Hong Kong travel mentor Andrea Oschetti on creating unforgettable trips

Andrea Oschetti is an oddity in Hong Kong. As a chef, award-winning photographer and travel writer, he defies categorisation. When we meet, he’s parking his scooter, sporting a full beard and white-framed glasses.

“Do you know what Vespa means in Italian?” he asks me, outside the front door of his Wong Chuk Hang office. “It means wasp, because like the insect, I can dart in and out of traffic easily with my scooter. I don’t like being stuck in traffic, and this Vespa gets me to Kwun Tong or Central in 15 minutes,” he says.

The room we enter is what Oschetti calls his travel salon – an open space, filled with cultural curios and travel books that might induce a severe case of wanderlust. They are testament to his many journeys. Although he can’t remember exactly how many countries he’s visited, he estimates about 90. Also in the space are a few bicycles – his preferred mode of transport when travelling.

“I like to do a bicycle journey that is several thousand kilometres long at least once a year. It’s a fantastic way to connect to a place – people who you meet this way see not you not as a tourist, but someone interesting,” he says.

“One of my most recent trips was cycling from Italy to China. During this time, I stopped over in villages where people really have nothing at all, but who took me in anyway and hosted me. With one family, they only had eggs. So they gave me seven eggs to eat as part of the feast. Travelling this way, you really get to know people,” he says.