"Vietnam. It grabs you and doesn't let you go. Once you love it, you love it forever," CNN's Anthony Bourdain said. During this visit, he explored Halong Bay, pictured, and dined with President Obama in Hanoi.
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Nashville, Tennessee —
Authentic country music by Margo Price is just one of many diverse sounds coming out of Music City. Bourdain took full advantage of Nashville, Tennessee's nightlife. "We limped back to New York damaged but happy," he said.
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London —
Bourdain intended to make a carefree, food-centric episode in London, but the Brexit vote changed the show's course. "I woke up to a London blinking in shock," he said.
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Houston, Texas —
In Houston, musician Slim Thug (second from left) gave Bourdain a primer on Slab, the city's unique car culture. Among the key slab requirements? Candy-colored paint and elbow rims.
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Manila, Philippines —
Last season, "Parts Unknown" explored Manila. "I have noticed some things, some features of Filipino daily life that I thought worth investigating," Bourdain wrote.
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Senegal —
Senegal "is a country that defies stereotypes and expectations at every turn," Bourdain said. Here, a breakfast vendor waits for customers in Saint-Louis.
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Okinawa, Japan —
"It feels, relative to mainland Japan, like Southern California or Florida: balmy, tropical. Where the mainland feels frenetic, wired tight and neurotic, Okinawa is decidedly laid-back," Anthony Bourdain said.
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Naxos, Greece —
On the Greek island of Naxos, "there's a lot of delicious food. The place is, as one would expect, gorgeous. But there are surprises," Bourdain said.
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Montana —
Montana inspires patriotism in even the most skeptical. "You'll soon be wrapping yourself in the flag and yelling, "America, **** yeah!" with an absolute and non-ironic sincerity that will take you by surprise," Bourdain wrote.
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Colombia —
"I'm a fan of its people, its music, its food and its disarmingly injured pride," Bourdain said of Colombia. The country's high-altitude capital, Bogotá, is situated among Andean peaks.
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Bagan, Myanmar —
In the "Parts Unknown" series premiere, Bourdain visited the Shwesandaw Pagoda in Bagan, Myanmar. After seeing so many world wonders, "it's something really special to be thrilled by ruins -- hair stand-up-on-back-of-neck-excited by a view," Bourdain said.
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Koreatown in Los Angeles —
Los Angeles' busy Koreatown is filled with restaurants, markets and strip malls. Bourdain explored the neighborhood in season 1 with chef Roi Choi and artist David Choe.
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Cologne, Germany —
Nothing says "Cologne" more than a tray of freshly poured Kölsch beers in one of the many brauereis the German city has to offer.
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Tangier, Morocco —
In Tangier, "you can walk around the movie inside your head, play the Bogey character you never were, all against an all-too-willing, all-too-genuine backdrop," Bourdain said. The Moroccan city sits across from Spain on the northwestern coast of Africa.
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Peru —
Bourdain and his friend chef Eric Ripert explored the far reaches of Peru's Andes in search of a rare variety of wild cacao that is said to be the best in the world.
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Congo —
Wagenia tribesmen fish the rapids on the Congo River. "It is the most relentlessly f***ed-over nation in the world, yet it has long been my dream to see Congo. And for my sins, I got my wish," Bourdain said.
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Jerusalem —
Bourdain and chef Yotam Ottolenghi enjoy a meal at the restaurant Azura in Jerusalem. No matter your background or life experience, "you should see this," Bourdain said.
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New Mexico —
"New Mexico is an enchanted land, where people are largely free to create their own world," Bourdain said. The food is great, too.
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Denmark —
"I am intimidated and made uncomfortable by safe, clean, orderly places," Bourdain said of Scandinavia. But the season 2 show centered around the celebrated restaurant NOMA in Copenhagen is perhaps the "best-looking hour of television we've ever made."
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South Africa —
"Meat on the plate, blood on my pants -- life is good" is how Bourdain summed up this grilling adventure in South Africa.
Tokyo —
"For those with restless, curious minds, fascinated by layer upon layer of things, flavors, tastes and customs which we will never fully be able to understand, Tokyo is deliciously unknowable," Bourdain said.
Detroit, Michigan —
Despite its decay, "Detroit isn't just a national treasure. It IS America," Bourdain said. "And wherever you may live, you wouldn't be there -- and wouldn't be who you are in the same way -- without Detroit."
Punjab, India —
"In India -- Punjab in particular -- the thing you notice first, the thing that stays with you, is the colors," Bourdain said. Here, he attends a traditional festival in Himachal Pradesh, a northern Indian state that borders Punjab.
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Las Vegas —
In Las Vegas, Bourdain looked at both sides of the city: the over-the-top consumption and the " 'Other Vegas.' The Vegas people live in year-round. The Vegas I've always loved."
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Mexico —
"As much as we think we know and love it, we have barely scratched the surface of what Mexican food really is," said Bourdain. Here, Abigail Mendoza, owner of Tlamanalli in Teotitlán del Valle, prepares a feast.
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Russia —
Bourdain and his friend Zamir Gotta bundled up, flasks in hand, for a sleigh ride on a traditional Russian troika. "It's rude. It's boozy. Vladimir Putin won't like it," Bourdain said of this episode set in Russia.
"It's mystical, magical, incredibly colorful and has its own choreography that we worked very hard to capture," Bourdain said of a show set in Bahia, Brazil.
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Shanghai —
"China -- Shanghai in particular -- is a very different-looking place every time I go," Bourdain said. "And I believe that the world as a whole, largely because of what's happening in China, is going to be a very different-looking place."
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The Bronx, New York —
"It hasn't been receiving a lot of love. While it's known very well and appreciated by its fiercely proud residents, many of us who live elsewhere still, unforgivably, see it as relatively unknown territory," Bourdain said of the Bronx in New York.
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Paraguay —
Anthony Bourdain had a very personal mission in Paraguay: He was on the trail of his great-grandfather Jean Bourdain, who is thought to have died in Asuncion.
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Tanzania —
Bourdain visited a Maasai village in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area near Serengeti National Park during an episode about Tanzania.
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Iran —
"What we saw, what we came back with, is a deeply confusing story," Bourdain said of Iran. "Because the Iran you see from the inside, once you walk the streets of Tehran, meet Iranians, is a very different place than the Iran we know from the news."
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Jamaica —
"So many places I look -- even in America, we see a transition to a service economy. Like the Jamaican fishermen we talked to, moving away from the things we once did," Bourdain said after spending time in Jamaica.
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South Korea —
In South Korea, Bourdain ate lots of great food and drank lots of beer and soju. "I have, after much soju, actually gone to Korean karaoke," he admitted.
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Miami —
"We look at both the origins of Miami, the old school, and the dream of Miami," Bourdain said. Here, a resident walks out of B&M Market, a grocery store with a four-seat cafe in the city's Little Haiti neighborhood.
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Madagascar —
In Madagascar, Bourdain traveled with acclaimed filmmaker Darren Aronofsky for a different view of the little-understood island nation. Antananarivo, Tana for short, is its capital.
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New Jersey —
Anthony Bourdain returned to his home state of New Jersey to shoot an episode. "New Jersey, too, was exotic to me once. For much of my childhood."
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Budapest, Hungary —
In Budapest, Bourdain joined famed cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond to look at the city through his lens. "Having now been to Budapest and seen how incredibly, uniquely beautiful it is, I can well understand how so many visual stylists came from there," Bourdain said.
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Hawaii —
Bourdain said of Hawaii, "It's both the most American place left in America (in the best and worst senses of that word) and the least American place (in only the best sense)."
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Beirut, Lebanon —
"This was a city where nothing made any damn sense at all -- in the best possible way," Bourdain said about a return visit to Beirut, Lebanon.
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Cuba —
"The whole world is changing. What is that going to mean?" That's the question Bourdain set out to answer in Cuba.
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Ethiopia —
"This is a very misunderstood country," Bourdain said of Ethiopia. "We're looking to shed a little light."
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Borneo —
"It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth, as remote and as different from where I grew up as any place could be," Bourdain said of Borneo. "The people are lovely -- and the food, as everywhere in Malaysia, incredible."
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Istanbul, Turkey —
The "Parts Unknown" episode filmed in Istanbul "captures a particular moment in time in a beautiful yet troubled country, where it looked for a while like anything was possible," Bourdain said.
