New Adventures

I’ve just embarked on what I hope to be a very eye-opening and growth inducing journey. I boarded a plane in San Francisco, and will be spending the next month or so travelling around India and Nepal. I’m excited to learn a lot about a lot of different things - and even more so, I’m excited that I get to do so with my amazing girlfriend.

Over the next month or so I’m expecting to write a blog post every 3 to 4 days, detailing the things I’ve seen and learned. This first post is going to cover the process leading up to the trip, our flights and travel, and my layover in Hong Kong.

Planning

Depending on who you are, and what your style is, this can be one of the most exciting, or most boring, tedious things you do with regards to you trip. It can also encompass several different levels of planning - whether you want to have every step of the trip organized, a basic itinerary, or nothing but a flight out and a bank balance.

My girlfriend and I are both somewhere in between mega-planners, and basic itinerary people, but for different reasons. And sometimes, these reasons didn’t mesh too great. I had a tendency to want to figure out approximately how many days we were going to spend in each location, and have a rough idea of how much the total bill should be expected to be. I didn’t really care to figure out what we were going to do there, where we were staying, or how we were going get there (beyond knowing that a train or bus existed) until a few days before it was going to happen. On the other hand, Becca (my girlfriend) cared exactly about those things. One thing it took us a while to sort out, given this is our first trip together, was what our definition of ‘planning’ the trip was. I think part of the reason my ‘planning’ mindset was that way is because of the trip I took to Europe in which everything was pre-organized for me. Becca has been to developing countries before though, and looking back, to say I am glad we determined some specifics for our first stop in Kolkata would be an understatement.

So far, I’ve definitely learned that Murphy’s Law isn’t a coincidence in developing countries the way it often is back home in North America. In Hong Kong and India, it really is a law. On the flip side though, I also found out that, assuming you have the adventuring spirit for it, it’s when things go wrong that things get interesting and you have some pretty weird experiences.

Then there’s packing for the trip. As a rule of thumb, you can get away with MUCH less space than you think you need. If you need something that isn’t an item you care about having long term, then buy it when you get there. You may get there and realize you actually don’t need really need it. This is especially true when visiting developing countries because almost everything is very cheap if you are willing to spend a bit of time looking. I managed to pack essentials (clothes, some liquids, some toiletries and supplies, short term entertainment) and not only still have space for some non-essential luxuries (like a pillow, and an extra pair of shoes) but also have space for some of Becca’s additional stuff (she’s travelling for longer ‘cause she’s a baller like that) AND still have some room left over into a 50-Litre backpack and a school bag as a day bag. Trust me, that second towel will just take up space. I brought 2 weeks worth of clothes, and I’m finding that I am washing clothes every 2 to 3 days, so I could have likely gotten by easily on only 1 week of clothes and saved a bunch of space.

Travel

Bring an extra pillow (neck pillow or just an old, not so good, normal pillow) for the flights if you plan on doing either an overnight, or a long flight (more than 6 hours). You’ll be glad you did. Also, exchange about 1 week of funds in any foreign currencies on the home front instead of abroad because you’ll pay a fee for pulling it out, on top of a conversion rate difference and extra percentage fee from your bank. After that initial week of funds, pull out larger quantities (1-2 weeks of funds) at once while abroad to avoid paying the base transaction fee too often. Also, I would recommend that you pack to avoid any checked luggage if possible, and arrive a few hours early for your flight (but that last one is common sense).

As for our specific flight, we chose a semi-budget airline serving south east asia (SEA) called Cathay Pacific. We had a decent experience, but reviews for them seemed to be all over the map. The food they served was maybe slightly better than typical airline food, and because we didn’t have any checked luggage, we didn’t get dinged on any extra costs for that. We took an overnight flight (13-14 hours from SFO to HKG) and planned it so we had a full day of layover in Hong Kong. I recommend doing both (full day layovers, and overnight flights) if possible because if you can get an automatic, free visa for the location you’ll be stopping, like Canadian and US citizens do for Hong Kong, then you get a day to visit and check out another place on your trip. With regards to overnight flights, it makes it MUCH easier to fall asleep on the plane ride when you are already tired, and if it’s a long flight, you can try to plan it so you land in the morning (we landed around 6am local time in Hong Kong).

On the flip side, our second flight from Hong Kong to Kolkata wasn’t quite ideal timing because we arrived around midnight, and in many cities, Kolkata included, taxis and transportation from an airport late at night can cost more money and result in some unanticipated issues, but more on that later.

Stop 0.5 - Hong Kong

First we landed in Hong Kong, and while it was only a layover, I learned a significant amount. I think the most striking mistake we made was not one we could have really avoided, but was a something to take into account for any future trips. We arrived in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year, and while this may sound great, it isn’t really. There aren’t fireworks going off everywhere, everyday, and the city isn’t filled to the brim with people going everywhere and celebrating. When we arrived, Hong Kong was a ghost town. There were still a handful of people but most of Hong Kong Island was empty.

Despite it being Chinese New Year, we managed to do and see quite a bit. We took a train to HK Island and went to see Man Mo Temple. Walking through the temple, and seeing local people worship was a humbling experience. We also met a very kind security guard outside that told us all about the temple, and the rituals and (to an extent) what was happening and why.

After some very yummy, though overpriced (it was on HK Island after all), Dim Sum, we proceeded to walk throughpart of the city looking for the tram to the Peak on the island. Doing so, we found Hong Kong Botanical Gardens and enjoyed a casual and calm walk through some very nice green space in the middle of the city. If you have the time while in a foreign city, it is definitely a worthwhile experience to walk to your next destination - you might find something really awesome along the way.

In Hong Kong (as well as every other place we’ve been to so far) everybody was very friendly and willing to help with directions to get where we needed to be. While we didn’t get a chance to go on the tram to the Peak because of an insanely long line, we did check out a Tea House before getting directions via Subway to the Mong Kok area of Kowloon. We were looking to find a famous Dim Sum place called ‘One Dim Sum’ but it turned out to be closed due to Chinese New Year. Luckily, right nearby was another Dim Sum location, and we found the food there to be delicious as well.

A short walk through Kowloon brought us to a street market where I got my first taste of haggling and bartering as Becca decided to get a pair of pants. It’s something I still need a decent amount of practice with, but I’ve been getting better at. It takes some time, and being a foreigner in SEA, locals will try to charge you 3-5 times what any other local will pay because they assume that you both have money, and have no idea what the actual cost of the item is. More on bartering in a later post though.

Last but not least, before heading back to the airport, we stopped by a bar in a highrise building overlooking HK Island right in the heart of Kowloon. The view was beautiful despite the fog, but it is important to note (and we knew this going in) that if you are going to eat/drink at a high end location, you are going to be charged as such. For one beer each, it came out to almost US$15.

Overall, the first day was fantastic. And much more has happened since, but that’ll be saved for a later post. Until next time. And enjoy your travels!