First Stop: Hong Kong
April 1, 2018 — April 22, 2018
The first ten days in Hong Kong were exciting, tiresome, and surreal.
Hong Kong has such a rich history as it was a British colony, and I was unexpectedly surprised to see how diverse the population was for an Asian country. Despite its diversity, I have never felt so disconnected from the people and the culture. I couldn’t communicate with most Asian people because I don’t know how to speak Cantonese, and to foreigners, I was just another Asian person.
Throughout my stay, I took dance classes at Bedrex Dance, and although dance transcends spoken language, I noticed the teacher only spoke English the one time I brought my (white) friend from the hostel. Most people in Hong Kong can actually speak English, but because I am Asian, it is assumed that I belong. Sometimes, I wished I had my passport stamped to my forehead so everybody knew I was American and spoke English. I felt invisible and didn’t really know how to make friends.
I was lucky my younger brother, Bahari, was studying abroad in Hong Kong and I caught his girlfriend, Miranda in the last few days of her visit. I’m not sure what I would have done without the two of them, because if I had to be completely honest, it got a little lonely.
I missed my friends. I missed my family. I missed random small talk with strangers in elevators or in line at the grocery store. I missed my own bed. And, dare I say it, I actually started to miss work! Maybe not work exactly, but I missed building something with my hands.
I guess what I was doing hadn’t actually hit me. And if this is what it was going to feel like for an entire year, I don’t know how I’m going to handle traveling the next few months. Should I quit now?
Introducing myself to random people eventually became easier and the language barrier became less intimidating with time. At the hostel, it felt like freshman year of college again — everybody anxious to make friends and always traveling in packs. I also found solace in my various hobbies: going to dance class when I had time, doodling whilst listening to an audiobook (tangent: I finished Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and LOVED it; I am now almost done with This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz), finding cool places to hula hoop, and hiking. I started to feel okay with being alone. And when I started to miss my friends, they were just one text message or FaceTime call away.
I am happy I finally warmed up to Hong Kong, but I was actually pretty relieved to leave too. My stomach started to feel sick after consuming oily Chinese food everyday, and I was ready to go somewhere a little more familiar. Good thing my next destination was Indonesia, a land where I spoke the language and my entire extended family lived.
Farewell Hong Kong, 再見!
