Bangkok → Tirana

From Bangkok's legendary floating bazaars where vendors paddle through chaos, we drift to Addis Ababa's Mercato — one of Africa's largest open-air markets, where the hustle is just as glorious and the goods just as wonderfully unpredictable.

Addis Ababa's Mercato pulses with the memory of an island that changed the world — and from here we sail to Dakar's Gorée Island, where the weight of colonial history is felt in every cobblestone and doorway of no return.

From Gorée's haunting slave-trade legacy, we weave toward Istanbul — another city where East met West in dramatic historical fashion, and where a textile tradition has been knotted into the very fabric of civilization.

Having tied our knots in Istanbul's rug-weaving tradition, we spin onward to Tirana — where Albania's distilled spirit, raki, is the liquid handshake of local culture, poured freely in kitchens where recipes are woven just as tightly as carpet threads.