BANGKOK - I follow Etienne de Villiers through the flower-filled lobby of the legendary Mandarin Oriental Bangkok — the most welcoming entrance in the industry — and up a staircase to the property’s mezzanine.

BEIJING - Thanks to the guidance of my friend Monica and a few other Beijing locals, my second pilgrimage to China’s populous capital (and the cultural centre of my heritage) was infinitely more authentic and rewarding than my first trip here — a mundane bus tour of the city’s tourist traps during my adolescence 13 years ago.

SHENZHEN, CHINA - As the late day November sun begins to dip behind the jagged mountains surrounding Genzon Golf Course, I fear the rapidly fading light will prevent me from completing my round at the best golf complex in China — if not all of Asia.

BORNEO, MALAYSIA - This is unlike any other island I am familiar with, shared by three separate countries — Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia as well as orangutans, proboscis monkeys, dwarf rhinos (which you will never see) and tribes of former head hunters. It is so far away from Peninsular Malaysia that your passport is rechecked upon arrival in Malaysian Borneo, as though you were arriving in a new land. And until recently, its highest mountain, Mount Kinabalu, was definitely unknown to most Ca...

HONG KONG - A kaleidoscope of vibrantly hued rhododendron and azalea bushes crawl up through the densely forested emerald hills rising on our left.

BEIJING - I used to eat by the guidebook. Before first travelling to Asia in 2013, I received all the requisite warnings from the local travel clinic — how to avoid malaria, ways to ensure my water was clean for drinking and why I should stay away from street food.

MONGOLIA - North of one of the world’s largest and busiest cities is a vast open land of deep calm, grass and horses. Inner Mongolia is a place to escape my hectic life — and I keep returning to enjoy the vast flat grasslands that give rise to small rolling hills and skies of pristine blue that drift off into the horizon.

HONG KONG - This fascinating city is exhausting for the first-time visitor, as my travelling companion and I discovered on a short stay recently.

TOKYO - Total strangers, speaking every language imaginable, huddle beneath tarps slung between the small sushi restaurants opposite the Tsukiji Fish Market trying to avoid the relentless spring shower.

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM - A month before I was to wind up a long-term volunteer stint in Vietnam, my 89-year-old father Gordon arrived on my doorstep. I was working in Hanoi as a communications advisor with the World University Services of Canada in their Uniterra program, and the local college where I was stationed was closing down for Tet, the lunar New Year’s celebrations.