How Park Avenue and Pakistan Got Me To Hong Kong

by brian on December 3, 2008

Today’s post(s) are brought to you by the Pacific Coffee Company in Hong Kong’s IFC Mall. I bought 24 hours of wireless Internet access for 20HK$ ($2.56US). Sweet deal. I’m sitting on a comfy couch in an air-conditioned mall bringing you the latest, getting my laptop and camera powered up off their electric outlets. I’m already juiced up from a cup of coffee, so let’s begin…

Hong Kong was not on the original agenda for this round the world trip. I had no plans on being here…until about two months ago….

****FLASHBACK*****
Two years ago when I was doing the corporate thing, a new employee, Ilma sat next to me. Our cube divider were not very high, so you could see and hear everything the other person said.

This is how Ilma looks, when she doesn’t have a cell phone pressed firmly against her head…

Ilma and I got to be great friends. She left after less than a year and we lost touch with each other…until this past September.

I found Ilma on LinkedIn (LinkedIn strikes again!) and was excited to tell her about my trip plans. But she had news for me too…

ME: Ilma, great news. I left my job and I’m going to travel around the world!

IL: Brian, great news. I’m getting married and I’m moving to Hong Kong!

ME: What?! I should meet you in Hong Kong.

IL: Let’s do it.

And that’s how I came to be here. I knew I could move the flights on my round the world ticket to give myself a gap to get to Hong Kong. I had to do a little scrambling because of the airport closures in Thailand, but I still made it.

Ilma and her husband Francois have been great to me. Francois is a Canadian but you’d swear he was born and raised in Brooklyn. A really fun guy, a little snarky (a good thing), focused, walks fast and talks fast. You’d think he lived in New York all his life. I like this dude and I approve this marriage!

And Hong Kong has turned out to be great. One thing about a trip like this is that you cannot be too rigid. You have to give yourself a little room to roam and deviate from the path you scheduled. You never know what you might miss.

One thing: Ilma is new here too so we thought we get to pal around. But she broke her ankle 4 days before I got here. Ilma you could not have waited until after I left Hong Kong to break bones?