postscript

The last days in London were stunning. Beautiful clear, warm, still days. The sky a deep polarized blue. We enjoyed wandering in the enormous Hyde Park and the smaller and exquisite St James Park. Our time in Hong Kong on the way home was relaxing. It was a dumpling festival or perhaps a festival of dumplings. From the Hutong room to the Taiwanese inspired Din Tai Fing and finally the wonderful Tang Court-a two star Michelin restaurant in the Langham Hotel. It appears you can never, ever have too many dumplings. Hong Kong has the most extraordinary level of service and without doubt one of the best airports in the world. From kerbside, checked in, cleared customs and security in 15 minutes! The airport is efficient, clean, and spacious and the staff reserved and polite. 

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” Henry Miller

All things must end and so has our adventure. There are so many things to remember and to slowly reflect on. Back at home and looking over the garden it seems a dream. Every place and experience stays with you but as a memory. What is the reason we yearn for the unknown? To be thrown into the world and for things to be unfamiliar enough that you never take them for granted and to pinch yourself continuously to remind you of this fact. How do we value freedom of movement and of thought? People often ask what was the highlight. It is hard to respond as so many things would rank as the best-waking in a new place, eating among new and old friends, the joy of observation.

But maybe I will leave it to Cesare Pavese to answer

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.”