Journey on the "Reunification Express" from Hanoi to Saigon, exploring Vietnam's extraordinary culture and landscape in this premiere episode of the Trails from the East series.

Voyage through Cambodia by train, a "country of scars" that lost a quarter of its population under Pol Pot's regime. On the train there are discussions about daily survival and the difficult task of coming to terms with the past.

The cities of Thailand beckon in the next episode of Trails from the East, where everyone in Thailand seems to be on the train. Travellers speak about the pain of leaving the village and their children, and their hope for a better future.

After traveling through Bangkok, where we meet a transsexual coping with modernity, the train travels south through a region full of Muslim separatists, and on to Malaysia.

This episode chronicles the journey from Yangoon, Myanmar (Burma) to Benapole, the border between Bangladesh and India, shedding light on the closed societies of Burma and Bangladesh.

In this episode, the train journeys through India from the border of Bangladesh to the border with Sri Lanka in the south, profiling a fast-changing society trying to keep its cultural identity.

As the "Friendship Express" rolls towards Pakistan, this episode discusses India's religious conflicts in the modern era, and how Hindus and Muslims can live side by side after bloody conflicts.

The episode starts in no man's land aboard the "Friendship Express", a train connecting two age-old enemies, Pakistan and India. Traveling on to Kabul, Afghanistan, talk on the train turns to the future of this tumultuous region.

As the train travels on from the Iraqi-Syrian border to Syria and Jordan, this episode explores how travellers manage their relationship with their enemies, Israel and America.