I had an entirely miserable weekend in Hong Kong last September. I mean, it was successful, in that I passed the exams I was taken, so it wasn’t a disaster, it just wasn’t very much fun. It was sunny when I was in exams, or revising for same. When I decided to have a break, it was raining, and I got soaked. And, I had absolutely no idea what to do, so the sights that I saw were rubbish.
This, incidentally, is the opposite of the Dodgess’ visit last December – which she loved. She had the benefit of her best friend from Singapore, and a local guide who also happens to be another long-standing good friend. My dislike of Hong Kong also went down rather badly with those 3 residents of Hong Kong that I know.
When I was first told about my second trip to Hong Kong – for a work conference – I was convinced that my second trip would end up exactly the same way. I mean, being stuck in a hotel outside of Hong Kong is not what I really want to do there, let alone the Corporate brain-washing that would undoubtedly be attempted during those three days. It was also going to be about 2 days before I had to go back to Vietnam, so I’d have like 12 hours in Singapore in between.
Then I gave up on going back, in between Hong Kong and Vietnam, giving me 24 hours in Hong Kong all to myself. I had some nice images of getting up The Peak, or perhaps see something else (again – I hadn’t really done my homework).
Once again, I didn’t get to see anything. So I still need to go back and sightsee, but I did have a great time. On the Saturday evening, I met up with a new friend. One who sat next to me at an engineering dinner in Singapore. We spent most of it talking shop, but, somehow, spending time with a friend you rarely see is generally better than a friend who you see every day.
That philosophy also applied to a mate I met for lunch the day after. Another colleague, however this one I had worked with in the UK – where we hardly had the most memorable of times. This Sunday we did – a very memorable Sunday lunch in Hong Kong – probably the best British food since I’ve been in Asia.
Vietnam, frankly, could not live up – and didn’t really. In fact, by the time I reached Vietnam at midnight that Sunday I had lost almost all the high of the lunch earlier. In fact, save for one freak event, the trip to Vietnam would have been pretty awful – by the time I had been bullied into checking a bag in at Hanoi airport I’d gone effectively 6 days without seeing the Dodgess, and I had severe withdrawal systems.
That random event, in the Pearl River Hotel lobby as I was running out for a meeting, I got spotted. Spotted by a very heavily pregnant woman who had shared a house with one of my best friends at Uni. She had followed her (British) husband who has a job working in Vietnam. It was nice to catch up – we had about 6 years to catch up on. Next time I’m in Vietnam we’ll only be catching up for about 2 months, but I will meet her son, who will be about 2 months old less 3 days!
All in all, this could have been a pretty dreadful few days. There was plenty wrong with it – the conference was quite predictable, if reasonably enjoyable. Mind you, I was mighty pleased to finally get on the flights back – a real rarity in having about 50 seats to myself on the plane which made it better. And at the end of it was the best part of the week – a hug from the Dodgess.
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