Leaving Hong Kong

It’s finally here. Moving day.

We haven’t slept well all week. As you probably know when moving house, no matter how much you do in advance, there are always a million last-minute tasks that need your attention. Zillions of errands and appointments and things to buy and people to say goodbye to.  So that’s normal house moving. On top of that we had “leaving the country” tasks, and then we had “plan the biggest trip we’ve ever taken” tasks too.

I guess you can imagine we’ve been busy. And a bit stressed.

24 hours ago, the to-do list felt never-ending. Now, it’s pretty much done.

The movers arrived this morning. 2 hours (and 33 boxes!) later, they left with all of our belongings save one small rolling suitcase each and a daypack. That’s it. For 10 weeks. So like it or not, we’re ready, and this trip is happening.

After the movers left, we did make a special effort to close out our time in Hong Kong. We made an offering at Man Mo Temple.

Man Mo is our favorite temple in Hong Kong. It’s in a really central location in the Sheung Wan neighborhood, and is one of our regular stops whenever we have visitors in Hong Kong.

It’s an active temple. Yes, there are usually a few tourists, but there are always lots of locals there, lighting incense sticks and coils, praying, and leaving fruit as offerings.

The incense is amazing.

There are incense sticks in big pots all around the temple. But what’s most impressive are the hanging coils of incense. They’re everywhere. You walk underneath burning incense coils. The air is filled with smoke. Occasionally a bit of ash falls on you.

Today, we bought a “small” incense coil (which was actually pretty big I thought – maybe one foot across the widest part of the spiral?) for 130 HKD (approx 13 GBP, or US $16.)

When you buy an incense coil, they give you a red tag and a pen. You can write whatever wish or intention or person you want on the tag. Then they attach the tag to the incense coil, and hoist it up to the ceiling, hooking it over the rafters.

We set an intention for safe travels. Such a nice ritual to close out our experience in Hong Kong.

Afterwards, we stopped by our favorite “English Pub” in HK, The Globe, for a much deserved beer and lunch.

A few more errands today, and then dinner at our favorite soup dumpling restaurant Din Tai Fung, and then an early start tomorrow as we cross the border into China to start our trip!