Journeys through Asia

One of the reasons Longitude 80 is part of the Your World is Calling Collective is because of the deep expertise Denis Pagé brings to every journey. He has spent decades travelling and guiding across Asia and the Pacific, building an extraordinary knowledge of places, people and culture. His approach is personal and meticulous — no detail is overlooked, no itinerary ever repeated. In this piece, Denis shares what first drew him to Asia, how those early experiences shaped his way of working, and why the continent continues to inspire him after more than twenty years.

My first vivid memory of Asia was when I went to China in 1999. At the time I was working as a guide and the itinerary was starting in the garden city of Hangzhou. I had never been to Asia before, having spent most of my travel years in Europe, the Caribbean and North America. So you can imagine, this was for me a real adventure. The images of early morning crowds biking by the hundreds along West Lake, others practicing tai chi, dozens of couples ballroom dancing before going to work. That first morning at sunrise will remain with me forever….I was in China….

We travel to have these sorts of images tattooed on our brains. To be amazed, to be in wonder, to question and to understand.

For more than 20 years , I have criss-crossed Asia, from the Mongolian Gobi to the tea fields of Sri Lanka, I have guided more than a hundred trips on the Asian continent, looked after travellers, designed itineraries, fine-tuned details, planned surprises, arranged encounters with local people, made sure the hotels they would stay in would satisfy the most demanding and double checked that table #7 facing the ocean at this Balinese restaurant would be reserved and that the booking would be for 19:30 just perfect for the sunset. I have researched and spent days checking hotels, meeting art gallery owners, wandered into museums, looked at what is the best boat, the best private cooking class. This is what I do. I plan, I design and I worry until my travellers get back home and say “wow”. Then I relax.

Longitude 80 is based in New Zealand and this is our backyard. The company was established twenty years ago and for me, Asia and the Pacific is home. Our biggest point of difference is guiding and this shows in our creative style and the many ways we connect with our travellers. This is what we live for. Every itinerary becomes an exercise on how best to deliver extraordinary experiences.  And deliver those ‘images’ that will remain in your brain forever.

Asia is big. The largest and most populous continent on Earth with 30% of the globe’s total land mass. It’s diversity is mind boggling, ranging geographically from the Tibetan Himalayas to Indonesia’s 17,508 islands, across deserts like the Gobi’s 500,000 square miles of sand to Vietnam’s tropical forests. Asia is also a mind-boggling cultural diversity. Over a thousand spoken languages still exist, reflected in diverse ethnic groups and nomadic tribes from Mongolia to Papua New Guinea.

Asia ‘spoke’ to me and as I discovered this wide continent, observing Komodo dragons, hiking parts of the Great Wall, speaking with Thai chefs, photographing Myanmar fishermen or gliding along the Mekong River. I realised this was going to be ‘my’ place, a continent where food, art, cultures, landscapes and people never stopped to amaze me.

Whatever a traveller is looking for – I will make it happen.

Reading Denis’s reflections, it’s clear why Longitude 80 is such a valuable part of Your World is Calling. His knowledge comes not from books or research alone but from years of living and breathing the luxury travel experiences he creates. That passion and precision are what make his trips so exceptional — and why we’re so happy to share his story with you here.