If you are looking for Indochina on a world map you will find yourself deeply disappointed. This French colonial empire which lies between South China Sea and Siamese bay, and to which we owe a myth of exoticism, moral freedom and blissful existence disappeared over half a century ago. All its beauty and captivating aura is now preserved only in historical books, stories and legends of old, past times.

Thanks to those old books, stories and legends which have charmed me so much I decided to take a journey to this far – geographically as well as “standing still in time” part of the world. After my first expedition I have returned there many times. Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam have taken my breath away with its exoticism, flora, climate, rich culture, peculiar beauty of women. The time seems to be running slower here. But most of all it was a different civilization and culture, about which Rudyar Kipling wrote: “East is East and West is West and they will never meet”.

For me, new geographical names will never have the same charm of old names like Siam, Ceylon, Saigon, Rangoon and Cochinchina, which magic and mystery stimulates the imagination of many a man.