Colombia is ripe for discovery, and there is a little of everything: green valleys, golden beaches and snow-capped mountains, colonial fortresses.

It has become cliché to say that Argentina is as much European as it is Latin; yet to arrive in Buenos Aires and discover this is actually true still surprises.

But today, the Vietnamese are focused on rocketing into the future. In this new era of confident self-determination the atmosphere is one of palpable optimism.