Back to the US

The snow has melted, it is very quiet (where is the crowd?), and a few geese are back too.

Last day in Hong Kong

bookreading
Maxim Lo - Oliver's illustrator

Another book reading, this time at Commercial Press Olympic (Kowloon) followed by a family treat (Ocean Park) and a dinner with Ariyul at Stanley.
We are packing tonight - all sad to leave Hong Kong.

Goldfish in Ocean Park Atoll Reef in Ocean Park

Another busy day

bookreading at Metrobooks, Kowloon

dinner at the Peak with friends

They're out!

The two new books are out. They still smell the glu and the ink; the printer delivered them yesterday and they are already in several HK bookshops.

The day started with half an hour ferry commute to DB Island (Discovery Bay) to see my colleague Myriam for a meeting... on the beach (it's fun to draw on the sand when explaining a point!). The afternoon went fast with 4 meetings with the publisher, and three friends/business relations, who ended up knowing each other (Hong Kong's a small world). Sebastien played with his former school friends while Oliver went to Bamboo Grove (our former block of flats) playground.

We ended the day with a nice Italian dinner al fresco en famille, and - Hong Kong style - bumped into a business relation of mine whose girls attended the same school as the boys.

Hong Kong harbour
more containers
Hong Kong Island from the ferry - IFC Tower on the right

Back to Hong Kong

Elements new shopping centre in Kowloon (the nine dragons)
Wanchai: old buildings about to be demolished

Wanchai: thoughtful butcher
Wanchai: Chinese traditional medicine shop
Wanchai: market street


Difficult to summarise Hong Kong in one picture- Hong Kong is a layer of different worlds living in parallel. Announcements in three languages in the MTR, men pushing heavy loads with bare hands and Rolls Royce side by side. Super modern and extra clean shopping centers with luxury goods and electronics and little shops.

Highlights of the day: meetings with Enrich, a+b=3's partner in Hong Kong, lunch with Ariyul who hadn't seen the boys since we moved and a+b=3's audit documents signed and lots of running around (printer, optician...) - it's Hong Kong.

If you are ready to face the French version, the pictures are different!

Transit

sunset from HCM airport

In Ho Chi Minh airport for three hours - enjoying wifi, recharging our electronic devices and checking emails. We're missing the tuc-tuc trips already but looking forward to going back to HK.

typical Cambodian house - between Siem Reap and Sisophon
near Angkor Wat

Leaving Siem Reap

A few more temples this morning (after a good baguette and Khmer coffee) and we sadly have to leave Cambodia. We are now at Siem Reap airport waiting for our (delayed) flight and enjoying the free wifi!

8am at Salabai School: raising of the flag

The Road

It looks like any other road: well, no, for decades, this major road between Siem Reap and Banteay Mancheay Province then the Thai border was just a dirt road and travel time depended on the potholes, the rainy season, whether a bridge was broken and the 90 km took 4 to 5 hours, or more. There is now a real road and in 75 minutes, we arrived in Sisophon! There are still kids riding their bikes to go to school, stray dogs and buffalos venturing to cross, little shops selling petrol bottles, but no more potholes! Once in Sisophon today, we visited the Enfants du Mekong centre and talked to the staff. We also met Tainleng and his mother: the boys were very excited, Oliver showed him how the little foam plane works and Sebastien finally understood what the sponsorship was about. The boys were impressed by the computer lab (there are more computers than in their school’s) and the language lab. We gave a few English books to the library and I was stunned by the drawings and paintings made by the students at their art class.
It was getting a bit late to go up to Banteay Chmar – especially there is only a dirt road there; so we headed back to Siem Reap- the return trip took a bit longer as expected because the Camry (official and ubiquitous taxis here) kept breaking down. That reminded me of my childhood family trips in Peugeot!).

In Siem Reap

Today (March 15) was a special day: Oliver was turning 10! He is still young enough to visit Angkor temples for free, but tall as he is (especially for Cambodians), guards kept asking him how old he was. We then went to La Residence, a very nice hotel, for my presentation on financial education (more soon on a+b=3 blog) – good turnout of more than 40 people then took it easy late afternoon; the boys can tell you, it is hot, very hot and there is hardly any air con. For his birthday dinner, Oliver chose an Indian restaurant and we ended the day by sharing a cake in a nearby patisserie.

4 countries in 36 hours

We only stayed in Hong Kong for 18 hours and flew to Cambodia via Ho Chi Minh. We arrived at Siem Reap at night and night really means night in Cambodia, even a city like Siem Reap: it was pitch dark, the hotel reception was closed and the night guard kindly showed us our nice bedroom. We are staying at Salabai, a hotel-restaurant school: young underprivileged Cambodians are trained there for 11 months to learn one of four jobs: cook, receptionist, housekeeping and restaurant waiter. On top of their vocational training, they also receive formal education in English, maths and general culture. Since 2008, financial education is also in their curriculum. It was great to discuss with the teachers about the youth’s money issues and how to improve the program.

View from our bedroom

in Hong Kong

24 hours later, door to door, we arrived in Hong Kong, after a long and uneventful trip.
The hotel is on reclaimed land, in West Kowloon, nicknamed the "Eastern Manhattan" in the hotel brochure. I won't tell you much about what is around because the visibility has not improved much since we left Bloomington; but this time, there is no frozen lake in the background, just a typical Hong Kong view: containers and the harbour. And the temperature is slightly higher, as the humidity rate. Another thing makes me definitely feel at Hong Kong: all my blog tool bar has turned in Chinese...

This afternoon, we're migrating again, this time to Siem Reap (Cambodia).

In Tokyo

A bit jet-lagged but smiling...

setting off

If an observer came home yesterday, he would not have noticed we were about to leave. But things improved during the night - Oliver's fever has gone down, Sebastien has nearly recovered from his knee injury and things got packed - not sure how, but they are. Let's hope the taxi will find its way - we can't even see Bush Lake this morning.
The fortune cookies I drew this week are promising. So we're ready to cross the Ocean: first stop Tokyo tomorrow afternoon, arrival scheduled at around 11pm in Hong Kong - Saturday night, insha'Allah!

C'est reparti!

A la demande de certains - et pour contribuer à la sauvegarde de la langue française, je vais essayer de tout faire en bilingue!
Il vous suffit de cliquer sur le lien à votre droite.
A bientôt!

a special trip

Back to blogging again! We should be off, insha'Allah, in 7 days: the countdown has started!
Special trip because this time, Sebastien and Oliver are coming with me and the purpose of the trip is to see Denzil who'll be spending 3 weeks in Hong Kong.
But obviously, I could not do nothing and enjoy a relax holiday - so I've added a few things to the programme, like a trip to Siem Reap (Cambodia), a talk on financial education and a visit to organisations who already implement our programmes, two book launches in Hong Kong and a few appointments.
Another special event of this trip is that Oliver will celebrate his 10th birthday!
Stay tune!