nick’s (n)-line life

[pre-dated entry]

Leaving Hong Kong was harder to leave than I had anticipated, even with the exhilarating and imminent promise of the open road ahead of me. Leaving friends is perhaps the hardest part of traveling, especially when you’re not sure of how and when you’ll meet again. It often saddens me when I think back to all of the fantastic people I have met on the road, and reflect on the fact that I’m now in touch with far fewer of them than I would like. Such a friendship is like a thread drawn taunt: it holds at first but over time you write less, forget, loose contact; the thread weakens and eventually snaps.

On top of this, I have often thought that that there are real dangers in staying too long in one place, travelers are like stones skimming on water; pause too long and you risk sinking into a place, of loosing yourself, in other words of becoming too attached. You meet people who have stayed too long with unnerving frequency in South East Asia, the falang “lost souls’, floaters who hang around the backpacker destinations in South East Asia, living without aim or purpose, travelers who stayed too long and lost themselves.

While a month presents little danger of anything so severe, it certainly tugs on the heart strings. As I collected my belongings and boarded the KCR towards the mainland I did so with a heaviness in my chest, contemplating the good times I’d had and the people I was leaving behind.

All of this had been exacerbated in my case by a protracted set of goodbyes. In the evening of the Tuesday night I had said goodbye to Nick, the very friend I had made on my first night in the big city. Over my time in Hong Kong Nick had become like a brother to me, someone I hope I’ll be staying in close contract with in the future, no matter which roads we both travel along in life, his concern over my travel plans was touching and we drank together late into the night before I finally pulled myself away.

Wednesday, my final day at work, was a chance to say goodbye to the department in which I’d worked for the last four and a half weeks, and the colleagues I’d grown to both admire and respect, while the evening was a chance to say goodbye to the other interns and trainees. From the interns I sure I’ll particularly miss Liang, the only person I ever managed to drag out for an after-work-drink, again someone I hope I’ll stay in touch with in the future. Of course, if things work out for me then I’ll be back in Hong Kong to work next year, and perhaps also in the future but it’s always so hard to judge these things with any level of certainty. All this applies to the trainees as well, people who have encouraged and worked with me during my time at the firm, of the many good people in this motley bunch Peggy and Raymond have been particularly kind and I’ll certainly miss the good natured banter I shared with Heinz.

Last of all, it came time to say goodbye to Helie on Thursday. I believe, it was harder to take our farewells than either of us, certainly myself, had anticipated and once it was done there seemed little to hold me in Hong Kong other than inertia. Feelings always seem to catch me by surprise, and can somehow can only be appreciated in retrospect.

All of these thoughts and memories of the good times came back to me as I watched a different side of Hong Kong wiz past me through the train window. Small towns and villages that are often forgotten in the context of Hong Kong. While it’s often said that the country provides everything from Urban Buzz to wilderness treks and sandy beaches, the rural schemes in front of me still seemed out of place in Hong Kong, belonging rather to mainland life, a superb metaphor for my departure and transition towards China and rural Laos.

Guangzhou did something to life my spirits, however. My third visit to the city felt like coming home. As I got off the train I relished the Hubbub and the lack of English language hawkers which are common-place in Hong Kong. Immediately I found my mandarin, neglected during my time in Hong Kong, immediately useful again and with this realization my spirits lifted.

Leaving Guangzhou presented none of the issues I had faced in Hong Kong, however and almost before I knew it I was booked on the next outward sleeper train to Kunming leaving the following day. My first night in China found my thoughts loitering around the trappings of travel, over several cups of the cheap and effective Tsing Tao beer. I slept easily and woke ready and refreshed to tackle the long journey ahead of me.