As one of the poorest countries in the world Cambodia is struggling to get back on its feet after the devastating rule of the Khmer Rouge regime. These photo's witness a people that are going through the process of restoring ancient arts and traditions, religious practices and age old temples in an attempt to reclaim their national inheritance.

The city of Seattle in the Pacific Northwest is blessed with its location. It is surrounded by several mountain ranges, a rugged coastline and peaceful islands. The Seattleites will tell you about the constant drizzle and gray skies. But they don't tell you about their weekends, when they go out and enjoy the wilderness with its delightful absence of people. They like to keep it that way and I can't blame them. Nothing in Washington State impressed me more than its wilderness.

In Laos, the soothing Asian antidote to our modern lives, it is still possible to disentangle your mind from the pressures of progress. Go to Luang Prabang, where life flows as slowly as the muddy Mekong. Go there and find time to forget time among the gentle Laotians. With their uncomplicated smiles, they are teachers of a life that is appreciated as it is, unhindered by thoughts of what it might have been or might become.

Where the people of other Southeast Asian countries tend to let karma take its course, the Vietnamese are more determined to take matters in their own hands – always looking to work and trade their way into a more prosperous future. Tourists come for other reasons to Vietnam. The landscapes of limestone rocks and rice paddies, hill-tribe villages and pagoda’s. When the two of them meet it is mostly chance that decides the successfulness of their encounter – teeth grinding tourist exploitation or the most heartwarming hospitality possible.