Jill Worrall goes stealthily in search of a teahouse where she can smoke a water pipe, following a crackdown on the practice by Iranian authorities.

When the Bam earthquake of December 2003 destroyed one of Iran's greatest sights - the ancient Bam citadel in the eastern province of Kerman near the border with Pakistan - it wasn't just Iranians who mourned its loss.

There are vast oil reserves under the Caspian and swimming in its waters are giant caviar-bearing beluga sturgeon.

Jill Worrall gives in to her nagileh weakness in Istanbul.

It's always a little disconcerting the first time one hears a car parked at the Tolkuchka bazaar bleating.

Ashgabat is possibly the world's weirdest (and somewhat sinister) capital city, writes Jill Worrall.

Life might be a little tense in the households of some of Bhutan's first democratically-elected government ministers.

Today I was blessed by a monk wielding a large wooden phallus. Apparently this Bhutanese blessing has proved remarkably successful in promoting fertility.

Bhutan's elderly devout Buddhists don't have to worry about a 30-minute-a-day exercise regime, writes Jill Worrall.

There's a black and white yak with a fluffy tail standing contemplatively under a four-metre-high rhododendron tree.