I’m in love with Asia and its dreamy and calm landscapes, from its shiny green rice fields to its Mekong riverbank. Despite the rapid modernisation of today’s world, it amazes me that many old traditions and millenary celebrations are still practiced today. But for how long?

We celebrate life and good fortune, we say goodbye, we worship ancestors and Buddhist figures in shiny temples, where monks dressed in saffron-coloured robes live. In areas of the suburb, they do not speak the national language but rather the locals have their own dialect. The acquaintances you make are sincere and welcoming and it’s hard to forget just how generous the people are.

Life goes by slowly in the villages where the dusty roads, made of orange soil, go up and down. You would notice wooden houses surrounded by chickens, pigs, goats and cows all reminding you of the simple way of life here. Adults spend their days working in the field or are busy preparing home-grown meals in their modest restaurants while the kids laugh and play and the eldest look on. Every single bite is savoured as you can taste how fresh and organic the ingredients are, an explosion of flavours in every dish, each better than the last.

I will never grow tired of the golden sunsets and sunrises shining on the Mekong, transforming fishermen into shadows as they drift slowly in the distance. The Mekong, ‘Mother of Rivers’ in lao and thaï languages, is a vast river that traverses and connects many countries in the South-East of Asia. Asia is living in slow motion, we let ourselves live peacefully, we take our time and we fall in love with it.