2023 - Eight Years In, We Finally Went Back to Hong Kong and Didn't Fight

We’re just shy of 3,000 nights on someone else's sheets.

Our wild, bed-hopping ride kicked off on June 23, 2015. Tonight, we're hitting the hay for the 2,922nd time without the plush luxury of our beloved Sleepcomfort bed back in Raleigh, North Carolina. We still remember how the air whooshed out like a sigh of relaxation when we dialed in our favorite sleep numbers.

Since then, our dreamtime has been all over the place.  We’ve slept in hotels, motels, quarantine facilities, dorm rooms, boats, ships, tents, airplane seats, cottages, apartments, and houses we’ve rented along the way.

Sure, we don’t always sleep as soundly as we’d like, but we love living footloose and fancy-free.

We have no intention of stopping. And, I guess unsurprisingly, we’ve gotten better at it.

We tested ourselves in Hong Kong

We spent January 1st of 2016 in Hong Kong. We returned for the start of 2023. Revisiting Hong Kong was a great opportunity to compare the us of 2016 to the us of today.

We’re different people this year than we were back then. We’ve grown.

In 2016, Hong Kong threw us for a loop.

One afternoon we timidly edged into the crowded entryway of a dim sum restaurant. We were bustled into an elevator and taken to the third floor. A host rushed us to a table, and cart-pushing servers instantly started doling out mysterious plates of food. Was that a chicken foot? Lisa is a vegetarian. Things started badly, and the tension began to build.

Then, completely embarrassed, we realized we were drinking the hot tea that we were meant to use to clean our dishes. Biting into a dumpling, Lisa became convinced that she was eating pork. A helpful Chinese guy leaned over and tried to help—in Chinese. It wasn’t helpful; it was awkward and stressful.

Lunch ended, but Lisa was still hungry, and our departure from the restaurant did not release the tension. I said something I thought was funny, and kaboom!

The marital tension exploded into a big argument on a Hong Kong street corner. We stormed off in different directions. I can’t remember what we argued about, but I’m sure I was right.

Hong Kong challenged us in 2016. The language barrier was impenetrable, the transit system was indecipherable, the restaurants were overwhelming, and our Airbnb fire alarm wouldn’t stop going off. We were a little freaked out that week. While we had a vague sense that Hong Kong might be fun if we could figure it out, we were really happy to leave and go somewhere easier.

This time, seven years later, we had a blast in Hong Kong. The people were great, the transit system was easy, and we ate in all the restaurants without incident (except for one little noodle problem that got resolved by a waitress who just shook her head in disbelief—we found it hilarious, rather than embarrassing).

We’d grown. We handled the challenges, enjoyed the novelties, and loved the city. Many years of travel have taught us many lessons.

We didn’t argue a single time, and we started missing Hong Kong the moment we left.

Missing things

Speaking of missing something—let me tell you about our luggage.

Last fall, we boarded a flight in Moldova. We had a tight connection in Vienna on our way to Prague.

Unfortunately, our checked bags stayed in Vienna.

We had nearly nothing with us except our computers and credit cards.

For the first few days, we kept thinking the bags would show up shortly. We hesitated to act. We didn’t buy clothes. We washed our underwear in the hotel room sink.

On day three we kicked into gear and stocked up. We had no choice. We patched things together for our two weeks in Prague and then flew off to our next stop in Helsinki.

We got kind of used to our stuff being gone—it was like we had started over. I bought an electric razor. Lisa shopped for sunscreen. We replaced our suitcases. We discovered that having next to nothing was manageable, and that we were okay.

Then, twenty-three days later, our bags showed up in Finland, out of the blue.

Lessons learned

We’d learned back in 2015 that giving away all of our possessions was something we could handle. It had been a bit uncomfortable at first, knowing that everything we owned fit into a carry-on bag, but we adjusted. We got used to the feeling of being untethered.

But having that last little bit of stuff taken from us was a new set of lessons. Checking into a hotel with nothing but a laptop, jacket, and sunglasses felt odd.

We survived. We bought the essentials, and proved to ourselves that all we really needed was a credit card.

Our attachment to our stuff proved less important than either of us could have imagined.

We’ve grown, changed, evolved…

Traveling for so many years has changed us. We’re different people than we were back in 2015. Mostly we don’t see how we’ve changed, but the Hong Kong experience showed us some things about ourselves.

The people we used to be were very different. Our lives have been enriched by the experiences we've had in the last eight years. The missing luggage also gave us a glimpse into ourselves.

It was weird to think back to our fully stocked suburban house and jam-packed attic, and then find ourselves without toothpaste, deodorant, or anything else.

We’ve reached a point where we kind of enjoy not having things. It’s light, nimble, and freeing, but it’s also pretty easy to get very attached to having clean underwear and a fresh shirt. We’re different but we’re also the same.

Let's just say that for now, we’re carrying on our carry-ons. We’re keeping our luggage close because we may be minimalists, but we still like having our things.

So far, I’ve mentioned a few of our stops this year: Hong Kong, Moldova, and Prague. Let me fill you in on the other places we visited.

This past year in a nutshell

The last time I wrote one of our nomad updates we were hanging out in Brasov, Romania. We ended up staying there for a month. The summer weather was comfortable, as we had hoped. Let's begin our journey from the past and move swiftly towards the present.

Romania

We picked Romania for the cool mountain air in Brasov, to avoid the summer heat at lower altitudes. That worked out well and we stayed comfortable and were pleasantly surprised by some terrific restaurants we discovered away from the tourist areas.

We got up into the high mountains and found snow. We took road and train trips to check out the castles and vampires near Sibiu and Sighisoara. We spent some time in Bucharest, and were overall quite impressed by the country.

Moldova

Then it was time to head to Moldova. People in the capital, Chișinău, had heard loud bombs dropping near the border with Ukraine in the early days of the war. We saw plenty of evidence of refugees fleeing the war as we traveled from Romania. It’s a sad situation for so many folks.

We were pleasantly surprised by Chișinău, which is a beautiful European city. It doesn’t have an Eiffel Tower or anything, but it has lots of parks and boulevards, along with a complicated history and the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe.

The unrecognized breakaway state of Transnistria is nearby. We spent a day touring Transnistria and it was fascinating to cross the border and see the Russian, Moldovan, and Transnistrian troops sharing authority.

It didn’t hurt that Moldova is an amazing bargain; excellent food was incredibly inexpensive.

After a short visit, we headed for the airport, unwisely checked our bags, and took off for Prague.

Czech Republic

We landed just a few hours later, but the luggage carousel spun and spun and our bags never came through the opening. We checked and saw our Apple Airtags pinging from Vienna, where we’d changed planes.

Landing in Prague without luggage was disorienting, but it provided some structure for our visit. We spent part of each day ensuring we had something to wear the next day. Sometimes having a mission makes the visit more exciting and gets us off the beaten track.

Prague is filled with tourist attractions and the track is definitely beaten. There is so much to see in this city, and even though it can get crowded, it’s definitely worth a visit. The city is full of history and has a beautiful location. During our frequent shopping outings, we discovered several local festivals and markets.

We took a quick road trip down to Vienna in a futile attempt to recover our luggage. We made the most of it by stopping for lunch in Bratislava, Slovakia. Now we can tell people we’ve been to Slovakia; I think that makes us sound like adventurers.

Finland

We landed in Helsinki just after the young prime minister got caught up in a controversy for dancing at a party and being fun and interesting. That was our first clue that Finland would be a good time.

Within hours I’d wandered into the nearby public library. It was packed—on a  weekday—with kids, college students, adults, and seniors. It was a vibrant, perky, positive environment filled with way more than books. Visitors can reserve and use kitchens, audio and video studios, musical instruments, 3D printers, sewing machines, and so on. It’s amazing what government can do when it works well. Maybe all political leaders should dance more.

After hanging out in Helsinki for a couple of weeks, we took the ferry over to Tallinn.

Estonia

Tallinn is a small, very relaxed Northern European city with lots of tourists, many of whom visit by cruise ship. It has all the usual Europe things: a beautiful old town, historic churches, museums, dramatic government buildings, a HoHo bus, plus chilly weather in September. We stayed for a couple of weeks in the old town and lived within the history.

We visited a former KGB prison that featured some outstanding exhibits. Nearby is the Russian embassy, which is currently surrounded by barriers and graphic protest signs affixed by opponents of the war in Ukraine. The KGB history and the photos of current war atrocities create a tense environment in a tiny country that borders Russia.

The weather and the politics were chilly, and after a couple of weeks we had used up the number of days we’re permitted to stay in Europe. It was time to leave before we got kicked out.

Scotland

We landed in Edinburgh, where we’ve spent considerable time on many visits. We love the city despite it being chilly and wet. It’s comfortable, the food is delicious, and the people speak a language closely resembling English.

We keep returning to Edinburgh because we often need somewhere to go when we run out of Schengen time. The UK isn’t part of the Schengen agreement. We’re only allowed to stay in the Schengen Area for 90 of every 180 days, and we somehow keep running up to the limit right before we head back to the US for our annual visit. Edinburgh is in the right place at the right time for us.

USA

We return to Raleigh once a year for a few weeks. It's an opportunity for us to catch up with old friends, visit with family, and see our doctors for annual checkups. Our visit was, as usual, lots of fun (except for all those medical visits).

I can't help but mention, on the topic of medicine, that we have seen lots of doctors in lots of countries over the past eight years. Our bills for those treatments are typically under $100. Even in Australia and Japan, the visits have been relatively inexpensive.

During our time in Raleigh, Lisa had a quick medical procedure that ended up involving an overnight observation in the hospital. I did my part to run up our bills as well, having a variety of medical tests. The total for our Raleigh medical visits exceeded $125,000. Ouch!

It blows my mind that we Americans face these kinds of bills. Thankfully that total was negotiated down somewhat by our insurance company, who then paid the balance. But even after the discount the charges were incredible.

Mexico

While researching flights from Raleigh to Asia, I discovered that prices were much lower if the flight originated in Mexico rather than in the US. That inspired our visit to Mexico City. I figured if we were going to fly there anyway, we might as well make the most of it, so we stayed for a few weeks.

Our visit coincided with Halloween, the Day of the Dead, and a Formula 1 race. All of that festivity made for a great visit. The Day of the Dead celebrations alone would have made the stopover worthwhile. We were joined by our youngest child, Lane, who speaks a fair amount of Spanish and made our time in Mexico City even more special.

We’ve always enjoyed Mexico, but this visit turned us into superfans of the country. Mexico City is such a quick and easy flight from most of the US that we are encouraging everyone we know to go visit.

I could go on and on about all the great things a tourist can do in Mexico City. That list would include Chapultepec Park, the anthropology museum, and the Pyramid of the Sun. But at the top of the list would be two of the best restaurants in the world—Pujol and Quintonil. Both were quite the experience.

We left Mexico City and spent nearly two weeks down in Oaxaca, consuming all the Mexican food we could hold. Oaxaca is the center of Mexican food culture and it’s all delicious. Unfortunately, a garbage strike marred the first few days, when the fragrance of aging garbage wafted through the open-air restaurants. Thankfully the strike was settled, the garbage was collected, and we were able to enjoy our tacos.

Oaxaca is a picturesque, colorful, touristy town with great restaurants. The nearby ruins are a big attraction and are easy to visit. We loaded up on Mexican food, then began gearing up for a pivot to Asian food.

Taiwan

After three weeks in Taipei and a nine-day road trip around the country, I can report that all is well in Taiwan. It’s a great country with amazing food and the nicest, most helpful people you’d ever want to meet. Plus, at least in the urban areas, there are plenty of English speakers.

I came to think of Taiwan as the most frictionless place we’ve ever visited. It just works. Everything is smooth. That extends from restaurants to transit, hotels, retail, and laundry services. It’s such an easy place to live.

Our road trip took us down the east coast to Hualien City, Yuli, Taitung, Kenting, and Kaohsiung. We saw 13,000-foot-high mountains and breathtaking beaches. We turned in our rental car in the south and took the high-speed train back up the west coast to Taipei.

Someone recently asked me if Taiwan is a safe place to visit. We felt incredibly safe.

Hong Kong

The contrast between Taiwan and Hong Kong is interesting. The two places are very similar, but also very different.

Taiwan has a culture heavily influenced by China and Japan. Hong Kong has a culture heavily influenced by China and the United Kingdom.

Because we spend so much time and energy thinking about and eating food, we compare it to the difference between eating Taiwanese food at Din Tai Fung, and eating at your favorite dim sum restaurant. Those meals are not the same, but they're not all that different. Both have dumplings and noodles, but the preparation is different, leading to localized textures and flavors. It’s hard to capture the distinctions, but we can say that both are terrific places to visit and they both have delicious food.

We enjoyed a harbor view of Hong Kong for Christmas and New Year's. It was an exciting time to be in the city, in the first days after their post-Covid reopening, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but we were blowing our budget in Hong Kong and it was time to head to less expensive territory.

Vietnam

Upon landing in Ho Chi Minh City, we promptly checked into the elegant Park Hyatt Saigon. The same hotel would have cost a fortune in Hong Kong but because we had relocated to Vietnam, it was a bargain.

We visited Vietnam for the first time about six years ago, and fell in love with the country. We're always suggesting it to friends as a destination, but we haven't been back ourselves in years so it was time to go.

It was fantastic to return. The energy, people, and food make Vietnam a wonderful destination. We returned to Saigon and ate at some of the same restaurants we had been to before. We went back to the war museum. We wandered the streets and soaked it all in. Saigon has an energy that’s hard to capture in words.

After a week in the city, we traveled to Mui Ne, a small beach town several hours away. We checked into a hotel owned by a couple we had become friends with during our last visit. It's not often that we get to spend hours and hours chatting with someone who actually lives in the place we’re visiting. Those conversations happen far too infrequently. Hanging out with this couple every day for a week renewed and solidified our affection for Vietnam.

Bangkok

Speaking of affection, we left Vietnam and headed for Thailand. While we love Thailand, we’re even more attached to our eldest child, who has lived there for nearly a decade. Anytime we're on that side of the planet, we drop in for a visit.

We had a great time seeing Toby, bopping around Bangkok some, and eating lots of Thai food. We already have another quick visit planned for next month.

Brunei

While we had many good reasons for going to Thailand, we had very few for going to Brunei. Our primary justification for the visit was that it’s one of the few countries in the region that we had not previously visited.

Brunei is a small, fascinating country led by a very wealthy Sultan. We wandered around looking at amazing buildings, hiking in the jungle, and spotting crocodiles and proboscis monkeys.

I'm not sure that we'll be returning to Brunei anytime soon, but I'm glad we spent five nights checking it out.

Boracay, Philippines

Then it was off to the Philippines. It's another country we’ve never visited before, but it's one that we want to return to at some point.

We spent one night in Manila before taking a quick flight to Boracay Island, where we checked into a very nice oceanfront resort with a big pool. For two weeks we did little other than sit by the pool, eat Filipino food, and watch the sun go down over the ocean. I can tell you that Boracay has stunning sunsets.

Australia

After two weeks of relaxation on Boracay it was time to move. We took the long flight to Australia and settled in for a week in Sydney. We did lots of wandering around and particularly enjoyed seeing the WorldPride festivities. I had visited Sydney before but Lisa had not, so it was fun showing her the Opera House, Bondi Beach, and the other hot spots.

New Zealand

On the map, New Zealand looks pretty close to Australia, until you check your plane ticket for departure and arrival times. It’s further than you might imagine.

We headed to Christchurch and picked up a car for a two-week road trip on the South Island. We stayed in tiny motels and did lots of driving and hiking. We moved fast, spending just one or two nights in each spot. We covered a lot of ground as we gawked out of the car windows. The scenery is beautiful and, in retrospect, we could have stayed longer on the South Island.

Instead, we flew to the North Island. The North Island was enjoyable but not as beautiful as the South Island. We spent another two weeks driving around; the highlight was Cape Reinga at the island's northern tip. The views from there are nothing less than spectacular.

Then it was time to fly back to Australia.

Australia

After all that driving in New Zealand we were ready to slow the pace just a bit.

We spent a week in Adelaide, where Lisa got to hug a koala bear. Adelaide is a beautiful, calm, clean, and organized city that makes visiting pleasant. Then we flew from Adelaide to Melbourne and settled into an apartment for a month.

Our principal reason for visiting Melbourne was the world-renowned croissant shop Lune. We ate croissants every single day of our 28-day visit.

The croissants were the highlight of our time there.

Melbourne is so much like most of America that it feels incredibly familiar and predictable, which makes it an effortless place to visit. We understand the food, the people, the language, and the culture, so after four weeks of chilling and eating croissants, we were energized and ready for adventure. We hopped on a plane headed for Japan.

Singapore

On the way to Japan we had a quick stop to make. Our original flight to Japan was in economy and involved a red eye, which we were dreading. I eventually discovered a routing change that had us land in Singapore at about 9:00 pm and take off the next day at about 2:00 pm, allowing us to sleep in a comfortable bed in an airport hotel.

That worked out beautifully. We got a good night's sleep and explored the Singapore airport, which is often rated as the best in the world. There’s an incredible waterfall in the shopping area, along with a butterfly house. After a great day in the airport, we headed off to Japan.

Japan

Japan has been a whirlwind. We landed in Tokyo and two days later hopped on a bullet train for a month of visiting Kyoto, Osaka, Naoshima and Teshima Islands, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.

Now we're in Tokyo. We're enjoying a month in the world’s biggest city, before heading up to Hokkaido in a week or so.

We've had enough time to catch up on work, get a little rest, and hit a bunch of tourist attractions. The highlight so far was a Tokyo Giants game. The fans make the game an amazing experience.

We’re soaking in everything Tokyo has to offer. It’s a huge city and we’ll never see it all. But we ride the subway every day, exploring neighborhoods and stumbling into many exciting things.

Planning the past year

The pandemic now feels pretty much over. China is open and we’re seeing fewer and fewer masks in Japan. But Covid’s impact on travel will continue to influence our plans for the rest of this year.

We deliberately booked much of our travel for late 2022 and all of 2023 back in the fall of last year. We’d been watching the impact of travel reopening—especially as travel between the US and Europe increased. We could see pent-up American demand driving up prices and crowding destinations across Europe.

The writing was on the wall as China geared up to unleash its population back onto the travel world. We booked flights and hotels before the prices went up. It didn’t hurt that we were able to lock in a great exchange rate when the US dollar was so strong last fall.

We booked travel to China for this spring, hoping that might work out, but we also booked parallel plans. Ultimately we decided that China might not be the best choice this year, due to the Covid infection rates when they ended mitigation measures. It was a good thing we had made those alternate plans.

Thankfully our booking decisions mostly worked out well. We had locked in some fantastic bargains before prices skyrocketed. I giggled when we checked into our mini-suite in one Japanese hotel for $45 per night, including breakfast. The price had soared since we booked.

Moving forward

Each year, our philosophy of travel planning evolves a little bit more. We learned quite a bit and refined our approach over the first five years, and thought we had worked out a pattern that met our needs. Then Covid came along and broke the system.

Now we’re dealing with the impact of Covid on demand for travel, but we’re also paying attention to the possibility of an economic slowdown. We’re also observing the effect of global politics, which makes some destinations more logistically challenging, and overloads others with excess tourists.

Of course, we’re also paying attention to our personal preferences and interests. Lately, we’ve been looking toward building some longer stays into our plans. The quick pace of the last 18 months has worn us out a bit. But there’s always some tension between our interest in seeing new places and our need to avoid exhaustion. We’ve been struggling to find that balance for eight years now, and I doubt we’ll ever get it just right.

We plan to pack up and leave Japan next month, and pop in for a quick visit to see Toby in Bangkok. Then we’re off to Italy, Austria, and Turkey before our annual visit to Raleigh in October. Then we’ll repeat Mexico City. From there, we’re not sure yet. I’ll let you know what we decide—in June of 2024.

If you’re curious to find out where we end up without waiting for my annual update, check out our continuously updated itinerary and subscribe to Lisa’s newsletter. She’ll keep you in the loop. In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you about travel ideas and are always happy to meet up along the way.