'Amanikan', the 32-metre Phinisi coastal cruiser custom-built for Aman resorts, is ideal for private cruises for one or two couples or a family, combining the romance of spice trade sailing vessels with modern amenities and all the comforts befitting Aman.

The Sepik River is one of two vast tropical river systems in Papua New Guinea that meander through the densely forested lowlands of the world's second largest - and the world's tallest - island. Along the banks of the river and its many tributaries live sparsely scattered, remote villages scarcely contacted by the outside world, where people live a lifestyle that has changed little for thousands of years.

Thailand's cultural and social roots are firmly set in the countryside, in fact, when Mahatma Gandhi said of his home country "... the real India is in the villages". He could just as easily have been referring to Thailand, a country whose political and cultural birth was in the "million rice fields" of the ancient Lanna Thai Kingdom.

Learn the Indonesian art of batik painting, study traditional Indonesian dance and theatre, learn to make the highly intricate carved masks worn by Lagong dancers and submerge yourself into two of Indonesia's most powerfully independent identities: the Javanese, the 'rulers' of Indonesia, and the gentle, aesthetic Balinese.