Our arrival in Hong Kong was smooth, but being there was very foreign, disorienting, and claustrophobia inducing. There were people everywhere and they all seemed to be on fast forward. We felt somewhat like Crocodile Dundee must have felt when he visited Manhattan for the first time. We found a room via airbnb in Kowloon, the denser, more Chinese part of the city across the harbor from Hong Kong Island. The contrast between our last accommodation on the beach in Thailand and this 100 sq ft service apartment in Kowloon couldn’t have been greater.

We got in at night, so it wasn’t until morning that we were able to explore the neighborhood. Our place was situated in the center of a garment district. Our block in particular was lined with children’s clothing wholesalers. There wasn’t too much to see in the area, but there was a highly recommended Dim Sum restaurant a five minute walk from our apartment. We went there for breakfast and were the only white people in sight.

In just over a week we were settling in New York City. We planned on using our time in Hong Kong to get a head start acclimating to city life. So we walked around, ate western food, and tried to pretend we were okay with the fact that the last few days of our trip were upon us. 

We took the mid-levels escalator up to the top and stopped by the Hong Kong JCC. Security was as strict as any we’d ever encountered. We were asked a dozen questions and had to hand over our passports before they allowed us to tour the building. Once inside, the facility was quite nice. The highlight was Ohel Leah Synagogue, which was built 100 years ago by the Sassoons, a family of Sephardic merchants who came from Iraq via India. The synagogue was a lovely building hidden in the lower courtyard of the JCC. As it was empty in the middle of the day, we opened the door and snooped around.

From there we taxi’d up to Victoria Peak, high above the city. It is the place to take in panoramic views of Hong Kong, impressive even on cloudy and misty days.

Two days exploring the city was enough for us. We took public transit to the south-eastern side of Hong Kong Island to the small beach community of Shek-O. Shek-O is one of the only places on the island that boasts freestanding homes. Most of them are on a golf course and are very, very pricey. But that’s not why we went there. The coast is a mix of jagged rocks and sandy bays. The mix of ocean and rocks was just what the doctor ordered. We felt a sense of calm wash over us as we approached the beach at the edge of town.

There was a sand castle competition happening. There were poodles everywhere. There were a few surfers in the water. We found a little corner away from the crowds, and spent the rest of the day watching the waves and a series of wedding photoshoots nearby as we quietly made peace with the last day, one that snuck up on us.

We set out on this trip five months ago to experience what’s out there in the rest of the world, not only get away from what we were so familiar with here. We wanted to experience how people in other cultures live their lives. We wanted to soak in the nuance and beauty of being somewhere else. But most importantly, we wanted to get to know each other and ourselves in a larger world, to be together as we ”transcend our native outlook, habits, and cultural predispositions,” as Mark Cunningham wrote about eloquently in Soul Shelter.

The thing is, we regard travel as something far more meaningful and edifying than the diversionary experience that comes to most minds at the thought of ‘getting away’ or ‘vacationing.’ Travel, as we see it, means engaging a larger world, not merely retreating from the one we know. It entails more than a flight from the boredom of an urban grind, or the doldrums of suburbia, in pursuit of touristy entertainments; it’s about seeking to become a part of (for a while at least) an experience that transcends one’s native outlook, habits, cultural predispositions. In other words, travel means joining in the human experience.

For a time, probably four of our five months away, we did come together with that experience, we were a part it and it of us. Well, we’re parting ways for now. It is continuing to travel. After Hong Kong, our experience might head to mainland China or the Phillipines. It might meet up with our friend Alex in Italy, or our friend Monica in Qatar. We already miss it, but we’ll live our lives a little bit differently from having been together. When the time is right we’ll meet up with it again, maybe in Eastern Europe or India.

Below are two photographs, one taken at the beginning and one at the end of our trip. We look more or less the same give or take some hair. But we are changed. To use a phrase we saw and heard all over SE Asia, we are same same but different. 

Next stop: NYC.