It hardly seems seems believable that I have been back nearly a week already from our incredible trip. Struggling with jet-lag, I seemed to go to bed at a decent time last night, rather than the 7.30pm exhausted zombie-shuffle up the stairs, to rise again at 4:00am #yawn.
What did I make of my old home, Hong Kong? Well, it seems I can only remember street names now, the place itself has totally changed since 23 years ago! The streets on HK Island seem even more claustrophobic than they were before if its possible – plus the amount of people seems even more than when I left it. As I stepped out the MTR at Causeway Bay and breathed in the air I was completely taken back in time – the memories came flooding back and for a moment time stood still.
New experiences marked this trip as I was able to do some standard HK stuff that I hadn’t managed to do in the 4 years I lived there – eat in a fish market, fall in love with HK coffee/tea drink, indulge in goose, praying to the Buddha and watched in awe as the place I left seemed now ten times the size.
A few scary moments as a tourist tried to pick my daughter up in their arms, something that put me on edge for the holiday. Taking photos of the western kids seems to be a mission and the boundaries of whats not acceptable in western culture are not realized yet. This left me quite distressed at times and I can’t see me taking my daughter to Shanghai anytime soon. Shame.
Meetings with old friends and new too felt absolutely wonderful and truly made the trip as special as it was. Our day in Macau was memorable too – especially the trip to Fernando’s, an old haunt of mine, their garlic prawns tasted as good as I remember them – but the Casinos and Vegas feel seems to have engulfed its history, building a new history for this old port. The Portuguese feel seems a thing of the past.
We stayed on Lantau for the final two nights of the trip, close to Disneyland. The trip to the Buddha will be one of the best moments for me – truly a moment of peace in this busy city , giddy in the atmosphere around the Buddha.
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I feel quite empty, sad and flat that I have left my old home again – post Hong Kong blues may be, some part of me will always wonder if I should’ve stayed there all those years ago. But I was so glad to be able to go back and experience it with my family, especially my daughter. Hearing her speak Cantonese fills me with pride.
What now? The blog hit over 70K views while I was away and well I have that pilot episode to finish by the summer to present to a someone special – that’s all. Oh and some incredible interviews to conduct for The Mighty Dragon. After a two year journey, its really only just the beginning.
Thank you for reading, Vikki
Fancy a trip to Hong Kong? Check out the Marco Polo travel guide here.
