An Itinerary is Born

November 24, 2024

An absolutely epic trip to Guangzhou and Hong Kong happened this weekend, right during the peak of work stress and a series of decisions that culminated in me giving my resignation. The work environment is beyond toxic and the new management team basically drove out nearly half the staff. It is highly related to the poor economy in China. But as trusted friends have said, all things happen for a reason. Now there is clarity to move on. The switch has been flipped and we have become the hunters for new adventures.

I am beyond fortunate to have met this work colleague who is a fountain of wisdom and information. I just wish there was a way to transcribe the entire conversation and refer back to it again and again. He is better than a life coach. This trip to Hong Kong was mainly about banking but it became so much more. Our talk brought to mind this point in my last trip where I tried to explain to him: "Everything that is happening now with this transformation feels so overwhelming, like I am an engine being stripped down to its parts and reassembled. But in the process I know that the upgrade will be well worth it, not to mention irreversible."

He went on to say, "As part of the process, let's work on physical appearances and set some specific goals." He inspired me to do several things. One of them is to build up my brokerage accounts to $150k by next summer. Others involve a fitness and diet makeover to beat the results I had in Dubai last year. Next, there will be some research done for three areas of improvement: skin botox, jaw surgery, and hair loss replacement

It seems that the botox can be done in South Korea for Christmas which is the next trip and my wife is joining for that. The jaw surgery can be done in Thailand, and the hair loss replacement in Turkey.

Putting everything together from our conversation during the trip and the previous entries, an itinerary came out. For safety reasons I can't say the entire plan here and will divulge it after the fact.

1. Repeat the epic Guangzhou and HK trip on the first day of the winter break around mid-January. This time I will be packing along the folding bike and other belongings. There will also be a major job fair in Hong Kong that weekend.

2. Fly to Bangkok and spend a week there as well as Pattaya. Leave the bike as well as everything else I'm bringing at the guesthouse for temporary storage until the next trip.

3. Take out the first installment of Thai baht from my account, get on the other folding bike towards Cambodia on a route yet to be announced for safety reasons. The actual route itself will come out several days after the fact.

4. Exchange the money to USD then bike back to Bangkok on a different route. Then everything will be set up at the guesthouse for the next trip.

5. Take out the second installment of Thai baht and then fly back to Hong Kong with the entire capital

6. Put all the money in my account. Careful research shows that I'm not exceeding any limits for carrying cash in or out of these various countries as well I have proof of where it came from

7. Fly to Turkey and do the hair loss treatment

8. Fly to Dubai and do more field research, as well as connect there with another mentor friend who is doing a tour of the entire Gulf region: Saudi, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and of course UAE

9. Back to China for maybe the last time. If all goes well the hair loss treatment will take 6-8 months which is timed to coincide with a new job.

But the amazing thing here is I don't really even need to find a new job. Obviously I will try and I am very confident to line something up great. Even if I don't, it's very possible to just stay in Thailand or Cambodia and continue trading. We'll obviously see what happens, but the way I see it is that all the recent tragedies, crises, and dead-ends are not setbacks, they are setups for the new adventures that are about to happen next.

As for the whole China thing, a compromise is in the works. All signs really point to the Gulf. With Trump's victory it is a huge win for countries such as UAE and Saudi Arabia who benefited from his last term and know him as a reliable partner to do business with. And with US / China relations sure to only get worse under Trump, we can easily see the Gulf doing more business with China also. The crown prince of Saudi is an excellent negotiator with both sides and will come off as the big winner in all this.

Meanwhile my mentor friend at work is from Venezuela so he knows all too well that western sanctions and other policies of containment are not effective despite the hatred for Russia and China. Having lived in China for 20+ years, these people arent stupid. They are professionals at circumventing rules. So it doesn't make any sense to burn bridges with China, there must have been some benefits that kept me there despite all the negatives. Then you look at how bad things really are in Canada and the US regardless of who is in power. It's still worth being a permanent expat as opposed to repatriation

So my overall strategy is to keep ties with China from a distance. Let's put it this way, it wouldn't help me sleep at night to keep on living there with all the political tensions and with fears over Taiwan etc.. but if I was living in the Gulf and keeping ties with China, just like MBS, well that's a big win isn't it

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0