I’m not going to Malaysia anymore. Or Singapore. Or Taiwan.

Instead, I’m going to Hong Kong.

Why? To see family.

When I was in Hong Kong over winter break, I saw all of my extended family, but not my immediate family. That was because my mom and brother are going to visit Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing in June. The original plan was that I would go to those cities with them, enabling us to spend one last summer together as a family. My brother starts college in the fall; I graduate next May – the time has come where it’s going to get harder and harder for all of us to get together, considering that we will be in three very different places in the US (DC, Chicago, and Hawaii). However, that plan fell through because of my own plans for the summer, which involved working and not much time to do the whole touristy thing.

I did some thinking and I realized that I could always go back to southeast Asia in the future and travel. But spending time with family right now, this summer? That I can’t always go back to. I haven’t seen my mom or brother since last August; if I didn’t choose to spend some time with them in Hong Kong instead of travel, I wouldn’t be able to spend quality time with them this summer, period. I’ll be alternating between tutoring and teaching English in Beijing and Shanghai; I would only have time to show my family around the two cities during week nights and weekends. That’s a far cry from being able to spend a solid week or two of quality family time in Hong Kong.

The thing is, I want to spend time with my family in Hong Kong more than any other city. To take my brother out to Lan Kwai Fong (蘭桂坊), to go shopping at Ladies’ Market (女人街) with my mother, to have all three of us sit down at a cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) or dim sum (點心) and enjoy delicious Hong Kong food together… These are memories we can’t create anywhere else in the world. Besides, I haven’t seen my family in almost a year. What better place to reunite than the one city we all call home?

There will be plenty of opportunities in the future to travel to explore various nooks and crannies of the world. But this time, I’m choosing family over travel. And I can’t wait.

Tags: southeast asia