LA PAZ, BOLIVIA  - Chacaltaya’s days are numbered. Nestled away in the Bolivian Andes, the glacier has existed for 18,000 years, but over the last two decades most of it has melted away. Edson Ramirez is the country’s leading glaciologist. Sitting in his office at the University of San Andres in La Paz, he gestures to the narrow streets below. Many from his hometown and nearby El Alto depend on tropical ice fields like Chacaltaya for their water, he explains.

It was the noodliest of times. It was the rice-iest of times.

In Hanoi there was a bowl of soup, richly aromatic and nourishing.

In Khon Kaen there was a racy rice dish - full of spices and flavour.

I've been travelling a lot between Thailand and Vietnam recently. So thought I'd do a little Dickens-inspired comparison, because I've been confusing my Saawadee Khrups and Xin Chao-s, not to mention my Pad Thais and Phos. 

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - Just polished off most mouth-watering fish curry at a charming spot in Dhaka’s northern suburb of Gulshan. Inside restaurant it’s cool and calm.

Upper class locals sit around and talk shop, squishing curry into balls and popping them into their mouths. A giant plastic capsicum dangles above our heads with total indifference.

It’s a picture of dignified serenity.

Then we step outside and chaos descends.

Like just about everyone else, I knew how this movie ended. It's based on the true story of Aron Ralston, a young adrenalin junkie who went canyoning in the wilds of Utah, solo - without telling a soul. 

Spoiler alert: early on in the film Aron, played with incredible gravitas by James Franco, dislodges a boulder, plunging down a narrow crevice, and gets pinned by the same immovable rock. Directed by Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire), the film is based on Ralston's book Between a Rock and a Hard Place - and never was there an apter title.