Hong Kong, Coronavirus, Viking

Hong Kong, Coronavirus, Viking – how can these three be connected? Read on. 🙂

Amidst the spread of coronavirus, I went out to meet up with the ‘founder’ of Once Upon A Saga, Thor, an interesting Danish guy who initiated a very exciting project six years ago.  I have been following his adventure for quite some time. When I knew he was in Hong Kong, I knew, I had to meet up with him.

And his goal of his project?  To travel to all the countries in the world without flying.

Wait, how can you travel from Hong Kong to say, Australia without flying then? Container ships, that is!

I suggested we hike up Mount Parker.  There was a hidden agenda which I haven’t told him yet. 😛  But it’s a good one.  😀  The hike started with no scenery at all so he was forced to talk to me for the first 30 minutes, at least.  😀 That’s the hidden agenda.  😀  So, now you know, Viking!!  😀 

It was a challenging hike for me because I haven’t done any hiking for a long time. The places I stayed in Cambodia over the past 7.5 months, Kampong Cham and Phnom Penh for example, as far as I know, do not have a mountain for me to hike. Kampot is different but the priest and I drove up. 😛 (Check out my Bokor Mountain blog here.)

Another challenge was, I forgot the path to the viewpoint where I usually took the couchsurfers to see the fireworks. 😅 But eventually, through trial and error, we found the path. 😀 He didn’t mention it in his blog. 😀 My legs are still sore as I write this blog. He was tired too but I don’t know if it was because of this hike or the many different hikes that he did in Hong Kong over the past few days.

The reason why I had this chance to meet him was because he is literally stuck in Hong Kong because of coronavirus. Container ships usually travel to many different places including China and so, there you go – travel ban, quarantine etc. He’s now looking for a vessel that will take him to another country so that he can continue with his journey.

We talked about many different things during our hike. He’s indeed a very interesting person with many unique and sometimes horrible experiences but at the same time, I can feel his stress and frustration during his six-year journey. I totally agree it’s not as ‘fun’ and ‘relaxing’ as some people may think.

However, once we set a goal for ourselves, aren’t we supposed to be persistent and determined? Aren’t we supposed to continue until we reach that goal no matter how small the progress we are making?  We should. We are. He is.

All the best with your project. Hope to hear your story in another country soon. Only nine more countries to go.

Thanks for the inspiring rendezvous.

For details of Thor’s adventure, check out here.

For another inspiring hiking related story that I had in Vietnam with my students, check out here.

For another inspiring story with my students in the village, check out here.

If you’d like to find out my travel footprints (so far), check out my blogs here. 🙂