Reflections on My Final Night in Hong Kong

I’m sitting in my empty apartment on my last night in Hong Kong. And while I’m definitely sad to be leaving this incredible city, I am so excited for what awaits down in Singapore. I fly at 1:20pm tomorrow afternoon, and I feel ready. I have no regrets about my past three years out here, and I also don’t think my Hong Kong story is quite over yet. I’ve mentioned before that I’ll be coming back for work fairly often, and it’s especially nice that there are relatively cheap flights offered by three budget airlines between the two cities. I am continuing to pay rent in my apartment till at least March, because I definitely plan to come back for the Rugby Sevens and Hong Kong International Film Festival, and I know it would feel wrong to stay anywhere else. I’m also coming back on January 11^th, for an indeterminate period of time. You see, my company booked my ticket down to Singapore and offered to add on a return trip to Hong Kong any date I would like. So I figured January 11^th is far enough away that I’ll have started to make Singapore my new home, but still close enough to ease the pain of having to leave. I might stay a week, I might stay a month, but I know I’ll be back in Hong Kong very soon!

These past weeks have been a madcap, nonstop, quintessentially Hong Kongian romp, and I’m actually quite excited for a good rest my first few weeks in Singapore! My first “going away” party was two weekends ago in Macau. Last year, Rich and I had gone to Macau for the Grand Prix, which we didn’t realize overlapped with a party organized by the local Alliance Française celebrating the release of the Beaujolais nouveau. My friends Adrien and Eloise invited Rich and I to join them for the fête, and we were both blown away by it. In fact, it even trumped the car races for me as the weekend’s most memorable event.

With Christina and Gauthier in front of the Ruins of Saint Paul's

So when I realized this year’s party would be only a couple of weeks before my departure from Hong Kong, I decided it would be a perfect going away party. My friends Christina (a fellow VSB '09 alum working in Hong Kong) and Gauthier joined me for the day, touring around Old Macau and seeing all the sights. Then we headed to the party, where Adrien, Eloise, Bernadett, Sonia and her boyfriend Motez met up with us.

The party is set in an old Portuguese courtyard, with a moss-covered tree, yellow colonial architecture and a jazz band providing live tunes. The Beaujolais bottles are there for you to take, and a buffet is set up so you can munch and sip at the same time. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Beaujolais nouveau, it’s basically the first wine released of a particular year’s harvest, so it’s the world’s first taste of what to expect from the year’s grapes. The first bottles are officially released worldwide on the third Thursday of November, and although its rarely spectacular, it makes for a fun event that offers a glimpse of the rewards to come with the release of the season's later wines.

As last year, it was a phenomenal event, and I will make every effort to be in Hong Kong next November for my third round!

VSB '09 Alumni!

My final Wednesday was a bit of a going away event in itself. Anyone who’s read this blog knows that Wednesday is hands down my favorite night of the week, owing to the horse races in Happy Valley and the subsequent partying that ensues in Wan Chai after the last race has been run. Needless to say, Wednesday night will perhaps be the thing I miss most about Hong Kong—Thursday morning might be the only thing I will not miss one bit!—so it was important to enjoy my last one to the fullest.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and although it’s always a little strange to be so far away from home on that day, I still have now enjoyed three Hong Kong Thanksgivings. My friend Eleni is a journalist for Bloomberg, and as such, she is a member of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club, a very cool private social club housed in a historic colonial building in Central. I’ve been with her quite a few times for lunch or drinks, but when she realized the club was putting together a special Thanksgiving menu, she got a group of about eight people together and we had ourselves a memorable night.

Thanksgiving Dinner at the FCC

Friday night a big group of us went out in anticipation of my twenty-sixth birthday at midnight. Lan Kwai Fong was at its best, and such a great group of friends turned out that it really reinforced for me how the people I’ve met have truly made my whole experience out here simply phenomenal.

On Saturday, Bernadett planned an afternoon in Chai Wan, a neighborhood I’d curiously left unexplored. It’s the last stop on the Island Line of Hong Kong’s subway system, and it’s an industrial zone that’s just emerging as Hong Kong’s newest art gallery district. The surreal thing about it, though, is that the galleries are tucked away in very industrial areas. We had lunch and explored a couple of the galleries, and had a nice meander along the colorful waterfront.

First time in Chai Wan!

Me and Bernadett in one of the galleries

I had booked dinner that night at the American Restraurant—my favorite spot for Peking duck. I made the reservation for ten people, but in the end about fifteen showed up, so we had to add a second table! But it was a great last dinner at a restaurant that has been host to some of my favorite meals of the last three years. And I couldn’t have asked for a better group to celebrate with.

My friend Alison snapped this candid photo at the American Restaurant

Early this morning my relocation company, called Santa Fe, showed up at our flat and began packing up all my things. They were unbelievably efficient and professional, and I was simply in awe watching them work. In the end, all of my belongings were put into twenty-nine boxes, and they will be shipped to Singapore and stored for me until I find my new apartment.
  

My flight is booked, a hotel room has been reserved for my first week, and then I’ll be moving into a serviced apartment until the end of the year… and by January 1^st, I plan to ring in the new year in my new apartment with all of the things I’ve managed to collect over the past three years! The twenty-six year old who’s leaving Hong Kong tomorrow is a different person than the twenty-two year old who arrived back in 2009, and I’m so grateful for all that has happened to me out here! Thanks for everything Hong Kong. I promise you, you haven’t seen the last of me yet!

Parisi... Paul Parisi – 007