A year and a day ago from today, I moved to Hong Kong.
Okay technically it was on the 12th of May but it was just a few minutes shy of midnight so I could probably consider the 13th as the official anniversary, so to speak.
Here’s a picture of me showing the clunky wrist tracker that I had to wear during my two weeks quarantine. I hated that thing.
Though I stayed in a four star hotel, I couldn’t leave the room for two weeks. If I ordered food (there wasn’t even a microwave in the room, so I pretty much didn’t have a choice), they would knock and leave it outside my door. I experienced cabin fever after a few days.
I was so relieved when I could finally leave the room. I transferred to another hotel room within the same hotel and stayed there for 4 more weeks because the hotel rate was so cheap due to the pandemic. I reimbursed this as part of my relocation package.
Anyway, today a friend asked if I thought I was at the right place.
“I don’t regret moving here if that’s what you mean,” I replied.
“That’s good,” she said. “I was thinking you might regret leaving SG because your friends and happy colleagues are there.”
It’s true that I do miss my friends in Singapore – my dream team, my flatmate, my other close friends – but actually, I had already been feeling sad about having so few friends in 2020, due to many friends leaving Singapore, which is considered a transit place by most Filipinos.
I had also gotten a bit bored of Singapore because after 11 years, I had pretty much seen and done everything worth seeing and doing in the city-state.
It wasn’t an easy decision to move to Hong Kong because of all the negative press, but after living here a year I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised at how nice my life is here, actually. Let me enumerate:
- Work-wise I have better pay but better work-life balance.
- I have my own flat which was a long time dream.
- The weather here is definitely better. It’s nice to experience four seasons for the first time, which also means I get to finally wear what has always been my favourite in outfits – coats and boots!
- There is more to explore in Hong Kong because it’s bigger than Singapore. It’s a good thing I moved here during the pandemic because I can explore the island and not miss travelling so much.
That’s just a few things off the top of my head. Of course there are cons, too, like: less people speak English, there’s no cheap hawker food, and something here has wrecked my skin. But that’s nothing compared to what I gained.
As for friends, I have started to find some and I’m sure I will eventually find more, even more so now that I am vaccinated and can go out more!
I can wholeheartedly say that my quality of life has improved and coming here was a good move.
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