They would soon join the frenzied expat parties in private clubs, where gallons of champagne were drunk on humid nights scented with tropical flowers and jazz bands played until dawn under the slowly beating fans.

WSJ: Saving Myanmar's Priceless Architecture

Solner, a homemaker who grew up on a farm in Wisconsin and enjoys gardening, has several skylit indoor gardens she enjoys tending, often filling them with tropical plants and flowers.

WSJ: The House a Storm Built

Over countless millennia it evolved its own vibrant ecosystem, its volcanic peaks cloaked in deep tropical forests still riot with life: exotic birds, flowers and reptiles, many of these species found nowhere else on the planet.

BBC: Blending of cultures in Mauritius