If your into martial arts consider enrolling in Asia’s ultimate boot camp at Deng Feng, China’s Kung Fu capital and home of the famous Shaolin monks. The Shaolin Temple in Henan, known in the martial arts world as the birthplace of kung fu and home to the famed “fighting monks,” welcomes foreigners to train in its martial arts classes.

There are around 50 schools in the Shaolin and Deng Feng area with thousands of students training from dawn to dusk. The largest school, Tagou, has 10,000 students. The Shaolin Monastery Wushu Institute at Tagou is foreigner-friendly, with an English-speaking office that can help to arrange travel, lodging, and training. They provide a serious course in one of the most serious martial art forms out there, Shaolin-style fighting. This form of fighting began over a thousand years ago with the monks of the Shaolin Temple. You can train at the Shaolin Temple for a few weeks or a few years. Some children start as young as six years old, most hoping to be the next Hong Kong martial arts movie star!

The Shaolin way of life is spiritual and regimented and a training session gives you a whole new respect for this intense discipline. If you’re not up to the physical demands of trying Kung Fu yourself, the demonstrations by the Shaolin monks are amazing. They leap into the air, balance on blades, break bricks and pretty much defy anything you’ve thought was humanly impossible.

From April 13 – 15 each year Thailand celebrates Thai New Year or Songkran. And the defining feature of Songkran is the throwing of water – when the whole country erupts into the worlds biggest free-for-all water war zone. People roam the roads with containers of water or water guns, or post themselves beside the road with a garden hose and drench others and passers-by while pick-up trucks loaded with barrels of water and little kids with giant squirt guns patrol the streets. Nobody is immune from a splashing, with everyone young and old drenching each other. Its all great fun and fantastically refreshing as April is the hottest month in Thailand.

This modern version of the festival however come from ancient tradition. Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends and neighbours. The purity of water is supposed to wash away bad luck and negative emotions, and bring renewal. The true spirit of Songkran is expressed in a gentle pouring of perfume- or flower-scented water, on the shoulder or down the back of the neck for social equals, and usually over the palms for those situated above you, followed by a blessing. Besides throwing water, families also flock to temples to pray, give food to monks and bathe Buddha statues. In some towns the holiest Buddhas are paraded around town so people can bathe the images – bringing good luck and prosperity for the New Year.

Nowadays however the main emphasis of Thai New Year is more about fun and water-throwing rather than the festival’s spiritual and religious aspects. Though traditionalists lament the degradation and commercialisation of the holiday, ancient traditions do remain close to most people’s hearts, especially in smaller towns.

Songkhran is also celebrated at the same time in Laos (called pi mai lao or ‘Lao New Year’ in Lao), Cambodia, Myanmar (where it is called Thingyan), and by the Dai people in Yunnan, China. However the most feverish water skirmishes remains in Thailand especially in places like Chiang Mai or Khao San Road in Bangkok. So if you want to get wet and experience the largest water fight on the planet don’t miss Songkran.

The Great Wall of China is beyond doubt one of the most amazing human-made structures in the world and walking on the Great Wall is as powerful an experience as you would imagine.

Snaking 6,700km (4,163 miles) from east to west, the Great Wall of China can be wild and crumbly, with some parts erased with the ravages of time. And then there are the perfectly intact sections where the stone steps become a welcome mat for day trippers to walk back in time.

The Great Wall was built to fortify China against the attack of nomadic hordes, section by section, between the 5th century BC and 16th century AD, making it truly one of the world’s greatest man-made projects. The most popular section of the Great Wall is located at Badaling, approximately 60km from Beijing’s city centre. Built during the Ming Dynasty, the wall there is 8 metres (26 feet) high and 6 metres (20 feet) wide and, although readily accessible to visitors of all ages, parts can be quite steep. Watchtowers built on the Wall at 500 metre (1,640 feet) intervals provided accommodation, a storage facility for military equipment, and a protected area for the observation of enemy movements. There are also other sections accessible to tourists including Mutianyu and Simatai which have less tourists and especially in the case of the latter, offer a more authentic view of the Great Wall.

A trip to the Great Wall of China could be one of the biggest adventures of your life, and it’s definitely one of the world’s great wonders to behold.

For the ultimate ariel view of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia, a balloon ride is a must for all visitors to experience. Rising 200 metres above the ground the tethered helium balloon provides stunning panoramic views over Angkor, Siem Riep, the Baray and the surrounding country side.

The birds eye view from the balloon gives a fresh and unique perspective of the Angkor temples and waterways which were built between the 9th and 13th centuries by the kings of the Khmer empire.