Anyone who has visited Asia will know life is lived on the streets throughout the continent - from eating and drinking, to shopping and socialising with friends and neighbours.

It is a very different culture to life in Britain where mostly people spend their time in specific buildings - the home or the office, or at specific destinations like the pub, a restaurant or cafe to get together.

So the effect of the coronavirus restrictions has been different to the UK, tour operator Gareth Johnson says from the house he's renting in Cambodia's tourism capital Siem Reap.

Gareth moved to Asia more than 10 years ago from Chatham after setting up a travel business which offers trips to some of the more obscure places in the world not usually associated with travel.

While it's a fact the infrastructure in large parts of south east Asia is behind those of western countries in terms of healthcare and sanitation, Gareth says he feels safer from coronavirus in Cambodia than he would if he returned to the UK.

Gareth, who lives in China when he's not on the road, saw the situation getting worse as the outbreak rapidly developed in the country before fanning out across the world and tells of how lockdown there was implemented far more quickly than it was in Britain.

"We were being advised by Dominic Raab and the Foreign Office to get back as quickly as we could but there wasn't much advice on how to do that.

"It was a very tough decision on whether to stay in Asia, but honest to God I now feel I made the right decision staying in Asia."

The Chinese government ordered it would be closing the border to Hong Kong in February and as Gareth saw the situation worsening in China, he managed to get across with 90 minutes to spare.

"I self-isolated and that was when they were advising people to go back to the UK. But I was seeing how they were handling things in China and Hong Kong and it looked as though they weren't taking it that seriously in the UK.

"But I've got my life and my business here. Obviously I know if I'm back in the UK there's free medical care and things like that but initially I felt it best to wait out things in Asia."

The 40-year-old explains how conditions on the ground in China were far more restrictive than it has been in the UK including security guards everywhere, showing a passport and having a temperature check before going in to where he lived.

The government also issued a voucher to one person in the household allowed to leave once per day to get shopping.

So, Gareth and two colleagues made their way to Cambodia - the last country to close its borders and restrict visas - as they tried to negotiate visa restrictions for foreigners and avoid being trapped as countries like Vietnam continued to close.

"I realised then they weren't letting any foreigners in so the only place we could meet was Cambodia as the last place to let people in and decide where we would go from there.

"We've rented a place here and trying to see how things are going. There's lots of expats here sort of stranded and waiting to get advice from their embassies.

"The question came up again about staying.

"Australians were here and managed to get out and if you look at the advice on the websites for the Australian and British foreign officers, it's like night and day.

"The main way people have been getting out is from chartered flights and another via South Korea.

"But the Australians that get out are being put straight into 14 days quarantine whilst British people it's 'please can you isolate yourselves'.

"Knowing this information and seeing how seriously they've taken it in Asia, I don't think the UK is a good place to be during coronavirus."

The impact of coronavirus is having a devastating impact for Cambodia - one of the poorest countries in the world.

Siem Reap, in the north-west of Cambodia, is the nation's biggest tourist spot and attracts 2.4 million visitors a year - mostly to visit the ancient temples of Angkor Wat, which is now totally deserted.

It is also famous for its area called Bar Street - a packed crossroads full of pubs, restaurants, bars, karaoke venues, street vendors, markets, music and bright lights.

The streets are normally crawling with tuk-tuks, pedestrians, cars and bikes all trying to get around in the loosely organised chaos that is a south-east Asian city.

Gareth says about 90% of the Pub Street bars are closed but Cambodia is not locked down as strictly as China.

"They've banned inter-provincial travel," he says. "We've got a local shop next to us and he's got this rope up so you can't go in so you ask him to serve you. But it's funny because the kids keep running underneath this rope so it's all a bit pointless."

"You have to wear a mask and there's signs up. Most of the street food is closed down and the markets are still quite busy but it's not busy Asia style and not many people on the roads."

But the King of Cambodia is expected to announce a state of emergency with tighter restrictions to call in the military to patrol the streets to enforce rule more seriously.

Gareth says seeing the once busy streets now empty, bars once spilling into the road now closed and the variety of street food stalls no longer there has been "crazy and very, very strange".

"I've never seen anything like it," he adds. "When we went to Angkor Wat, there was literally nobody else there. It was very eye-opening and in some respects there are positives - less cars, bikes and factories open so much less pollution going on."

Locals are coming to terms with the lockdown and Gareth says they "have largely accepted it".

He says it could be explained by a recent history of authoritarian rule in Asia in countries like China but particularly in Cambodia.

For many Cambodians the brutal dictatorship and genocide led by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime in the 1960s and 1970s is still within living memory.

"But in circumstances like this it's almost better," Gareth says. "It's as though they're more accepting that the collective has to do the right thing and they're more fearful of the repercussions.

"The medical care isn't as good as in Europe so people care, they don't want to go to hospital."

With factories closing and tourism dried up, life has turned to survival mode far more severely than it has done in the UK with no rent and mortgage freezes or furlough schemes.

"You either work or you don't work here. The friends we have made have almost all had their work cut and wages cut by 80% and hours cut but they still have mortgages and rents to pay," Gareth says.

"A single room with a bath is only $50 a month but it's easy to say only when you have money. Even people working relatively full-time, they're only pulling in a couple of hundred a month.

"If people aren't working because of tourism they're not earning and there's no safety net.

"But when things get desperate the danger level goes up."

Gareth's business - Young Pioneer Tours - which he founded in 2008 takes people to places like North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Chechnya, Chernobyl and other far flung 'dark tourist' spots, is extremely vulnerable due to extreme travel bans.

He says he's confident the business will survive and is planning three months at a time with interest flowing in future tours through the 50 travel blog posts the team is writing every month and the launch of a new membership scheme offering discounts on tours "once the world gets back to normal".

But he reveals the company has still been receiving a surprisingly high number of inquiries for trips which he says he's had to "politely explain the situation".

"We're working on a few ideas but if you're entrepreneurial there's ways around things."

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