Silver and Gold

In late February, 1999, DW and I finished our second year of teaching English in South Korea. Not quite ready to return home, to Canada, we thought about where we would like to travel to as our last vacation before finding new jobs and starting the next phase in our lives.

That is, buying a home and getting busy starting a family.

Originally, we considered flying to Australia and exploring the land down-under. We also considered Hawaii, as we felt we'd never get a better opportunity to go.

But when we started adding up the cost of airfare, accommodation, and other expenses, we discovered that we could afford to either stay a week in Hawaii, two weeks in Australia, or a month in Southeast Asia.

We took curtain number three.

We worked out a travel package that gave us a great rate on three flights to anywhere in Southeast Asia, to be used within 30 days. We chose to fly from Seoul to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to Singapore, and from Bangkok to Seoul. We'd travel throughout these three points before returning to Seoul, spending a few days with friends, and then flying home, to Ottawa.

We found a place to stay in Kowloon, across the Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong. The thing is, while we got a good deal on a five-star hotel, it was still really expensive for two backpacking travellers, so we planned to only stay in Hong Kong for 24 hours.

It was an action-packed 24 hours, visiting museums, visiting the top of Victoria Peak, eating good food, and taking lots of photos.

Hong Kong is a wonderous concrete jungle, with skyscrapers that stretch higher than we had ever seen before. It was a wonder and a shame, as the density of structures pretty much blocked out a lot of sunlight. It's easy to feel claustrophobic in Hong Kong.

Every once and a while, I remember our short stay in Hong Kong, before we continued on to Singapore, and DW and I still wish we had taken just one more day. But it wasn't until I started digging through my old photo storage drive, which I had mentioned earlier this week, that I found a folder with some scanned images of a roll of 35mm film from that brief visit.

I remembered some of the buildings, the glass and steel, and my eyes fell to one image that captured the density of the skyscrapers.

It looks like a closeup of one building, in silver and gold glass, but it's actually three buildings. The twin towers of buildings that look like they have panda bears climbing up them. Between and behind them, another glass tower gleams in gold.

I don't know that I'll ever return to Hong Kong. I'm doubtful that I'll return to China at all. All I can do is look at my old photos and remember the trip that wrapped up our two-year stay on the other side of the planet.

Happy Friday!