The first time I explored Hanoi in November 2012, it was wintry. Everyone was in long sleeves and wrapped up warmly. In the cold, the Vietnamese capital appeared more formal, elegant and Communist than its vivacious southern sister, Ho Chi Minh City.

When I returned to Hanoi over a year later, in June, the whole city had lightened up. In the summer humidity, men rolled up their singlets inelegantly above their tummies as they loitered in the labyrinthine allies of the Old Quarter.

I returned to a tiny cafe that seated just four and served the most aromatic Vietnamese drip coffee, and again I sat on a low, low stool on the pavement. On the streets, I still remembered how to mosey through the overwhelming traffic.

Yet, it felt like a different Hanoi, more light-hearted, less foreign.

Places don't stay the same, and certainly Asian cities can change so fast.

If we think about it, people don't stay the same either. Take a personality test six months apart and the results can differ significantly if we have endured trauma in the intervening months, or enjoyed an uplifting season of life.

It's the same story for most other places I've revisited. Seattle, London, Jerusalem, Tokyo, and most recently, Mount Kinabalu.

I was in my 20s when I climbed Mount Kinabalu. During our 2.30am ascent to the summit, mist covered every rockface and the slopes were mysterious. When I returned in April this year, many moons later, the night was clear and the headlamps borne by the jagged lines of trekkers twinkled like terrestial stars.

"You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory," writes author and ski instructor Lito Tejada-Flores.

OK, I know that in last week's post, I said we don't have to be secretly obsessive travellers. Don't over-plan, do jump out of our massive comfort zones. But it's also fun and fullfilling and really fine to go back to a familiar place and rediscover it - and return later to our prevailing story of seeking new places and new adventures all our life.

So leave a thought. Which places do you revisit? And do you find them changed - or maybe not?

CONNECT WITH ST'S LEE SIEW HUA: @STsiewhua or e-mail siewhua@sph.com.sg