found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la sha la la la la la ♪ ♪ sha la la ♪ ♪ >>> hue in central vietnam is someplace i've never been before, but it's still vietnam with all the things, the smells, the sounds, the details i love so much. first night in country, it's like sliding into a warm, deeply comforting familiar bath. i've been all over vietnam, a place i feel a special connection to. my first love, a place i remain, besotted with, fascinated by. so back in vietnam, one of my favorite places on earth. and all of the things i need for happiness. plastic stool, check, tiny little plastic table, check. oh. something delicious in a bowl, check. in this case a local specialty, com hen, clam rice, sweet clams out of their shells, tossed with a wild swirl of mung beans, spicy green chilies, crunchy roasted peanuts, fried pork rind andsy leandro. and a similar variation with rice noodles. that fish sauce with chilies in it, and, oh, that'll just singe your eyebrows off. throw some chilies in. hit with hot clam broth, and you're on your way. i'm back. ba

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la ♪ >> last time i saw all this, i think it's fair to say i was at a turning point in my life. i promised some people i'd come back, and i am back. my life has changed a lot. how much have their lives changed? kuala lumpur. happy to be here, but brimming with mixed emotions. surrounded by all the sights, smells, and flavors i remember so well. this is where a wandering soul such as myself can dive right in and get some of that straight chinese food i've been missing. first order of business, dinner. been on a plane for, like, i don't know, this long. very long. saw, like, five mark wahlberg films. i can't tell you how excited i am about the prospect of getting some black pepper crab, and some pork related noodles and a regional beverage. reasonably cold. i don't even know what this is. i love you, noodles. don't want to get all heavy and philosophical at this point, but why i'm here, what my mission is, what i expect to find, basically me tracing my steps and all that. we'll

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la ♪ shaa la la la >>> what do you need to know about tokyo? deep, deep waters. the first time i came here, it was like -- it was a transformative experience. it was a powerful and violent experience. it was as if -- it was just like taking acid for the first time. meaning what do i do now? i see the whole world in a different way. i often compare the experience of going to japan for the first time, going to tokyo for the first time to what eric clapton and pete townsend must have gone through, the reigning guitar gods of england. what they must have gone through the week that jimi hendrix came to town. you hear about it, you go see it. a whole window opens up into a whole new thing. and you think, what does this mean? what do i have left to say? what do i do now? welcome to tokyo. you are not invited. this is the other tokyo. 12-hour flight and i'm baked. no sleep. might as well -- must -- go out. ♪ the kabukicho district near my hotel has the advantage of being where the subterranean life, t

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la >> it has been a turbulent year for turkey. and i arrive in istanbul at the moment of a critical election. the question on everyone's mind is whether the current president and his ruling party will win a large enough majority to change the constitution, potentially allowing him to stay in power indefinitely. these have been good times for some. particularly in the construction and development business. and fearful ones for others. they are particularly concerned about what happens next, for instance, in the kurdish parts of town. ♪ >> our polls are opening. turkey's voters choose a new parliament which could lead to big changes in the country's political system. >> the ruling justice and development party expected to take most of the seats. >> but how much power the president actually has will be determined by the success or failure of the kurdish party. >> the hdp, originally a kurdish political party, has sought to unite the disparate voices calling for change in respons

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la ♪ shaa la la la >>> the mediterranean sea itself trembles. the ground shakes beneath the wheels of our heavy metal thunder. back in beirut, after all these years. the first time i was here it did not end well but it made no difference to me. i love it here. in spite of everything, i love it here. >> nice ride. it's a good way to see beirut. >> this is very similar to that place we went to years ago. this is your traditional chicken sandwich. >> the broasted chicken was this man's idea, ramsey short who i met in the bad old days of 2006. apparently he's in with the lebanese chapter of the harley davidson group, or hog for short. so when you roll into some religiously conservative villages on the bikes and leather jackets what is the reaction? >> two types. once we were pelted with rice and the other extreme was stones at the wheels like just get out of here. >> i wouldn't throw stones at people on harleys. whoa. look at this. let's dig in. >> this is a famous neighborhood. this area was cent

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la ♪ >>> this is okinawa. just south of mainland japan. for all the relative rigidity of the mainland, okinawa answered in its own unique way. don't eat the same thing each day. that's boring. there's even an okinawan term for it, champuru, something mixed. borrowed from all over, served up for anyone to eat. maybe you're more familiar with the name, okinawa, from this, as the setting for some of the most horrifyingly bloody battles of the second world war. how horrifying? for the allies, there were more than 50,000 casualties with around 12,000 killed or missing in action. over nearly three months of fighting. more than 100,000 japanese soldiers and okinawan conscripts were killed defending the island. civilians were stuck in the middle of the two armies and got crushed. no one will know for sure, but historians estimate 150,000 men, women, and children lost their lives during the battle. what most don't know is that okinawa had only become japan fairly recently. that to a g

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ shala la la la la >> cuba has been sitting here 55 years now, half an hour away, basically giving the biggest superpower in the world the stiff middle finger. 50-plus years of animosity, embargo, rationing, and fidel castro is still hanging on. but recently, there are powerful indications that everything is about to change. we are in a little fishing town. this place is where two brothers go out and fish every morning and bring fresh seafood. >> humble fishing village, traditional fishing family? >> yes. >> what about the sushi? what's going on in this country, man? >> things are changing, anthony, what can i say? >> my name is hugo. i was born in cuba. i was in one of cuba's most prominent schools when i made a joke about president fidel castro. i was a teenager. the kid that slept on the bunk bed on top of me recorded our conversation and i was expelled from school. my mom said the only choice is for us to leave cuba. i've lived in miami 35 years. it's my home base. i come back and fort

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ shaa la la la >>> the biggest difference between korean fried chicken and american fried chicken -- >> chicken tonight? >> i feel so clean. >> where is my ticket? >> next i'll be performing a medley from "flavor town." who is everybody here? >> oh, yeah, baby. come to me, come to me. powerful in a small girly way. is this drinks that goes with food or food that goes with a triumphant return to korea? it should surprise no one that i'm in a happy place right now. >> maybe the best way to tell this story is to start at the end. like a dog returning to its own vomit, i keep flashing back to was it last night, the night before? i smell fried chicken on my clothes, so perhaps -- hello, nari. >> we meet again. >> am i glowing and healthy pink? >> you look like a better version of yourself. why is that? >> because i've lost about eight pounds of dead skin. >> koreans really like the idea of being the optimal cleanliness, you know? we like to be the most clean possible. >> i don't know. you know,

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ shala la la ♪ >>> colombia, ordinarily and for all too many years, when this country makes the news or appears in a film or a television drama, it's not for its looks, which are, i should say right up front, spectacular. it's not for its people who everyone i've ever met, anyway, warm, proud, generous and fun. or for its food, which is truly great. i don't know what this is, but it's good. food in this country is excellent. ♪ >> i'm no stranger to this place. generally speaking, it's a particularly vibrant mix of spanish, european, afro-caribbean, and indigenous people. these are deep waters, my friends, that no news story or episode of "miami vice" has ever come close to navigating. it is and always has been a fiercely, fiercely proud country, and its people yearn to see international coverage of something other than cocaine and violence, but that isn't a legacy that's easy to ignore. its decades of civil unrest have left vast swaths of colombia relatively unknown, even to its own citize

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ shala la la [ laughter ] >>> whiskey for farmer. >> oh, that's good. trying to kill us. >> they make more than 100 bottles a day, so 30,000 bottles. that's a lot of -- did i do that right? or have i had too many whiskeys? [ laughter ] >> how did this happen? how did i get here? coming into focus, the man across the table. he looks familiar. maybe if i can remember who he is, it will be a clue as to where i am. >> okay. >> right. andy. andy ricker. the white guy who cooks awesome thai food. >> is it pretty spicy? put that in there. >> pok pok in portland. restaurants in new york. andy's made a name for himself faithfully reproducing the cuisine of northern thailand. >> mm. >> the good stuff. comes from places like here. rice country. chiang mai province. in this part of the world you live and die by the harvest. thai food is intensely regional. and northern thailand in particular has many distinctive features. this is a world of fresh, delicious, spicy, meaty, salty, sour, sweet, bitter. o

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la >>> hawaii is america. as american as anything could possibly be. yet it also never shed what was there before in the layers and layers that have come since. it's a wonderful tricky conflicted hell broth in lack of a better word that you'd have to call paradise. >> no way it's a paradise. paradises don't exist. paradise is kind of in your head. >> wait a minute. you look at your window here. you look at those hills, those mountains, all that green, that blue sky. the clear sea. it sure looks like paradise to me. this guy knows. he's been everywhere. he's paul thoreau. novelist, essayist, he's a legendary travel writer. of the all the places he's been, all the places he's seen, he chose hawaii to live and he's lived here for 25 years. >> does it matter that it's america? >> it's the big thing that it's america. it has elements of the third world. the nicest elements of the third world which is that it is funky. there is self-respect. there's the pride. things that don't wor

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha lala la >>> this house came to be built by a dr. blake, who was in the eastern company service. my grandfather came to be nominated to the body called the council of state, which used to be a part of british india. >> it was another time, one that few still remember, the india before partition, when these rooms, this house, was part of the seat of power. >> i had the privilege of being born in this house upstairs. >> this was the maharaja's bed. i mean, his chambers are present. >> and it was the routine that we would all ride up into my grandfather's room to wish him good morning, and then we'd all come down for breakfast. >> the walls tell a story, many stories. >> there used to be a lot of animosity. there were two very divided classes in india, so there was a lot of tension between the ruled and the rulers, but that was a different time, you know. now i think back, and it's more like a fairy tale. ♪ ♪ >> day one in northern india near the pakistan border. this is amritsar, the indian

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, la >>> o enchanted land of my childhood, a cultural petri dish from which regularly issues forth greatness. new jersey, in case you didn't know it, has got beaches, beautiful beaches, and they're not all crawling with raging trolls with reality shows. i grew up summering on those beaches and they're awesome. jersey's got farmland, beautiful bedroom communities. where the woman from real house lives does not live, nor anyone like her. even the refineries, the endless clover leaves of turnpikes and expressways somehow beautiful. to know jersey is to love her. ft. lee, you may have heard of it. some of governor christie's minions allegedly conspired to jam up traffic a few days. it's a town with a joky history of corruption. it's also where my beloved hiram's is. opened since 1932 and unchanged since, my dad started bringing me and my younger brother here in the 50s and they still honor tradition. >> sometimes i just the need that old flavor. it seems like a chew foo

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ shala la la la la ♪ >>> it's amazing arriving here after all you see on tv these days that libya is, in fact, functioning at all. but it is. the fountains across from the corniche are operating. traffic works, kind of. at the radisson, club sandwiches arrive on time in the lobby. the occasional flash of camo and a security scanner are really the only discordant notes. >> you don't want to take the video. >> oh, you don't, okay. inside the old part of the city men slaughter a camel while a girl rorsd it with her ipad. >> no? okay. he said no. kids are setting off fireworks in the medinah. incoming. tomorrow is the prophet muhammad's birthday, and people who have not known freedom for nearly 50 years are ready to celebrate. martyrs square is filled with families, kids, teenage skater boys and hotshots on motorcycles. it's wild. and almost giddily happy. young men in the camouflage pants of the militias, most of whom were civilians until last year, do their best to sporadically keep order or

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪ >> tazir, it's morocco. but from 1923 through 1956, it was loosely governed by the major powers, an international zone. for years, it seemed everything was permitted. nothing was forbidden. but the northern tip of africa, a shart ferry hop from spain, tangier wutds was a magnet for writers, remittance men, spies and artists. if you were a bad boy of your time, you liked drugs, the kind of sex that was frowned upon at home and an affordable lifestyle set against an exotic background, tangier was for you. matisse, genest, william burroughs. many have come this way, staying a while or hanging around. but no one stayed longer or became more associated with tangier than the novelist and composer paul bowles. in works like "the sheltering sky" he created a romantic vision of tangier that persists even today, a dream that's become almost inseparable in the minds of many from reality. i'm here to find that dream city. the place burroughs referred to as "interzone." ♪ tan

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, lala, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ >>> there's nothing like the north atlantic. it's majestic. i love the beach. pretty much had my first everything on a beach. you name it, first time i did it, beach. i was miserable in love, happy in love, alternately, as only a 17-year-old could be. this is where i lived. very happy summer in the early '70s, and that was my room on the left. it's an amazing spot if you think about it, a bunch of knuckle heads working as dish washers, pizza servers. we could live on a beach like this. happier, stupider times. you know, i can still hear the play list, the brothers johnson. strawberry letter. if you put on marvin gaye right now, i'd burst into tears. ♪ what do you do? you're young, you go to the beach, you know, you get laid, and you get high. it was here, all the way out at the tip of cape cod, provincetown, massachusetts, where the pilgrims first landed. and it was where i first landed. 1972, washed in a town with a head full of orange sunshine and a few friends

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la la la ♪ sha la la la lala la ♪ ♪ >> i was raised without religion. one side of the family long ago catholic, i think. the other side, jewish. i've never been in a synagogue. i don't believe in a higher power. but that doesn't make me any less jewish, i don't think. these guys sandbagging me at the wailing wall, they don't seem to think so either. >> you jewish? >> only half. >> half jewish? >> yes. >> you writer? >> i'm a writer, yes. [ speaking hebrew ] >> so now you bar mitzvah. mazel tov. >> mazel tov. thank you, gentlemen. >> i've never felt so much like i'm masquerading as something i'm not. i'm instinctively hostile to any kind of devotion. certainty is my enemy. you know, i'm all about doubt. questioning oneself and the nature of reality constantly. when they grabbed hold of me and in a totally nonjudgmental way essentially god's happy to have you here, here you go. oh, man, you know. my treachery is complete. just because i was raised outside the faith with no particular attachment or loyalty to isra

found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha lala la >>> all i knew was that this town was going down, and no one was showing up. and so, we as koreans figured that out really quickly. there's a point where you and i look at each other and say -- >> they're not coming. >> they're not coming. you know, like -- >> the choppers will not be here anytime soon. >> that's when all the stuff started to go down. >> roy choi is a second-generation korean-american. he lives in los angeles. he's the owner-operator of four groundbreaking and much-loved food trucks, among the first to harness the strange and terrible powers of social media to alert customers to where to find delicious food. >> this was the command post. from here, you know, you could look and you could see if fires were going on. >> when the los angeles riots happened in 1992, roy was 22 years old. and this plaza's rooftop played a central role for koreans defending their town. but let's back up a bit. after the immigration act of 1965, thousands of koreans began arriving in l.a

> in yangon, the capital city ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ is a la la la la la la ♪ is a la la la la ♪ sha >>> in yangon, the capital city of myanmar, it's dark. blackouts are frequent, with the ancient power grid. but sources of light there are in the street cast an eerie yellow-orange hue. for almost 100 years under british rule, this was rangoon. in 1948 after helping the british fight off the japanese, there was a new taste for self-determination, the country gained independence. after a decade of instability, however, the military consolidated power and never let go. elections? they came and went. the results ignored, opposition punished, or silenced entirely. burma, now myanmar, where orwell once served as a colonial policeman, where he first had grown to despise the apparatus of a colonial state, make more orwellian than imagined, in a nation where even having an opinion could be dangerous. >> i am very honored to be here at this university and to be the first president of the united states of america to visit your country. >> morning in yangon, to nearly everyone's surprise, there

something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha, la, la, la, la ♪ sha, la, la, la, la, la ♪ shala, la, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ >> thank you. good to be here finally. it's taken some time. like a lot of time. like four years i've been trying. finally. tehran. city of nearly 8 million people. capital of iran. it feels like there are neighborhoods of rome that's built like these. after all this time i finally had my chance to see a country i'd heard so much about. the weather is nice. i don't know what i was expecting, but it's nice. a big blank spot on nearly every traveler's resume. merci. delicious. thank you. >> once upon a time there was an ancient kingdom where they found a lot of magical black stuff under the ground. but two other kingdoms had the key to the magical black stuff, and when they wouldn't share, the people of the ancient kingdom got mad. they voted, and their leader said the magical black stuff is ours to keep. but the other kingdoms were afraid of losing all of the magical black stuff so they gave money to some bad men to get rid of the leader. they put back in powe