Editor of Private Eye and TV satirist Ian Hislop discovers India by travelling by rail from the port of Calcutta to the desert forts of Rajasthan. On the way he poses for photographs outside the Taj Mahal, visits the Indian parliament and is pampered aboard a special train called the Palace on Wheels.

The BBC's Asia correspondent Fergal Keane explores Japan, contrasting life in the busy, sprawling cities with the peace in the countryside as he learns about the nation's spiritual side.