Pearl of the Orient, Land of Smiles, Equatorial Emerald, The Teardrop of India, Land of Dharma, Island of the Gods… these are just a few of the sobriquets lavished on the lands and islands of Southeast Asia. But titles alone don’t do justice to the rich, savory, and sometimes spicy cultural melange, culinary traditions, and visual theatre played out across a region that includes bucket-list destinations such as Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia.
It’s a given that a region holding more than 20,000 islands offers a spectacular collection of beaches, some miles-long and surf-washed, others diminutive and sheltered by headlands or shadowed by towering limestone monoliths. The region’s rich cultural diversity stems from millenniums-old empires that absorbed the global influences of travelers, traders, and colonialists from Africa, India, the Middle East, and Europe, yet still hold to many of the old ways and traditions.
