Six amazing cruises to take you off the beaten track in Asia

Take a small ship cruise and you can look forward to swapping the bustling cities you’ll find on mainstream Asia cruise itineraries for some of the world’s least visited spots. Sail the frozen coast of Russia’s extreme east in search of bears and whales, or meet the indigenous sea gypsies who make their home on a tropical archipelago off the Myanmar coast. Small ships trump land-based travel in many of these areas, cruising you beyond the crowds to areas of Thailand and the Philippines still unspoilt by mass tourism. If you’re looking for a deserted beach, then these voyages deliver.

Indonesia’s rare reptiles

Here be dragons. Some remote Indonesian islands are not only relatively unexplored, there…