We got up for an early breakfast because we were going to the Imperial City, or Imperial Palace, also known as Đại Nội, in the walled city of Huế.

Time to pack our bags and leave the Old Quarter of Hanoi for an adventure on a boat in Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO site known for its thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rainforests.

Breakfast is served in the hotel's basement. That sounds bad, but it was a charming restaurant with smiling waiters and waitresses who immediately fetched coffee. The cool thing about hotel breakfasts in Asia is the variety.

We gathered in the hotel lobby at 6 pm to meet our fellow food tour travelers. This is when you discover who you will be traveling with for the next 10 days.

I was very excited. We were about to embark on a 10-day food tour with celebrity chef Luke Nguyen, zipping from the top of Vietnam in Hanoi to the bottom in Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon).

A few years ago, I went to the Sydney Fish Market in Blackwattle Bay in Pyrmont. I love a good bustling fish market, but this one had seen better days.

Sometimes I dream I'm living in Bangkok's Chinatown, a Chinatown like no other that I've been to. It's enormous, and every night it's packed with people who are mainly there to eat.

Paris at sunrise. The simple pleasure of going out in the morning to buy a fresh baguette.