonial buildings which are now home to government departments and foreign embassies.

Ho Chi Minh established the Viet Minh during the WWII in order to gain independence from France. Fighting continued until 1954 when the French surrendered to the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu and Hanoi became capital of North Vietnam, but Ho Chi Minh was determined to reunite the whole country.

The USA came to the support of South Vietnam and full-scale war broke out in 1965. The Americans withdrew in 1973 and fighting continued until 1975 when Saigon fell to North Vietnamese troops. Vietnam was reunited under Hanoi and communist rule the following year.

For many years Hanoi had a reputation as an austere city, unwelcoming to visitors. Life was hard for the residents as the city and country rebuilt itself. Hanoi had been continuously bombed by the Americans throughout the Vietnam War.

Following years of rampant inflation, poverty and repression, the government introduced economic reform or doi moi in 1986, allowing people to own their own businesses. Now Hanoi has been totally transformed and visitors are entranced by the city and its residents. Recent years have seen an enormous increase in visitors and at peak times every hotel room in Hanoi is booked up, so prices have risen accordingly.

Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur is a city caught in a metropolitan limbo; it aspires to be Singapore, but at times feels more like Bangkok. It is this tension between the clean, clinical efficiency of business-like Singapore, and the raffish rough edges of the Thai capital, that conjures up much of KL’s undoubted charm.

In Kuala Lumpur, you can be skimming across town on the monorail past the soaring, record-breaking, Petronas Towers one minute and the next you are dumped at street level amongst the aromatic orgy of hawker stands and the unwelcome reality of traffic chaos.

This is all a far cry from the city’s low-key origins, when a huddle of poor tin miners first crowded around the mosquito-ridden banks of the slimy Gombak and Klang rivers in 1857. Little could they have imagined that within a century and a half, Kuala Lumpur would have metamorphosed into one of Asia’s most vibrant and compelling cities.

Kuala Lumpur, meaning ‘muddy confluence’, has grown with bewildering speed since these early days; a growth that accelerated during the 1980s and early 1990s as the ‘Asian Tiger’ economy propelled the ever-changing skyline.

The speed of change has resulted in old Chinese houses and faded colonial mansions idling alongside huge gleaming glass and steel towers, while food hawkers and traditional fortune tellers share the streets with bustling businessmen and guidebook toting tourists.

The city is not so much a melting pot or clichéd contrast between old and new, but rather an ever-evolving jungle of buildings, which seem to have sprouted organically from the sweaty vegetation and murky rivers that still snake through the heart of town.
One of the most admirable aspects of the city is the level of tolerance displayed by its cosmopolitan residents, with ethnic Malays, Chinese, Indians and Europeans all living and working together with few racial problems – certainly far less than those experienced in Western Europe or North America.

For many Malaysians, Kuala Lumpur is quite simply the Ibukota (‘Mother City’) and as such it is treated with great reverence and abbreviated fondly to ‘KL’.

Over the last few years a whole swathe of construction and infrastructure projects have seen the city’s skyline become crowded with cranes and clanking machinery as entire neighbourhoods have undergone redevelopment.

The emergence of Putrajaya, the new administrative capital, and Cyberjaya, the key section of the new Multimedia Super Corridor, are now steering Malaysia back towards the course set by former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad with the aim of becoming a fully developed nation by 2020.

One relative constant in Kuala Lumpur is the climate, with consistently warm daytime temperatures, balmy evenings and afternoons that are often punctuated by thunderstorms, usually passing quickly to leave the evenings cool and rain free.

In the days of the Spanish Empire, Manila was Spain's seat of power in Asia and the Pacific. Today, the city and its people are a mish-mash of the East and West. A string of harsh invasions (Spain, USA, Japan) and a history of hardships moulded Filipinos into resilient, good-humoured and resourceful people, traits that can be seen in their everyday life.

The friendliness of Filipinos translates to good customer service in hotels, businesses and malls. Most residents speak English, so navigating the city is not a big problem. These, plus the added purchasing value of the foreign exchange rate, make Manila a great place for guests looking for luxury, pampering and bargains.

‘Manila' really refers to two places: the City of Manila, founded by Spanish conquerors in 1571 by the side of Manila Bay, and the larger Metropolitan Manila (abbreviated to Metro Manila), which encompasses the City of Manila and 17 other cities. Filipinos use ‘Manila' to mean Metro Manila, while the term Manileño is reserved exclusively for the City of Manila's residents.

Manila's history is intertwined with its geographic location. Manila Bay was an ideal port for Spanish ships bearing gold, spices, silk and ceramics (treasure hunters still seek sunken Manila galleons today). Unfortunately for Manileños, this also attracted a string of invaders.

Spain first conquered Manila in 1571. For 300 years, Spain successfully repelled a series of invasion attempts by the Chinese, Dutch and the British. A Filipino revolutionary force triumphed over the Spanish in 1896. But this was shortlived as the USA took over Manila in 1898. The city finally got its independence after WWII.

The city is mostly warm and humid, with an average temperature of 27°C (81°F). It gets cooler in the months of December to February (down to around 21°C/70°F), and warmer to hot during March to May (up to around 34°C/93°F). The rainy season used to be in June to September, but this has shifted towards September to October, with typhoons often arriving during these months.

Phnom Penh is often overlooked by visitors to Cambodia who head straight for the temples of Angkor at Siem Reap. However, this capital city has a certain charm with its colonial buildings, wide boulevards, pagodas and riverside walks.

Those who take time to visit Phnom Penh will find a bustling city, emerging with renewed confidence from troubled times. Much of the city was badly damaged and its treasures thrown into the river in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge, and when its citizens returned in 1979 they found just shells of buildings in which to live.

Decades later city life has improved and there is optimism in the air, with the expat community and visitors providing employment opportunities for many.

Phnom Penh was founded in the 14th century but didn't become the capital until 1866 when Cambodia became a French Protectorate. The 20th century was a difficult one for the city and country: it was occupied by the Japanese in WWII, then sided with the North Vietnamese against the Americans, resulting in them dropping bombs on Cambodia and causing a flood of refugees into the city.

Dissatisfied left-wing fighters, known as the Khmer Rouge, engaged in a civil war with the right-wing government culminating in them emptying Phnom Penh of its residents in April 1975 and returning the country to Year Zero with great brutality.

The invasion by the Vietnamese in 1979 started the very slow recovery of the city and country and it endured political turmoil until UN-backed elections in 1993 and the crowning of King Sihanouk the same year.

Since the late 1990s, when the Khmer Rouge were totally disempowered, political life has settled down to a certain extent and 2004 saw a new king, Sihamoni, take up residence in the Royal Palace following the abdication of his father. They city is now dynamic and evolving all the time, with stylish restaurants, bars, shops and hotels opening, and there is a new found confidence in its future.

Singapore, known as the Lion City, is a fascinating blend of pan-Asian cultures, ethnicities and cuisines, exquisite natural beauty and fine British colonial architecture. Above all, it is a high-tech modern city where Asian traditions eagerly embrace both the benefits of global tourism and the challenges of tomorrow.

History
This tropical tip of the Malay Peninsula was settled in 1299 by a Malay Sultan, who built a palace at Bukit Larangan (now Fort Canning). Five centuries later, in 1819, globe-trotting adventurer Thomas Stamford Raffles claimed Singapore for the British East India Company, and the foundations of one of the world’s most prosperous trading centres were established.

Fusion of cultures
The gleaming skyscrapers that tower over Singapore shield a plethora of Chinese and Hindu temples and Islamic mosques that stud this multicultural city, whose origins were defined by mass immigration from across Asia in the 19th century. A curious blend of ancient and modern, the city is home to an ethnic mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians, as well as expats from all over the world, in a predominantly English-speaking society.

Modern Asian republic
Since becoming an independent Republic in 1965, Singapore has enjoyed a vigorous free trade policy, as introduced by its then Prime Minister (now Minister Mentor) Lee Kuan Yew. This led to an unprecedented rise in the standard of living and exponential economic growth. The economy and tourist industry have enjoyed robust health though Singapore’s economy was dented between 2001 and 2003, during the global recession. It rebounded to  grow steadily through the bullish early-21st century. Despite falling into recession in late 2008, many analysts believe Singapore is capable of rebounding once more.

World-class facilities
From its world-beating Changi Airport to its superb museums, tourism facilities, heritage architecture and natural attractions, Singapore is a beacon of efficiency, cleanliness and high-technology. Add in a constant flow of festivals and events in the ethnic quarters of Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam (traditionally the home of Singapore’s Malay, Arab and Indonesian communities) and the result is one of Asia’s most compelling tourism destinations, and one of the most diverse and delicious culinary scenes on the planet.