Subterranean rivers, coral reefs flourishing with life, rocky limestone mountains jutting up out of the sea and pink sand beaches: Southeast Asia is a diverse region offering some of the world’s most spectacular natural sights. The thousands upon thousands of islands that make up Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines as well as the mainland part of Southeast Asia, including Cambodia and Vietnam, offer up astounding biodiversity and what can only be described as tropical paradise.

Erawan Falls, Thailand

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Named after the erawan, the three-headed white elephant of Hindu mythology, Erawan Falls has seven spectacular tiers drawing many visitors to its namesake, the Erawan National Park. Located in the Tenasserim Hills in western Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province, Erawan Falls has crystal-clear blue-green waters and lush greenery, offering an ideal representation of tropical paradise.

Lake Toba, Sumatra

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Not only is Lake Toba a beautiful lake that reaches an incredible 1,666 feet deep, it’s the largest volcanic lake in the world, created after a supervolcanic eruption that occurred sometime between 69,000 and 77,000 years ago. This was a huge, climate-changing event – the largest-known explosive eruption anywhere on earth in the past 25 million years. The eruption killed most humans that were alive at the time and created a ‘population bottleneck’ in Central Eastern Africa and India that forever changed the genetic makeup of the human race.

Mount Bromo, Java, Indonesia

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One of the most-visited tourist attractions in Indonesia, Mount Bromo is an active volcano with a peak reaching 7,641 feet above sea level. The name is derived from the Indonesian pronunciation of Brahama, the Hindu creator god. Mount Bromo is located in the ‘Sea of Sand’, a protected nature preserve, in East Java. It erupts fairly regularly, with several eruptions in 2011 causing a thin layer of ash to accumulate on nearby villages.

Tonlé Sap, Cambodia

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The largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, Tonlé Sap is a UNESCO biosphere brimming with life including large colonies of spot-billed pelicans and stork. What makes this lake even more remarkable is the seasonal direction of flow, which changes twice a year. During monsoon season, water is pushed up from the Mekong River into the lake, flooding nearby fields and forests. This floodplain is the lifeblood of the Cambodian people in this region, providing over 75% of the nation’s annual inland fish catch and 60% of Cambodian’s protein intake.

Chocolate Hills, Bohol, Philippines

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Standing up from the forested landscape in curiously regular brown mounds, the Chocolate Hills are certainly an unusual geographic feature, making them a standout spot in the Philippines. There are at least 1,260 of them, and they’re covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season. They’re nearly symmetrical in shape. Locals have offered many theories on how they developed, but nobody really knows for sure.

Mount Pinatubo, Philippines

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An active stratovolcano on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo was once obscured from view and covered in dense forest that were home to the indigenous Aetas people. But in 1991, the volcano erupted in the second-largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, changing the landscape forever. The eruption cut the volcano’s height by more than 1,000 feet and created a massive caldera that is now Lake Pinatubo. It also led to the relocation of the Aetas, many of whom assimilated into lowland culture.

Phi Phi Island, Thailand

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The Phi Phi islands offer some of Thailand’s most picturesque views, which is saying a lot in an island nation where virtually every natural setting is eye-poppingly beautiful. One of the islands was used as the setting for the 2000 film The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. There are six islands in all, lying about 31 miles southeast of Phuket, and they’re best known for their spectacular limestone mountains with cliffs, caves and white sandy beaches.

Kinabalu National Park, Malaysia

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One of Malaysia’s first national parks, Kinabalu is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with more than 4,500 species of animals and plants, making it one of the most important biological sites in the world. Located in Malaysian Borneo, it covers a large area surrounding Mount Kinabalu. Thousands of climbers reach its pinnacle each year for stunning views of the landscape.

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

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Ha Long Bay (‘Descending Dragon Bay’ in Vietnamese) features thousands of limestone islands and ‘islets’, and several of the islands are hollow. One, the Hang Dau Go, has three large chambers and is marked with 19th century French graffiti from one of its earliest groups of tourists. The bay, located in northeastern Vietnam, is a popular travel destination and is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic animal species.

Komodo Island, Indonesia

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Home of the Komodo dragon, the Komodo Island is just one of the 17,508 islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia. It’s the center of what was once a myth about the creatures, when Dutch sailors believed that the reptile could measure up to 22 feet in length and spit fire. Of course, they soon realized – after killing one of them and getting a good look at it – that while Komodo dragons are, as the world’s largest lizard, pretty impressive at about six feet in length, they aren’t exactly mythical creatures. Another interesting feature of Komodo island is that it has a pink sand beach, one of only seven in the world.

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, Philippines

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One of the ‘new seven wonders of the world’, the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River is found within a limestone karst mountain landscape in the city of Puerto Princesa. The subterranean river cave actually has two stories and a number of small waterfalls. The river winds through the cave before emptying into the South China Sea. The whole area is known as the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National park, and includes one of the largest cave rooms in the world.

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

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Making up a large portion of southwestern Vietnam, the Mekong Deltahas been called a ‘biological treasure trove’ thanks to the recent discovery of over 10,000 new species. The delta is located at the point where the Mekong River empties into the sea and stretches out to cover over 15,000 square miles. Many different landscapes come into play here including flood plains and mountains. THe whole Mekong Delta region could be particularly at risk as climate change causes sea levels to rise; many of its provinces may be flooded by the year 2030.

Tubbataha Reef, Philippines

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Nominated to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world, Tubbataha Reef can be found within the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. A marine sanctuary made up of two coral atolls divided by a 5-mile-wide channel, Tubbataha is considered the best dive site in the Philippines, with coral ‘walls’ where the shallow coral reef drops off abruptly into vast depths full of hammerhead sharks, manta rays, parrotfish and many more species. It’s also home to the endangered hawksbill sea turtle.