As soon as you leave the dense build up area of Dhaka, you will be met by a flat landscape punctuated by tall chimneys. These are traditional brick factories, where slap of mud turn into red bricks in coal heated ovens (so called kilns). The bricks weight about two kilos each and some workers carry more than twenty of them... on their head. The factories only operate during dry season and close down during the monsoon leaving a strange ghost landscape. Beside being the source for a good chunk of the country's air pollution, the factories also engage in child labour and pay close to nothing for the bone breaking work. A visit will give you some insight into how harsh conditions some people are living under, and a perspective on how crappy your own job might feel.

Renting a row boat (with boat man) to slowly go up and down the Buriganga river is a great way to get some relieving distance to the mind-blowing chaos on land. But since this is Dhaka, do not expect tranquility. The river is equally packed with boats in any size, from your tiny dinky to the big paddle-wheels ferries, along with swimming kids and waste from the whole capital. The big ships have the right of way, while everyone else is dodging for their life. Along the banks people still using the filthy river for cloth washing and bathing, even though the dark water is dense with floating garbage and the river is officially declared biological dead.

Cycle rickshaws, or just rickshaws as they are called here in Bangladesh, look like a thing from the colonial past. Colorful decorated with a sweaty rickshaw wallah on the pedals in front, they will zigzag through insane dense traffic while dodging smashed up buses and other rickshaws. Some of the older rickshaws are down right dangerous with sharp metal pieces sticking out everywhere and they are all surprisingly uncomfortable to sit in, but they are just too darn charming not to ride. While man-powered rickshaws are getting outfaced in the rest of the world, they are going strong in Bangladesh. In Old Dhaka the narrow lanes are so jam-packed with rickshaws, caring both people and goods, that walking is no longer physical possible. There is only thing to do - jump on one and join the madness.

Normally we don't do hotels here at Globe Spots but when the construction price tag is in the US$1 billion region, it qualifies. Every part of this hotel is build with the best materials and the foyer is 80 meters high. All this splendidness is the brainchild of the black sheep of the royal family of Brunei, Prince Jefri. A lot of things can be said of Jefri, but before he got sacked as finance minister he had wasted billions on personal expenses, including gold-plated toilet brushes, 2000 cars and a yacht named Tits, with two tenders called Nipple 1 and Nipple 2. If that isn't class, we don't what is.

Carved on a pillar on the inside of the wall at the ancient Angkor temple Ta Prohm (build in the late 12th century) this strange animal stands out. Most schoolkids will recognise this as a stegosaurus, a dinosaur that extinct a long time ago even by Angkor standards. Speculations haven been many about it and beside the biblical creation explanation and doubts about the carving's authenticity, the going belief is that it's a Sumatran rhinoceros depicted against jungle leaves (sorry to spoil the mystery). When done with the crypto-zoology, take a glance at the temple. Ta Prohm is famous as the Jungle Temple since the early restorations left it untouched with it walls crumpled by huge serpent-like roots of the towering silk cotton trees.

A traditional snack in Cambodia is fried insects. Anything goes but big hairy spiders seem extraordinary popular. The small village of Skun on the highway 6A, between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, is renowned for their deep-fried tarantulas, along with grasshoppers, crickets and beetles. The place has become so popular that even tour buses stop here now. So how does a tarantula tastes like? The hairy legs are just crispy, but the big abdomen is full of gooey, yummy guts. Just squeeze and enjoy.

Under the broad boulevards of Beijing exists a system of tunnels that Chairman Mao order dug out in the late 70's in the event of a Russian attack. The whole system should be longer than the Chinese wall (5000 km) and some wide enough for the Chairman's limo. It seems that these tunnels are long forgotten by the Chinese themself, and rumours are that Chinese tourists are not even allowed in them. More the reason to visit them, if not for the history then just the absurdity of them.

An embassy that doesn't even exist any more, how exciting can that be? Well, first there is the history. The embassy got overrunned in 1979 by revolutionary students, when the Shah fled the country and the Ayatollah gained power. 52 US employees was hold hostage and the American attempt to rescue them went terrible wrong. After 444 days the hostages were released. Today are the walls that surrounding the old embassy decorated in anti-American propaganda that has almost become iconic. The grounds are still guarded by the military and some of the soldiers are not that happy about cameras, so this sneaky part can actually turn out to be quite exciting.

Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral hit the record in 1989 as the largest funeral ever held, with a crowd of 10 millions mourners. Today his tomb is located in the outskirts of Tehran in what seems to be a mausoleum under never ending construction. The huge complex resembles a mosque with tall minarets and gold dome. Everyone can enter and see the caged off shrine and hang around the vast area surrounding it. The mausoleum attracts a diverse range of locals from picnicking families over young couples seeking some privacy to mourners paying respect to His Holiness. It's truly a remarkable weird place.

Japan can be refreshingly weird and Harajuku, a corner of Tokyo near Yoyogi park, is a places where this surfaces every Sunday from an else hidden underground scene. Mostly young people dress up in the most far out costumes taken from mangas, fairytales, films, and forbidden fantasies and parade or just hanging out with their friends on Jingu Bridge. And they are serious about it. The different styles go under names like cosplay, Lolita Goth, and Visual kei. They are top stylize and what looks like a sweet Little Bo Peep can turn out to be middle aged man doing his thing. It is mind blowing and has to be seen before believed.