Pakistani truckers' perilous journey

Meet the men who navigate arguably the world's most dangerous road in order to ferry goods to remote mountain villages.

The Lowari Pass begins in the Pakistani town of Dir and winds its way through the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Hell's Road, as it is known among locals, is 240km long and forms the only supply route to the small villages in the Chitral valley in northwestern Pakistan.

It is a road where even the slightest error can be fatal.

The 20,000 inhabitants of Dir make their living off the road, with tonnes of goods loaded and unloaded from trucks each day. Trucks are the only means of transport in this mountainous region.

A dangerous dash through Kyrgyzstan's harsh winter (Video)

A perilous journey through blizzards and icy roads at death-defying altitudes to deliver mandarins.

Mandarin oranges are a prized commodity in Tajikistan, taken as a symbol of good fortune.

Two drivers from Kyrgyzstan risk their lives on dangerous roads to bring a truckload to the neighbouring Central Asian country - a 413-kilometre journey in a small, 30-year-old truck through 4,000 metre-high mountains.

Kuban and Duysha begin their adventure in Osh, Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city. If the mandarins don't freeze in the cargo hold, they will be sold for scarcely more than the cost of the duo's perilous journey through blizzards and icy roads, at death-defying altitudes.

Dicing with death on the rivers of Vietnam and Laos (video)

Bamboo harvesters navigate rapids on rafts while Lao fishermen risk death casting their nets into a roaring waterfall.

There are two staples of Vietnamese life: rice and bamboo for its many uses.

The province of Thanh Hoa has one of the largest bamboo forests in Southeast Asia, with over 80,000 hectares of natural bamboo forest and 71,000 hectares of planted bamboo.

In just three years, the plant can grow up to eight metres tall.

With the global market for bamboo expanding, the bamboo industry contributes to Thanh Hoa's growing economy and sustains the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale farmers.

"Cutting the bamboo is very tiring work but it's the only we can make a living," says a bamboo labourer. "We go to the forest, cut the bamboo and carry it down to the river."

Surviving the 'swallow,' DR Congo's train of death

Thousands cram onto roofs and narrow spaces between wagons of a 50-year old train, risking severed limbs and death.

In Kamina, an important railway node in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo, every day hundreds of people are getting on a train named after a bird, the "swallow". Locally known as the "hirondelle", it is, for the most part, the only link people in remote villages have to the outside world.

More than 2,000 people, three times the train's capacity, squeeze into its carriages, bathrooms are used for storage. For those who aren't able to find a place or who can't afford a ticket, there's always the roof. The train is unkempt, which makes travelling aboard the 'hirondelle' a dangerously risky journey.

Mongolia: The nomads risking it all

Mongolian herders shift their entire lives across frozen rivers and through 2,000 metre-high mountain passes.

"We're the generation that's been abandoned since the end of communism."

Like many other former gold and jade hunters in Mongolia, Lagva is struggling to make a living since mines across the country have been shut down.

Lagva is sitting on a treasure - owning jade stones worth between $14,000 and $19,000 - but he has yet to receive permission to sell the precious stones.

"I hide the stones in the basement; it's where we used to hang the meat before", says Lagva.

While waiting for the government's permission, Lagva scrapes a living, renting his small, 35-year-old truck to nomadic herdsmen.