On Moving to Bangkok and Gripping the Second Trapeze

Bangkok skyline from rooftop gardens

I moved to Bangkok.

Forgive me for the blunt delivery, but when I came to write this post I wasn’t sure what I want to say about it. I didn’t want to say, “Look at me and my jet-set lifestyle – I just casually moved to Bangkok!” because there’s been a complex backstory to get me here.

I didn’t want this to be “Everything’s fine now, I’m back in Asia!” because as I’ve learned the hard way this past year, packing up your life and moving to the other side of the world doesn’t solve your problems, no matter how much travel inspires you.

And finally, I didn’t want to say, “By the way, I just moved to Bangkok NBD” because it is a big deal for me. I’m working as a content writer for a sustainable travel company in one of the coolest cities in the world (no humblebrag intended). It’s a big change and finally – F I N A L L Y – one that feels good and has come about for the right reasons. Read more

What Does it Mean to be an Expat? | A Few Thoughts on Living Overseas

Orange sunset on the beach in Asia

In a strange turn of events that involved an exchange with a friend of a friend, this week I was a guest on Keith Petit’s Expatriate Act podcast. (Sorry, Keith, I mean internet-based-radio-show!). This somehow turned into a two-hour discussion over Skype on what it means to be an expat and the weird and wonderful experience that is living overseas.

You can listen to the Expatriate Act – Episode 9 – Amy Poulton (Hong Kong/Italy/Mexico) on SoundCloud or download it from iTunes.

I highly recommend that you give it a listen, even though it’s pretty long (maybe save it for a long car journey?). However, I warn you the language is strong (read: lots of swearing, sorry Mom) and the discussion touches on some rather controversial topics. Read more

Chasing Home | A Few Thoughts On Being Between Places

Chasing Home - Cover

Hey guys. So, I recently participated in the World Nomads Travel Writer Scholarship programme, where I wrote a piece on the theme ‘a place that is unfamiliar to me’. Devastatingly, I didn’t win the scholarship (next year, perhaps?), so here is my entry published here instead, entitled Chasing Home: Read more

How I Make Friends in a New City (In the UK & in Other Countries)

How to make friends in a new city - cover

Making friends in a new place is always hard, whether it’s in the next town over or in a new country. Trust me, I’ve moved around a lot, but I’ve found the key thing when it comes to how to make friends in a new city is perseverance.

That’s right. You don’t need to be a social butterfly, you don’t need to know the local language and there is no magical secret to getting people to like you. You just need to persevere and hold strong to the fact that you will find your people. Everything takes time. Read more

What We Learnt From Living Abroad

Living Abroad Cover

Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel. I love to go on holiday and lie on a beach somewhere, I love to go backpacking on a shoestring budget and I love playing the tourist both at home and abroad. But, it’s all a whole other kettle of fish when you’re actually living abroad.

The lessons you learn about life, about the world and most significantly about yourself, are invaluable. You don’t just visit a place and learn about it; you become part of it. To better explain how living abroad changes and challenges you, I asked a couple of fellow travel bloggers what living abroad taught them.

Read more

Sunsets & Skylines | The Best Views in Hong Kong

The Best Views in Hong Kong - Cover

In all my five years of living in Hong Kong I never got sick of that skyline. In fact, saying goodbye to that view was the very last thing I did before I left for the airport. And with so many incredible angles to see the city from, it’s hard to pick my favourite. Here are just a few of the best views in Hong Kong. Read more

Why Moving Back to the UK is Harder Than Moving Away

Moving back to the UK Cover

Yep, I’ve turned into that girl who starts all her sentences with, ‘When I lived in Hong Kong…’ My room is filled with knick-knacks from places I can’t pronounce. I can give advice on jet lag, travelling with only a carry-on and finding cheap flights online. I can speak in different tongues. If you know me, you’re probably bored of my travel anecdotes.

If you don’t know me, I should prefix this post by stating that, up until three months ago, I lived overseas. I spent five years in Hong Kong, with a few intervals in Italy (because I like to be complicated like that). I never planned to leave the UK or live in other countries, especially for so long, but it just kind of happened. Read more

The Best Hikes in Hong Kong | Treks and Trails for Hikers of All Abilities

The Best Hikes in Hong Kong

Hong Kong may be better known for its electric skyline, imposing skyscrapers and sky-high rent, but did you know that 75% of the Fragrant Harbour is actually countryside? Having called Hong Kong my home for the past five years, I love the city but I also love to get out of it! So, here is my list of the best hikes in Hong Kong, which offer the most scenic and breathtaking views of HK’s epic coastline, lush hillsides and pretty little islands.

 

  1. 1. Dragon’s Back

Best Hikes in Hong Kong 1
By Roger Price via Wikimedia Commons

Difficulty level: 6/10   Starts: Shek O Road near To Tei Wan village   Finishes: Big Wave Bay (Tai Long Wan) Beach

The undulating Dragon’s Back is easily accessible from the city, winding around the east side of Hong Kong Island, and offers beautiful coastal scenery without being too strenuous. As one of the most famous hikes in Hong Kong, you probably won’t find yourself hiking alone, but you will definitely be able to see why it’s so popular. Read more

Europe should be a dream | Brexit abroad

Bajardo 2016 | Brexit and Europe Blog

‘Europe should be a dream.’

He was a professor at the University of Padua. He had lived all over the world. He brewed his own prosecco, and it tasted delicious. He was Italian. He had the words ‘Will you marry me?’ tattooed onto his chest. That was how he proposed to his now-fiancé.

What I love about Italians is that they say exactly what they mean, they are passionate about what they believe in, and they never skirt around a topic. You can’t get more ‘take it or leave it’ than that.

And of course, as soon as he learned I was from the UK, the conversation inevitably turned to the recent Brexit result. We drank his homemade prosecco and discussed it over the dinner table together; Italian, British, European.

Brexit has been a constant companion on my trip to Italy this summer; like my terrible tan lines, except more annoying and more difficult to get rid of. As soon as I mention that I’m from the UK people immediately say, ‘I’m so sorry about the Brexit situation. What is going on with the UK at the moment?’

That’s the reaction that Brexit is having in Europe and the rest of the world. Pity and bewilderment.

My first week in Italy was tainted by the news that the UK had voted to leave the EU. Tainted because it wasn’t the result I wanted or needed. The confirmation came through one morning of my training week at work.

There was a big group of 60 of us from different corners of the globe, excited to work in Europe for the summer. You could tell who the Brits in the room were because we couldn’t bring ourselves to even muster up a smile. We were distraught. The Scottish talked about independence. The Londoners pondered whether London was really so different from the rest of England and Wales. The Irish and Northern Irish were freaking out about border controls. David Cameron resigned. The pound dropped so low that we were afraid to withdraw money in euros.

The Americans, Canadians, Aussies, South Africans, Dutch and Trinidadians listened with sympathy:

‘Explain it to me,’ they said. ‘What does this mean for you now?’

We didn’t know. And we still don’t.

The next week and the weeks that followed, my Italian host families listened with sympathy:

‘Explain it to me,’ they said. ‘Why did people vote to leave?’

I can only answer that some people voted to leave because they thought it was best. They did their research. Some strongly believe that the EU doesn’t work for the UK. Some believe that the EU is undemocratic. Some believe that the money we put in to the EU could be better used elsewhere. They have their reasons, and although sometimes I don’t agree with them (and also sometimes they make very valid points that I do agree with), I can appreciate and respect their opinions.

However, many of those who voted to leave did not do their research. They didn’t consider the implications and consequences of their votes; the subtle changes as well as the huge changes it would bring; the domino effect of what this meant for the UK as a whole, for Scotland, for Northern Ireland, for those who rely on international business, or who live abroad or… the list is endless because it’s everyone.

The stories that followed the result made me so ashamed to be British. Stories of people yelling in the streets at each other, ‘Leave the country. We don’t want you here!’ Working immigrants being told to, ‘Pack your bags. You’re going home!’

Many interpreted the referendum as a vote about immigration. Those votes weren’t grounded in reason, or research, or thoughts for what was best of the people of the UK. Those votes were grounded in ignorance and hate. And therefore I can’t bring myself to respect those votes, or to respect the Brexit result itself because of them.

The issue of immigration really hits home for me because I am an immigrant. Sometimes people forget that. We like to think of an immigrant in terms of a stereotype that in reality doesn’t exist. In Hong Kong, we like to dress it up and say ‘expat’ because it sounds cooler, but at the end of the day I am an immigrant.

I left the UK in 2011 because I couldn’t get a job – any job, including unpaid internships and part-time work at McDonalds. That’s what migration is. The search for a better opportunity elsewhere. And many people congratulate me for living and working abroad, calling me brave or free-spirited or cultured, all while condemning those who come over to the UK for the same reasons.

Did you know that the UK has the highest number of citizens working abroad of any country in Europe? Therefore, Britain is the biggest producer of immigrants in Europe.

Today, I am an immigrant working in Hong Kong and I’m an immigrant working and travelling in Italy, a country in the EU. Will I still have the same freedom to work visa-free in an EU country in a couple of years’ time? Possibly. But it won’t be as easy. And this limbo period of uncertainty isn’t making it any easier.

I’ve been putting off writing a blog about Brexit partly because I still find it upsetting, partly because there are still no clear answers as to what this means for the UK, and partly because I’m sick of talking about it. But here I am writing about the dreaded B-word because the shadow it has cast on my summer here in Italy has been so vast and so dark that I can’t ignore it. It’s become a big part of my experience here.

And then an Italian man in my first host family this summer managed to sum up all of my feelings in one short sentence:

‘Europe should be a dream.’

Those words were so perfect.

Forget the politics, the backstabbing politicians, the migration issues, the refugee crisis, the threat of terrorism, the EU and the bloody money of it all, and consider that statement.

Britain likes to believe it is separate from Europe, like a big castle with a wide moat surrounding it. Britain refers to itself as the UK, Great Britain, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales… and Europe as somewhere else. A completely ‘other’ place. A place different in terms of economy, geography and values, among many other things. The UK is an island unto itself.

Except it isn’t. It’s in Europe.

Whether it’s a part of the EU or not, the UK is still in Europe. We can’t just raise anchor and move out. The British Isles aren’t going anywhere. Europe is not going anywhere.

Europe should be a dream.

It really should. Rather than thinking of Brexit as the problem, I now believe that Brexit may just be one symptom of a much larger problem. For a continent that is in reality so small, and made up of so many tiny jigsaw-piece countries, we focus more on what divides us rather than unites us.

And for a world so small, and made up of so many borders and limitations both visible and invisible, why can’t we at least attempt, hope and dream to come together, EU or no EU, to admit that we are all part of the same? That we have a responsibility to each other. We can’t let our fears of what is ‘different’ or ‘foreign’ get in the way of that.

So despite all the negativity, the uncertainty and the constant questions from others as well as myself as to what the future holds post-Brexit, this is what I’m choosing to focus on. This is what I am going to promote.

The dream of Europe.

A Europe with a proud and unified identity.

Because I am European.

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