Getting used to being "Back"

Several weeks have passed since my last blog-post in which I announced my (temporary) return to Holland.

It had been about a year ago since I had been back to my home country, and it was about time to show my family that I was still alive and (relatively) healthy. So I booked myself a flight to Amsterdam and wrote the previous blog while waiting for my departure.

Nothing changed at
Schiphol Airport.
Still feels like coming 'home'

My trip back home was fantastic, as it was absolutely great to see my friends and family again. The 3 weeks that I spent back "home" were fully booked with meetings and gatherings. The evening after arrival I organized a "let's catch up together" evening at the beach, and I was amazed to see so many of my friends show up there, even though it was organized only a few days before. 

It is funny to realize that even though you are gone for a year, nothing seems to change very much; You expect the world to be different when you return, but actually it isn't. The same people are there, the places have not changed that much, and it is amazing how quickly you reintegrate into your usual habits. Going to the supermarket in your local hometown, driving towards your old office, watching TV, everything did not seem to change much.

I assume that if I spend more years far away from home, this experience of "everyting stays the same" will change a bit, year-by-year. If I make it until that time in Hong Kong, I will definitely look back to this post and reflect on it.

Now I am back in Hong Kong, sitting at my usual place in Pacific Coffee with a regular cup of Americano, "tall size yes...no milk...paper cup....", and reflecting back on the 3 weeks in Holland I must share another thought with you.

Absolutely awesome to cycle again
through the Dutch landscape.

As I said before, I expected that my trip to holland would leave a big impression. Seeing your friends and family, looking at the totally changed country.. no it actually felt like I left it all just yesterday. No,  coming back to Hong Kong, was the most toughest part of my trip. 

After 3 weeks back in Holland, I got quite used again to the Dutch way of life. Living there, working (I had to visit my fellow colleagues regularly for some projects we are conducting there), meeting friends in the evening, everything felt as usual. Did I really go to Hong Kong for a year? Or was it a dream? 

Of course it was not a dream, but sometimes it felt like that. And when the 3 weeks were over, I had to go back to my life as a Dutchman in Hong Kong. And despite the change from Hong Kong to Holland went very smoothly, I had a lot of trouble being back in Hong Kong.

So great to sit outside on a
terrace in Haarlem...
And no airconditioning!

It was not the fact that I didn't like to be here, but it was the fact that it felt that I had left something behind.

Some memories and feelings of a happy time, catching up with everyone, and looking at how life was going on there. It felt like a part of my life was going on, but without me.

Gradually, I got back again to myself here in Hong Kong. I caught up with work, met my friends, and started to get my life here back on track that I have set for myself. And despite the crazy hot summer weather here, I am enjoying myself again.


To be continued for another year!

Time to go home!

I wake up and turn on the TV screen in front of me. The map on the screen shows Nizhny Novgorod. (Some city that actually brings a lot of memories to my mind.. which some day I need to write about in a separate blog).

“Ah”, I think by myself. “Another two and a half hours and I am home.”
“But on the other hand, what is home nowadays?” I’ve been almost a whole year in Hong Kong, and after this long period I am finally in the airplane on my way back to Amsterdam.

“But this visit is just temporary, don't make any illusions..” I say to myself.

I am lucky today, as the whole plane is fully booked, except the seat next to me. And when you are sitting in seat 67H with an empty seat next to you it means you’ve got lots of space and privacy. Especially on a long flight like this that is very welcome, so I was quite happy when the doors of the airplane closed and there was still nobody next to me. Somehow I happen to be this lucky quite often, as it occurs frequently that I’m the only one in the airplane that sits next to an empty seat. Of course the comfort is not the same as business class, but in these times of crisis we have to be considerate, right?

Somehow when I fly back "home" I always start thinking about what happened during my travels. When it was either flying back from Spain after a great vacation with my friends, or returning from a trip to Ukraine to experience the cold winter or one of my many business trips, somehow the engine noise, the uncomfortable seats and the constant waiting remind me of the past memories.

But today's 12 hours of flying made me think especially about the past year in Hong Kong.

My first year in Hong Kong has been relatively smooth. I arrived in April 2011, initially only for a couple of months. However, back then my goal already was to stay in Hong Kong permanently. A year before in 2010 I already sold my house in the Netherlands, and moved to a rental apartment in Amsterdam. Back then I already had in mind my long term goal... Hong Kong... and day by day I slowly started to prepare, until the moment of departure was finally there.

These first months after arrival were passing very quickly. It was April when I moved Hong Kong and the weather was already great so there were plenty of opportunities for sightseeing, travelling and meeting new friends. I joined several events and got to know the Hong Kong local people. At work also everything worked out quite well. My project was going smoothly and it seemed that they were satisfied with the results.

The only thing that was quite challenging in the beginning was the size and comfort of the apartments. The first months I stayed in a studio apartment in Wanchai, one of the busiest areas in Hong Kong. The apartment was located on the second floor of a building on Johnston road, a noisy street with the Hong Kong tram passing by, and the 24 hour McDonalds and a school located all within 20 meters distance of my window. You can imagine that I had a lot of difficulties getting used to the 24 hour noise around me.

The first month I slept very bad, especially on the days when the McDonalds was receiving their hamburger supplies at 4 am in the morning from the nightly delivery truck. Luckily after a few weeks I somehow got used to the noise and my sleep got better.

When the moment came that my employer decided to accept my wish to relocate permanently, I remember being very excited and happy. “It was finally going to happen!” I thought. However a lot needed to be arranged. I had to fly back to Amsterdam, pack all my belongings and clean out my apartment. It felt a little bit uncomfortable to see my apartment getting emptier day by day, until the last day, when I slept on an airbed on the floor, with nothing left but myself, 2 plastic bags and a suitcase.

Saying goodbye to all my friends was also hard. I knew that I wouldn’t see them often anymore, and even though there is Skype and Facebook, nothing is better than having “real” face-to-face contact.  On the day of my farewell party I felt both happy and sad. It was great to see that all my friends wished me good luck on my journey to the unknown, but this was probably also the last day I would see them all for a long time.

“I hope I am taking the right decision” I thought.

And now I am living almost a year in Hong Kong, I can say that I think differently about the Hong Kong life than I did before. The first couple of months I lived here I thought I already understood the life here, but It is only after a year that I understood what the real Hong Kong life consists of, mainly due to my own experiences but also talking to many Hong Kong locals.

Escaping the city life is great. A lot of quiet hiking
trails with beautiful views.

First of all, the work life balance is much different than where I come from. In The Netherlands we are all used to our comfortable life with 9 to 5 mentality, and although there are many people that make longer days in Holland (such as me), the work-life balance over there is still acceptable.

In Hong Kong however, the majority of people will not leave work before 7, and also the workload is much higher because people here expect everything to be done immediately. They are not so used to long term planning. No, everything they want should get to them right away. Therefore, most of the days I worked here I discovered that by the end of the day everything I originally planned worked out completely different. That only already makes you quite exhausted.

Besides the work-life balance there is the lack of holidays. Most people have only around 10 holidays a year, which makes it difficult to plan some long vacation. Instead, you can only make short trips, resulting in the fact that you do not entirely recover from your busy life.

And then there is the problem of staying healthy. Because of the hot and humid climate, every building has air-conditioning, which is usually set on freezing low temperatures. Going in and out will give your body such a shock that you will easily catch a cold. And then there is the risk of infection when you walk in the MTR and hold the handrail which has been touched by millions every day. You easily get sick by a virus or infection. (I now understand why there are so many commercials on TV related to solving the problems of being sick)

And next to that, the air pollution is sometimes so bad, that you really don’t want to go out, as it feels you cannot breathe. I have this feeling every morning when I exit the MTR station in Wanchai and walk up the stairs to enter the street. In Holland I never have any problems walking stairs, but here I am out of breath before I am half way. Luckily the air at the place I live is a bit better, but if you think that the only park where I can do my running exercise at home is next to the highway, you will wonder whether it is good to do any outdoor exercise at all. I also developed a sort of cough that I normally relate to a die-hard smoker, but not to a (used to be) healthy person like me.

So I can imagine that reading this you might think that due to the climate and air-pollution it is better to stay inside your house, right?

My first apartment in Hong Kong

Yes you would say so, if your house would have a decent size, to be living comfortable. However , as Hong Kong is almost the number one expensive cities to rent apartments, you can imagine that also this factor is quite disappointing sometimes.

I pay 15.000 Hong Kong dollar (about 1500 euro) excluding utilities for an apartment of around 650 square feet which I share with my girlfriend.  For Hong Kong people this size sounds reasonable, but if you come from Europe you would immediately start laughing at this price. In the usual Hong Kong bedroom you cannot even walk more than 1 step before you hit a wall. By the way, if I want to buy this property, it will cost me 6.5 Million Hong Kong Dollar, about 650.000 euro. Insane!

But besides this all, there are also positive things that are worth mentioning. When I escape the busy city life, I still discover every day new and interesting things that the city has to offer. Vast nature, quiet beaches, beautiful islands and long cycle tracks. Even if you only have a few holidays each year, you can use every weekend to explore and relax. This is really something that keeps me being able to handle the busy city life.

The second thing what still keeps me here is the fact that this city has many opportunities. Every day there are new and interesting people to meet, and also business wise there are a lot of possibilities. Some of you that know me closely know that I am always looking for new challenges and this city certainly has a lot to offer for me. (both business-wise as in my private time). More about that in another blog post later!

And at last, I need to mention one more positive thing about my life here. Shortly after I arrived in Hong Kong last year I went a weekend to Macau. And it was in Macau that I met a girl which soon became the love of my life. Without having her around, things would also have felt totally different, I’m sure. She is by no doubt a very important factor in my happiness here in Hong Kong.

So what will the future bring? I have no idea yet. I am flying back to Amsterdam now, to see my friends and family, and after 3 weeks I will return to Hong Kong, no doubt about that.

And when I will return I certainly will miss my family and friends, and even a little bit of Holland (yes I admit), but even so, my future still lies in Hong Kong. For now... 

Until when? We will see, just keep on reading my blog and you will find the answer.

(And so will I)

Scammed!

Just before I went to Thailand for my holidays, I received a notice that the Hong Kong Post had tried to deliver a package to my home.

The green-coloured note that they have left behind stated that "unfortunately I was not at home at the time of the delivery", and that I can pick up the package from the post office myself.


"I'll do it after I return from my holidays..." I thought.

But reading the rest of text on the green note, I discovered that if I was unable to pick up the package within 14 days they would charge me a "package storage" fee, depending on the size of the parcel.  "Hmmm," I thought, "better pick up the package then..." and off I went to the post office.

Half an hour later I arrived at the post office, and went up with the escalator to the first floor where the pickup counter is located. I was about to step off the escalator when a Hong Kong guy approached me. It was a man, in his 40's, dressed up in short jeans and a yellow polo shirt. Next to him stood a trolley car, one of a model that you see all over Hong Kong, as it is being used to transport all kind of amazing things through the small and busy streets. From noodles, to rice, from construction material to live chickens, it all ends up being transported on such small one-person trolleys.

"You?? You??" He asked me in a polite but nervous voice. I looked at him and had no clue what he wanted, until I noticed he was pointing to the paper that he had in his hand. "Is you? Is You?"?

I looked at the paper and quickly scanned it through. It appeared to be an email that he had printed out. It as a full page letter and on the right side there was a photo of a young black woman dressed in what I call African clothes.

(I've reconstructed this according to what I can remember)

"Dear mister,

We have not met before but I got your contact information from a friend. My name is Bolanle and I am from Nigeria. As my friend told me you are a caring and helpful person, I am seeking your help. My brother is living in Hong Kong, and as it is almost his birthday I have sent him a birthday package with birthday gifts from my family together with US dollar worth 10,000.

Unfortunately he cannot pick up the package by himself because he is travelling in China for the coming two months for his business. Because I am afraid that the post office will send back the package due to late delivery, I am seeking your help.

If possible, could you collect the package for my brother? I already paid for the insurance fee and the delivery charges, but I did not pay for the security keeping fee due to the fact that I do not know when the package will be picked up. It would be great if you can help me pick up the package and pay the security keeping fee of USD 500.

My brother will pay you back as soon as he will meet you. I have also asked him to compensate you greatly for your kind assistance and he will give you 50% of the amount of USD inside the package.

Can you please call mr. xxxxx on this number xxxx.xxxxx.xxxx to confirm your willingness to pick up the package, so we can arrange further clearance?

Thank you in advance,

Bolanle Wiwa"

For a second I was hesitating how to react. My first feeling was that this poor guy got trapped in a typical e-mail scam, one of which we are all familiar with. But on the other hand, even though it was so obvious, I wasn't entirely sure I should give him the bad news, and tell that he just became a victim of Nigerian scammers. First of all, he would lose "face" in front of someone (which is not a good thing in Asia), and secondly he might lose his temper, as he probably paid a significant sum of dollars to retrieve the (probably worthless) carton box.

"No, that's not me, sorry", and off I went.

When I walked away I heard the guy behind me letting out a big sigh. He probably was waiting for a while already, and getting to the point of understanding what was going on.

I had no clue why this guy was waiting at the post office. Perhaps he was told to meet there after picking up the package, or maybe he was hoping to find the person that supposed-to-pick-up-but-never-did. Anyway, the situation didn't look too good for him.

And besides that, I was wondering why he asked if I was involved with this? I know that the Hong Kong sun is much stronger than the one I'm used to in Holland and that I like to go to the beach, but I certainly did not look like a black man.

I went to the pickup counter for my own package, and while I was waiting there in the queue, I thought about what just happened. Should I talk to this guy once more and see if I can help him? Perhaps it is all a misunderstanding, perhaps there is really someone picking up the package later. Anyway, when I retrieved my package, I walked back to the elevator and discovered that the guy was gone, and so was his trolley with the carton box.

Too late, now I will never find out what really happened...

BeingDutchinAsia featured by InterNations.org

I'm glad to announce that BeingDutchinAsia has been featured by InterNations.org.

InterNations is a community for expatriates living  in Hong Kong and 180 other countries in the world.

You can read the article here.

In the mean time, I also have to announce that I will be away to Thailand for a week. After these extremely busy months in Hong Kong, I really need to take some time off and enjoy myself without any laptop, smartphone or iPad.

Beach, sunny weather, good food and relaxing environment it will be...

See you all in a week!

Monday morning and my near death experience

"A typical Monday morning" I thought, when getting myself a cup of coffee and a left over pancake from Saturday. I spent the whole weekend on Lamma island, and I felt totally relaxed after two days away from the busy Hong Kong life.

No buses, no cars, no 24 hour noise, the quiet environment of Lamma with my girlfriend made me forget everything. Nevertheless, on Monday morning my alarm went off at 6.45 and an hour later it was time to get to work. After breakfast, I put on my office suit and my shoes, grabbed my laptop and I was out of the door, followed by my girlfriend. We were waiting for the elevator when I heard another door closing. "That must be my neighbour" I guessed. And yes, it was her.

A girl in her early twenties, and based on how her "good morning" accent sounds I figured out she must be American. We usually do not exchange a lot of words, which personally I do not mind, as in the morning I am not on my very best when it comes to communication. We said a polite good morning to each other, while we were waiting for the elevator to arrive.

When the elevator finally came, the door opened and a mother and a boy were already inside. The boy was sitting in a wheelchair and was wearing his school uniform and had a red backpack in his hand. The mother was obviously helping her son to go downstairs. Both didn't say good morning, which is the usual practice here, something that had to get accustomed to after moving to Hong Kong.

Anyway, the doors closed and the elevator started to move... while nobody said a word. "It's going to be another a long silent ride down.." I thought. All the way from 25 to the ground floor with people staring at the wall.

Until just a a second later, the elevator got one floor down to 24. Apparently somebody was waiting there and the elevator slowed down to a halt. The doors went open just a little bit until suddenly there was a loud *scratch* and the elevator started to move in an uncontrolled way. The doors were not even closed completely, and through the open part in the middle you could see the wall behind and a part of what supposed to be the opening to the 24th floor moving up, away from us. The movement was so sudden and uncontrolled, that it felt like we were going to fall down.

Surprised by the sudden move, I immediately grabbed the handrail. My girlfriend and the neighbour girl started to scream, and I must say that scream, although not loudly was quite justified as it felt like we were going to crash down. Luckily the elevator stopped after sliding just half a floor level, bounced a little up and down and then stopped dead still.

"Great..." I thought.
"We got stuck halfway between 23 and 24..."

After a few seconds everybody realized we were still alive. A little smile came on the face of the neighbour girl, and the woman with her son in the wheelchair also came back to her senses. While I was still recovering, my girlfriend (who probably has much more experience with Chinese elevators) said "Let's try to close the door, maybe it will continue".

And so we were all pushing on the doors our hands.

The door closed, but the lock was obviously not working, so when we stopped pushing the door opened slightly and the same small opening was visible again.

Shouldn't that elevator go down??

After a few tries we decided that that didn't work. "What to do, what to do!?" said my obviously nervous neighbour, but before I could answer, the woman with her son pointed to the alarm bell. "Let's try that", and I pushed the bell. The alarm went off, and after a few moments, we heard a female voice through the speakers. "Waiii? Waiii?" (The Cantonese word for hello).

My girlfriend (now I'm definitely convinced she has more experience with Chinese elevators) immediately started yelling (in Cantonese) "Heyyy we are stuck in this elevator, come help us!" (or so I assumed she was saying as my Cantonese is still pretty limited).

After explaining the situation, the operator told us to give it one more try with the door. And then, when I was pushing both sliding doors to the middle, suddenly the elevator jumped down a few centimeters again. It was not too fast but with the previous experience in mind, we were all quite sensitive, and that sudden move didn't really help lower the pressure. "It doesn't work! Get somebody to fix it" yelled the woman to the operator with a nervous voice.

"Don't worry, somebody is already on it's way" The operator said.

"Great..."

We started to calm down, and the anxiety changed into impatience as we were all realizing that this was not going to be quickly fixed. "Oh my god, the schoolchildren will be in the class in 20 minutes", my neighbour said. "What can I do?", while trying to call the school director. The woman with her son also started to get angry. "Last week I already told the security that this elevator was behaving weird. Why they didn't fix it yet? My son needs to go to school, and the school bus is waiting for him downstairs".

"At least we are alive on this black Monday" I said, which broke the ice a little bit, and everybody started to smile. "That THIS should happen to us, really. It actually is the second time in my life that this happened to me." I said. "Last time I got stuck in an Elevator was in Amsterdam, a few years ago,  together with 7 other friends. We got stuck because one of my friends asked out loud what would happen if somebody would suddenly jump, after which somebody took the initiative... and the elevator stopped functioning. It took two hours before it was fixed."

That last sentence I should better not have said, as people started to worry again about their delay. Luckily, the engineer arrived, as we heard some noise on the floor above us. After a few minutes, the elevator door opened a bit, and we saw the face of the engineer. "Don't worry, everything is going to be fine. Do you need an ambulance?" He asked us in Cantonese. "No everybody is fine, just get us out of here" The woman with her son said. However, we were still stuck halfway between 23 and 24. It was impossible to get out unless you would climb up, and even that was impossible for the boy with the wheelchair.

And all this time that boy stayed very calm. You could see in his eyes that he exactly knew what his situation was. Stuck in an elevator that was behaving weird. The risk of falling down. No way to get out by himself. And yet he was calm, smiled to his mother, and looked at her like he wanted to comfort her. It was like he was telling his mother without words that he already went through a lot of difficult times in his short life and that this was not going to let him down again.

"We found the problem!"

After a few minutes more waiting, the engineer yelled at us that there was an error in the computer system, and they were going to reset it. The doors closed, and the elevator went up. A sign of relieve went through the small cabinet. Everybody was happy that this disaster was over. On the 29th floor, the elevator stopped, and the doors went open automatically.

"Yesssss" we said to each other.

"We made it!"

Chinese Creativity... Part 4

This weekend I deserved some time off from my busy Hong Kong life, and stayed over on Lamma Island for a night.

Lamma Island is just half an hour away by boat from central Hong Kong, but provides a real oasis with its small streets, cozy restaurants and beautiful nature.

The island is inhabited by many expats, as they all feel much more comfortable with this environment than the busy and overcrowded Hong Kong island.

One local businessman recognized that certainly and started his own realestate agency. I must admit, he chose quite a creative English name for his business!

How dollarful! 

BeingDutchinAsia reviewed by Hong Kong Blog Review

I recently discovered that BeingDutchinAsia has been recommended by Hong-Kong-Blogs-Review.com, a site that reviews Hong Kong related blogs in essay-style.

Hong Kong Blogs Review is known for their thorough review and selective recommendation of blogs, so I am pleased that they have given my site a very positive review.

You can read the review here.