when i hear taps or when i hear the bagpipes, i just breakdown. i'll take this to my grave. can you load chickens? >> what do you need to know? >> i'm an aficionado of erotica. >> i know hangover food well. and this is good. >> you'll find it ten years later naked in a bush with a necklace of cans around our necks. >> i certainly cherish those golden moments. >> i wish i could hear you over the sound of my exploding capillaries. >> i'm feeling every hour, every month and year of my age. >> maybe we should figure out how to cook dinner unless you don't want to eat anything. because we're really not going

to eat any dinner tonight. >> i can't say i'm evolving or maturing over doing anything differently. you know, what was question? ♪ ♪ i would have liked to have spent some time on the beach because the beaches here are beautiful. i would have liked to have eaten

more wildly. i would have liked to have a pony. possibly a unicorn even. >> i describe parts unknown as a series of essays, stand alone essays that generally try to focus on the subject of food and where it comes from, but not always. food is the entry way. i'm a guy who spent 30 years cooking food professionally. that's where i come from. that's how i'm always going to look at the world. but food isn't everything. and something comes up, i'm happy to get up from the meal and wander off elsewhere. >> myanmar, after 50 years of nightmare something unexpected is happening here and it's pretty incredible.

not too long ago, even filming here officially as an open film crew would have been unthinkable. in 2007 a japanese journalist was shot point-blank and killed filming a street demonstration. be seen talking to anybody with a camera and there would likely be a knock on your door in the middle of the night. yet so far confronted with our cameras, a few smiles and mostly indifference at worst. shocking considering how recently the government started to relax its grip. >> you heard the sleeping call? >> we lost a dining car. >> our original car is lost. so we just have to hope for the best. >> the night express. 600 kilometers of what will turn

out to be kidney softening travel by rail. but myanmar's agent capital, i have been told, is is a must-see. >> the true experience. the engine is a french engine from the '70s. >> we have been told it's a somewhat uncomfortable ten-hour trip. so really the question on this end of the journey is come back on train or fly in coffin? >> mishaps on both planes and trains are not, shall we say, unheard of. >> widow maker express. >> that is the choice. that may be the signal to depart at some point. >> all aboard. >> whoa, we're moving. >> here we go.

>> we have reached cruising speed. >> really? this is cruising speed. you can literally outrun this train. >> we could jog ahead, have a nice meal at some recommended restaurant. >> we could catch up with it. >> here we go. this is stop number one of 75. ♪ >> heading north, the scenery opens up the space between things gets wider, more pastoral and more beautiful. looking around at my fellow passengers, it it could be hard

to distinguish between the 135-plus ethnic groups that make up the burmese population. the very name burma refers actually to only one of these groups. but they all seem to have in common, however, on to ka, a fais paint made from tree bark that masks many of their faces. it's ewe bik wi us to here. it's something you take for granted. the gravitational pull, the train picks up speed. at times terrifyingly so.

>> i think it's going to derail at some point. they have lost how many wheels yesterday on this one train? so truly it's about being in the right car, the one that gets the wheel. >> derailments or rail slips as they are referred to here is somewhat more benign sounding occurrence than say rolling off the tracks are not uncommon. and one can't help wondering what the engineer and conductor are thinking as the train speeds heed lousily on faster and faster. >> it must be 40 or 50 miles per hour at this point. >> what if someone flew right out of their seat out the window? >> sure. >> you don't want to be holding a lap dog. >> or a baby or anything.

>> try peeing in the bathroom, bringing to a rude conclusion what was already an only any directional experience. >> it's smooth now. it's very relaxing. >> what kind of beer did you have? i had the same. >> what i'm amazed at is it's easy for me to sit here and say whatever i want about the government. right? me can go home. our lives will go on. we don't pay the price. everybody helpless could very well pay the price.

it should be pointed out that a lot of people did not. a lot of people were nice to us but said i've already been in jail. i really don't want to go back. it's a very real concern. what happens to the people we leave behind. they tasted freedom. well, you can put the toothpaste back in the tube. there's no doubt about that. >> for moment at least, things seem to be moving in the the right direction. a country closed off to most for so long, sleeping, a 50-year nightmare for many citizens finally, maybe waking up. to what? time will tell. >> my approach to what i do is in no way changed. you are who you are. i'm marginally more hopeful about the world. i'm more optimistic. i actually kind of believe after all these years of travel that

my estimation of the basic goodness of, you know, the human animal is maybe a little better than it was. bacon and cheese diet? this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups.

it's okay. i'm deliberately looking thoughtful. travel isn't always easy. >> what i would do to a bucket of fried chicken right now would be unholy. unholy, i tell you. it it would be an awful thing to see. >> i'm going to get some popcorn. >> martini time. >> i would describe myself as a lucky cook who gets to tell stories. i'm certainly not a journalist. i'm not a chef anymore. i'd like to flatter myself by saying i'm an essayist, but i'm a story teller. i see stuff, i talk about that,

i talk about how it made me feel at the time. if you can do that, honestly, that's the best you can hope for without talking about yourself in the third person. >> stereotyping, how do i put this. good korean kids grow up to be doctors, lawyers or engineers goes the story. there are expectations. but what if you're a bad korean? what if you were korean-american and just didn't give a [ bleep ]. what if if you looked around and said, who am i? where do i fit in society? and were unsatisfied with the answers? what if you were a talented artist in a small startup company called facebook asked you yao to do murals and they paid you in stock and you became wealthy and you still didn't give a [ bleep ]. well then you might be david cho.

>> hi. i'm david cho. i'm going to paint you today. is that cool? >> yeah. >> just sit right there. sorry. don't usually paint this early in the morning. okay. i'm going to go more expressionistic if you don't mind. >> i want to know. young people are looking to follow your road to success. your advice is whatever you do don't date a korean girl. >> i try to be open minded about things. but i'm racist. for me i have given it a shot. and then i end up in a situation where i feel like i'm dating my mom. >> so what characteristics in common? >> overbearing, jealous, unreasonable, unrealistic about life, demanding.

i could go on and on. but also the men too. if you were a woman, i would never recommend dating a korean guy. for the few women into asian guys, if you are going to go that route, definitely go chinese. come check it out. >> whoa, awesome. wow. >> what do you think? >> dude, i'm honored. i have never had my portrait done before. this could be worth some money on ebay for sure. >> now i'm definitely ready for sizzler. >> nice. >> standing tall and prominent amongst the many asian and central american restaurants in

the community, one place holds an unexpectedly cherished position in the collective memories of second generation korean-americans. i am personally unfamiliar with the sizzler brand. though i know it by name, but never have i managed to actually cross its doors. >> thank you. >> wow. >> how are you doing today? i'm doing fantastic. i have my sizzler outfit on. here's the thing. you can get a steak and add the salad bar or just get the salad bar. >> i have to have a little bit of steak. >> i'm going with just the salad bar. >> have a seat anywhere you like. >> excellent. >> now you're getting all korean on me.

>> super embarrassed now because we're in korea town taking you to eat at sizzler, which for a lot of koreans is the best food in town. >> but you eat non korean. >> we never ate out ever. if we did it was mcdonald's. if it was a birthday and. ed to kick it up a notch, then it was sizzler. >> this is a judgment-free zone where there are no mistakes. a world to explore in combinations without shame or guilt. free of criticism from snarkologists because there are no snarkologists at sizzler. >> obviously, here's all the accrue tremts for the pasta, spaghetti, whatever. you get a hard taco shell and put meat balls in it. you make a meat ball taco. there's nowhere else in. the world where you can have this. put three meat balls, some guacamole and then all this

nacho cheese. >> i know what i'm doing. i'm going for the full south of the border experience here. >> there you go. >> i'm not kidding around here. oh, yeah, mow we're talking, my friend. >> it's a little bit nicer than i remember. >> there it is. >> that's the best bread that you can get. you tell me if you like that. >> are you saying that the cheese toast is complimentary? >> it's complimentary. once we found that out, we would order stacks of it. that was our favorite part. we need to manufacture this at home. >> so were you good sizzler customers, your family? were they happy to see you when you came in? >> i love this. >> i might have to have a meat ball taco. >> we mooched the system a little bit, but not completely abused it. there would be guilt associated. we would never eat out but now we're going out to eat so you better eat.

you have to put down all these three plates. what do you think of the bread? >> it's delicious. i totally get why this is so good. a happy place. >> lots of memories. it's satisfying. we need more of this cheese bread. >> this shouldn't be work. people leave failing gloriously in the cause of trying to do something interesting. i have the best job in the world. i'm trying to stay interested and engaged. the minute i have nothing to say about a place, it's going to be pretty boring for you and certainly boring for me. i guess at the end of the day, i'm just looking to make television that doesn't suck. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers. you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word...

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what do you need to know? i would love to give you advice, but i'm the last person in the world that should. >> what do i know? not a hell of a lot. i've been here a week. >> i don't know what i'm talking about. best to leave it alone. >> i'm a guy who likes being wrong. i don't mind feeling like an idiot about a place. like showing up and thinking i know something about a place.

and actually know nothing. that's interesting to me. i'm pretty vain, but i'm not that vain that i mind terribly looking ignorant. that's kind of fun. if anything, best case scenario, the exciting ones are the ones i know nothing where the learning curve is so steep that every day and every way, every minute of wandering around a place like tokyo you're confronted with the certain knowledge that you will never learn even anything close to everything there is to though. for me that's exciting. i like being in a place where i don't speak the language, i have no idea what the menus say, i don't understand the customs. as long as the food is delicious and people care about what's going on, different is good.

>> this is tripoli. after 42 years of nightmare. how to build a whole society overnight and make it work in one of the most contentious and difficult areas of the world is what people are trying to figure out. >> outside tripoli's center, there's this. one time access of all power and untold evil. a huge complex of sinister offices, bare risks on top of

secret tunnels and underground facilities. gadhafi's enormous compound. on august 23rd, 2011, it fell to the rebels. gadhafi and his family having fled. this is what's left of gadhafi's palace. >> when's the last time you were here? the machinery is going to do the fighting. after then coming a lot of people, normal people listening about something expensive here

like the salt and like the gold. >> stop. stop now. >> they want us to stop filming now. >> we didn't notice local pickup trucks had closed in on us. >> i stopped. >> you stop. >> just relax. >> this is their turf or their area of operation or somehow under their control. whatever the case, they are the group in charge today. an argument ensues between our guys and their guys. all of whom fought against the same forces on this ground a year ago. >> let's go.

another morning in tripoli and life goes on. venders are out, people go about their daily routines. >> this is our traditional breakfast. >> what is this dish called? >> a overstretched donut, i suppose. with an egg on top. you can get them with cheese or chili paste or honey. >> how do you like yours? >> i like mine cooked. >> what's the name of this neighborhood? this was the first neighborhood to rise up? >> yes, this is the first to rise up. >> why this neighborhood?

>> it's been always liked by regime. it made them feel like they are not pr this country. >> we kbo for it. >> dip it right in the egg. >> delicious. >> so where were you when it all started? >> i was in manchester at the time. >> why? >> by the 27th, i have in libya. >> we went out to see his house yesterday. >> i was one of the guys that entered from the southern gates. >> he's in the security business. a thriving industry here as you could probably imagine. >> a lot of things happen in a lot of different parts of the country. kind of amazing all these people came together really it's a. >> how did it happen? easy. >> twitter. >> twitter. >> it was really like that? >> we send so much information. we sent out a phone call. we get a call.

we verify that there's the location that needs to be hit. send it and it's done. >> really? >> yeah. >> how does that know you can call in a tomahawk missile there? did anyone think it was possible they would see the end? most people are telling me they never dreamed. >> i don't know if you can call them dreams, hopes, wishes. it was just something in the sky. something i look at every night. but when i hit that point and got and stood on gadhafi's body, any dream would come true. >> what's the situation now? >> it's fluent. it can swing any direction. >> what happened in benghazi a few months ago, what does this mean to the country? >> it's a dark, mysterious hand that doesn't like this country to prosper.

they see system and organization as a big enemy to them. these are slowly diminishing. it's a matter of time before we can get rid of them. we got rid of gadhafi. >> i like your attitude. >> kids! >> this was supposed to be the biggest, fanciest hotel in town. like a the newer structures they stopped when they started to pull down the government. there are cranes building nothing at the moment. it's frozen as everybody figures out what happens next. let's wait and see. it's one of many moments of unexpected weirdness in libya. the frozen weight and see hotel. and a pickup truck with militia looking at us.

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i had a colonoscopy before coming here. it was far more enjoyable. i thought longingly of that comfortable table, gentle probing, the slow drip of synthetics into my bloodstream.

good times. >> so far we have shot a bunch of interesting places. the challenge is this. it's always how do we make a show that looks completely different than the show we did last week? it's nice if you really liked last week's show, but i'm not going to do ha one again. i would rather make a show you really hate as long as it's different and it was interesting for us. it's about moving forward. it's about doing things differently. i feel like elton john at home. oh, yeah, it's when the other ones start to come in is when it gets really good. you know you're not in new jersey.

you know you're someplace. >> i lived in one room in the native quarter. i had not taken a bath in a year nor changed my clothes or removed them except to stick a needle every hour in the flesh of terminal addiction. i never cleaned or dusted the room. empty boxes and garbage piled up to the ceiling. light and water long since turned off for nonpayment. i did absolutely nothing. i could look at the end of my shoe for eight hours. i was only roused to action when the hour glass of junk ran out. the words of william burro, one of my heroes. he came here in 1953, shortly

after shooting his wife to death in a drunken accident in mexico city. he was a heroin atick, a homosexual and who came to be known as the beats. burros was not a hipster. there was nothing beatnick about him. he was a somewhat stuffy, well dressed st. louis son of a good family gone wrong. he was also, to my mind, the greatest writer of the whole damn bunch. on the road, you can have it. his classic naked lunch was written here. a nonlinear, dark, dry-humored, profane masterpiece. burros was apparently high for much of the process. on heroin or a locally available precipitation opiate. the daily staple of many of these parts hashish. how was it made?

this is what i wanted to know. they were kind enough to demonstrate. it's chopped into fine granules and added to melted butter and chocolate to toast it it and release the goodies within. the element is slow cooking in the pan, a combination of spices are blended with cashews, almonds and dried fruit. this will be the framework to suspend the thc goodness in the next step. the cannabis-laced buttered chocolate is added to combine all the ingredients. then mix.

last, you roll the entirety of the mixture into a ball and need to refrigerate or dig right in. >> you could spend five years of your life, you know, sitting around in a room looking out a that direction going, whoa, dude. i think a lot of people have spent five years pretty much doing that. whoa, dude. >> i'm not going to suddenly join a rogue company of king leer or learn to play drums. but as long as i'm telling stories, i would like to tell a different story every week. and i ask myself, will it be interesting to me? it's a very selfish process. will it be fun? if i don't have any expectations of it it being fun, will it be interesting? who will it be interesting to?

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because zyrtec® starts working at hour one on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour three. zyrtec®. love the air. claritin® doesn't start working until hour three. because what you dont know can hurt you.urance, what if you didn't know that it's smart to replace washing-machine hoses every five years? what if you didn't know that you might need extra coverage for more expensive items? and what if you didn't know that teen drivers are four times more likely to get into an accident? 'sup the more you know, the better you can plan for what's ahead.

talk to farmers and get smarter about your insurance. ♪ we are farmers bum - pa - dum, bum - bum - bum -bum ♪ i'd say i feel cleansed, but that could be the diarrhea. i don't understand this purging thing. juice cleanse, right?

just travel it with this show for awhile. i'm feeling good, but my crew is clean as a whistle. that's no fault of the fine cuisine. i think it was the hotel buffet. you warn them, do they listen? i guess i'm at the point in my life where i can get off a plane and i think it's true of all of us that make the show. you get off the plane and walk out of the airport and you inhale. i don't know what it is. it's like a smell like this place smells like someplace we're going to be making interesting television. this is going to be interesting and fun. other places sneak up on you. over the course of a week or however many days i'm on vacation gradually come found my expectations. i come out thinking something contrary to my assumptions when

i arrived in a place. that's a really good feeling. >> wow, nice. >> best to wait this one out a little bit. crashes are pretty common place. not so long ago a plane with 100 people on board went down on the same route we're taking today. >> most planes crash in congo crash because of the weather. >> most of the time. >> not us. don't worry. >> the weather clears up. sort of. so we decide to give it a go. our destination, what comrade referred to at heart of darkness as the inner station. here surrounded by dense jungle lies our rendezvous with the congo river. in heart of darkness, conrad writes about the greed of the kol lon newser.

they grab what they could. it was just robbery with violence. aggravated murder on a great scale. and after 75 years, they had had enough. but independence came quickly. when the new country imagined to inaugurate their first leader, the cia and british working through the belgiums had him killed. we helped to install this guy in his place. he stole billions of dollars from his people and pretty much became the template for december pitism in africa. needless to say, this situation deteriorated over the next 30 odd years and by the time he was done, the congo was mired in a series of civil wars, the government was no longer paying its bills and the trains basically stopped running.

this is kissengoni station. there's one short run left. service once a week when operational, which isn't often, i'm guessing. abandoned by the belgiums, shot up and stripped by rebels in the '90s, the station, the engines, the ancient passenger cars and the tracks themselves have slowly receded into the jungle. and yet all these years later with hardly any resources, the railway administrator and a

staff of clerks, conductors, mechanics and engineers show up at work and do what they can in an attempt to keep things in working order. the railway employees, i'm told, do not get paid, yet they continue to show up at work. it is said of the building of the country's once vast rail network, one congolese died for every single tie.

like many we meet, they are all these years later, and in spite of everything that's happened, ready. and waiting for the situation to improve. i wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave you one? i've wanted to come to the congo for as long as i've been telling stories and making television. i've been a student of its history. it's a place that has always

fascinated me, in sort of an awful and mesmerizing way. and i knew it was going to be a frustration. a dangerous place when you're at the mercy of many, many, many unpredictable things. i wanted to come here. and i did. you think you take off all your make-up before bed. but do you really? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. can your makeup remover do that? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover. just by talking to a helmet. it grabbed the patient's record before we even picked him up. it found out the doctor we needed was at st. anne's. wiggle your toes. [ driver ] and it got his okay on treatment from miles away.

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i think you can definitely look forward to ever-more challenging locations. interspersed with some really comfortable plumbing. by the way, that japanese toilet, i think just in case anyone at cnn is listening, you know those japanese toilets with all the bells and whistles that play music and squirt warm water at you? i think that would be a really nice sort of end of season two gift. hint hint. would love one of those. >> this is your first time? >> i usually try to avoid clean,

social countries without massive social problems? if you're not already the poster boy for the entire country, you should be. >> this is a lifestyle. you have to be a person that combines so many different skills. you have to know more of the land. >> you were saddled with the weight of best restaurant in the world. >> i know, this looks totally bogus. it's fantastic. >> you have to work 20 hours a day in order to achieve this. >> let's go. >> it's so much less about whoo! it's about bang. >> and these elements. >> what places have you been that you can compare? >> no place. that's whole different world. >> beautiful!

>> i don't understand anything other than that was awesome. what the hell happened here? it is post-apocalyptic. >> most of this happened within five years.

>> within the last five years? >> yeah. >> wow. if i were from detroit, would i be eating this with my hands or with a fork? >> probably with your hands. >> that's delicious. >> the building completely empty. >> empty. unbelievable. >> the white one is being rehabbed. there's money coming in. the one next to it on the right is completely empty. this is 140 square miles. so you're going to get tall grass. >> it is one of the most beautiful cities in america. it speaks of those industrial dreams of an endlessly glorious future. the people who built these structures, they were thinking big. >> they were. >> they were looking at a new rome. and they built it, actually. it's awesome here. i started doing this late in life. i'm just too old and too mean,

too old, too mean, and too dumb to change. so i can't say that i'm evolving or maturing or doing anything differently. same dick i was 13 years ago. it's easily the most contentious piece of real estate in the world, and there's no hope, none, of ever talking about it without pissing somebody, if not everybody, off. maybe that's why it's taken me so long to come here. a place where even the names of ordinary things are ferociously disputed. where does falafel come from? who makes the best hummus? is it a fence or a wall? by the end of this hour, i'll be seen by many as a terrorist sympathizer, a zionist too