January 19, 2025
Day H4: Recuperation
All told I slept for 16 hours straight. The cough didn't let up, this time combined with a rising fever. It was simply a matter of curl up in the bed and feel the heat, not to mention process through all the toxins.
When I did eventually leave the hotel, I felt considerably better. There was more spring in my step as I walked over to the 7/11 and had breakfast, after all you can't really expect it in the hotel. Next was make my way on the MTR to another community event. It was well worth the effort, and things were slowed down considerably by trying to find somewhere to break a bill for change so as to buy MTR tickets with cash. In times like these it's tempting to demand, "How come we can't just pay with our phone like in China?" but this isn't how the rest of the world works. It's a combination of many possible things: cash, Octopus card, or indeed phone payment.
For that matter, I was quickly adapting to taking out cash and wallets and making sure I didn't misplace my phone during the process of paying for stuff with cash. On a recent trip to Korea this nearly caused a disaster that wasn't worth repeating.
The community event was awesome and I chatted up a storm with probably a half-dozen people. This was more like it. Several of them were teachers, and it was priceless to watch their reactions when I explained how the mobile phone payment system works in China. Many expats in Hong Kong don't go to the mainland. They've certainly heard about the phone payment, but they're not familiar with the details. It made for some very entertaining conversation to answer their questions.
Much to my luck, one of the people I met was a Shanghainese who since "immigrated" to Hong Kong with her husband and two kids. She lives in Tsing Yi which happens to be on the way to the airport and she offered to show me how to get there on the MTR. We chatted a lot about how things work here and much to my surprise, she was a former student at the high school I currently teach. But this was many years ago. She also wasn't too familiar with the mobile phone payment system. She said, "You gotta come to Hong Kong, find a job here, get a nice place in Tsing Yi, then tutor my two boys." Sounds like a deal. Thanks to no tutoring crackdowns unlike the mainland, you can actually do this. The consensus I was getting is that Hong Kong is the perfect next place to find a job because an increasing number of mainland people are coming here for the education and I already have 20+ years experience on the mainland.
Once at the airport it was slam packed but things were more efficient with Hong Kong and the people were able to move through rather quickly. The flight was amazing and very smooth and I landed in the land of smiles in no time.
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