The Long Goodbye
- Ally van de Pol
- 1 minute ago
- 4 min read
As I wrote this, I had the song 'The Long & Winding Road...' in my head. I guess that's an analogy for life....but anyway...I digress....
I arrived in Hong Kong on November 3rd 2005 with a boyfriend, two suitcases each and a hope and a dream. Twenty years later, that boyfriend is married to someone else, I’m married to somebody else as well, plus I’ve acquired four dogs, two stepdaughters and a lifetime’s worth of memories and experiences of living and loving Asia.
The next chapter of our lives beckons, in wet, wild and magical Wales. The time is right and the house is right. I never thought I’d live forever in HK as there are many things that we can’t do there or are difficult to do there.
But just like a lover who threatens to leave, you don’t realise how much you love something until it’s nearly gone. Here are the things I will miss about Hong Kong:
-November! The best month of the year for weather
-Winters- ironically one of the reasons that I left the UK 20 years ago were the endless grey winters, here in HK winters are usually perfectly temperature, with blue skies.
-The mountains and associated hiking
-Beaches; many are stunning and the water is the perfect temperature in Summer
-The easy ability to make friends with people from any background
-Ease of accessibility to so much of Asia
-Low tax rate
-The ability to get anything done
-The HK People and their industriousness and friendliness
-Having a helper
-Crazy nights out (not that I do that anymore)
-The safety
Here’s what I won’t miss about HK:
-The endless steamy sticky and wet spring and summers. While hot sun can be great if you are on a beach, if you have to wear ‘normal’ clothes and ‘do’ anything, you will likely be a big sweaty mess for most of the day (from April to October) and need to take 3-4 showers and associated clothes changes along the way
-That English is an official language of HK, but it’s really not. Putonghua took its place years ago
-The HK people and their inability to think outside the box
-The government’s love of red tape and bureaucracy
-That flights are expensive for a short trip
-Cantonese shouting
-Beaches often full of litter
-The reliance on helpers and the laziness that breeds
-That drinking is an Olympic sport for many
-The discrepancy between the haves and the have nots
-The socio-economic issues that HK brushes under the rug; roughly 30% of the population live under the poverty line
-The expectation of working 24/7
-That the border with the mainland is essentially open and HK is filling up with Mainland Chinese who are culturally different, which brings problems.
-That service is either amazing or shocking
-The lack of general chit chat
As you can see, some of my thoughts about HK are a real love/ hate….
And here is what I am looking forward to about Wales:
-Spring and Summer- nothing beats long days and British summers
-A real sense of community, where everyone speaks my language
-The ability to product/ service swap
-Chit-chat
-Ability to be virtually self-sufficient and grow a lot of our own veg
-To develop and expand my business; to develop new offerings and to help more and more people get healthier
-Being closer to friends and family
-To picking back up with old friends and making new ones
-To exploring Britain and Europe
-The cosiness of Winter and hygge
-Merino wool base layers
-Owning a house again
-Seeing my husband genuinely happy and not stressed out by corporate BS
-Seeing our pups enjoying a climate that is good for running around in and not having to worry about them being bitten by snakes, monkeys or gored by boar.
-Hopefully having lots of lovely visitors
-Enjoying a slightly slower pace of life…maybe!
What I’m a Little concerned About Regarding Moving to Wales:
-The move! Eek!
-Getting set up again in a country I have no idea how to do anything or how it works
-The rain and the cold!
-The British government
-Digital Id
-Income tax
-The safety
I wrote all the above while still in HK. Now that I’ve arrived in Wales, despite some teething problems, I can honestly say that I pinch myself everyday that I am here. I feel like I’m on the precipice of so much potential and a great new life, it’s actually difficult to know where to begin or what to concentrate on. Wales is already teaching me to live in the now. To enjoy the weather today, because you never know what it will be like tomorrow….. And while there are things that I miss about HK, it will always be there, I will visit, but right now I’m excited to get on with my new life.
You can follow my exploits in Wales, by following the FB page below:
and IG: Instagram.com/gelli_wales
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