The island of Hokkaido is a place of fire and ice - lots of volcanoes and plenty of snow. It's a place where skiers from around the world come to enjoy world-class resorts and snow conditions.

MIRISSA, SRI LANKA — I was shuffling my way along a south coast beach at dusk, kicking up sand and ruminating over love found-then-lost-then-found back in Canada, when I nearly collided with four figures hunched in the dark. Three were human, silent and still. The other bucked and flapped.

YOGYAKARTA, Java, Indonesia — Java is an island of the unexpected. Located between Sumatra and Bali in Indonesia — the nation with the biggest Muslim population on the planet — Java is home to the world’s largest Buddhist temple, along with a massive Hindu temple complex that rivals Cambodia’s Angkor Wat.

HONG KONG - Victoria Peak is the hottest tourist attraction in Hong Kong but it offers so much more than just a great view.

ITE LAKE, Mongolia — My first-ever experience staying in a yurt was in this far-flung Mongolian outpost.

TUKTUK, Samosir Island, Sumatra — Here’s a travel riddle: What’s the world’s largest island in a lake — that’s also on an island in the ocean?

KOTA KINABALU, MALAYSIA — The only thing hotter than the suffocating air hanging over this city’s bustling night market are the flames I see spewing from the mouth of a man standing just a few metres from me.

HONG KONG — Artists in Asia’s most colourful city have taken to the streets and are painting the town red — and blue and purple and every colour of the rainbow. And by doing so, they’ve unwittingly created the world’s largest and most interesting outdoor art museum.

TAIPEI — A wall of iPhone photographers crowd around a glass case in the National Palace Museum snapping pictures of one of Taiwan’s greatest treasures — a cabbage.

HUNAN, CHINA — The heat was starting to get to me. Not the heat of the day, but rather the heat of the food served in this southern Chinese province noted for its spicy cuisine.