We are grown up with "Athithi Devo Bhava" being embedded in our thoughts. I experienced a foreign version of this in Hong Kong.
Recently I had been to US. My flight had a layover of about 10Hrs in Hong Kong. Hong Kong gives a free visa for Indians, so it was my obvious choice to go out and see a new country. This story is about something I witnessed and I feel that its worth spending some time to write this blog.
For all who think Hong Kong gives visa on arrival, you are not correct. You got to pre-register on their website, get a visa, take a print and then you can go out. Here, note that print on paper is primary requirement at immigration. You will not get printer in Hong Kong airport easily. They have an arrangement to get this printed and they charge hkd310, which is obviously high. Anyways, since, I had printout of my visa, I decided to go out.
The story goes like this. It was a midnight flight from Bangalore, but got delayed over an hour. Obviously reached Hong Kong late. They have many help desks there, which was unusual for me, but the airport is so huge, they need many help desks. Since I was late, my prior plans were screwed, I wanted to inquire about timings because I couldn't afford to miss my onward flight. An English speaking lady gave clear information about me going out. The conclusion was that I don't have time for visiting Tin Tian Buddha and come back (which was my original plan). She instead asked me to visit their central market place. Its a shopping mall and is directly connected by bus. Good part of my conversion with the lady at booth was, she wrote all these details on a piece of paper and gave me.
Now at the immigration, I straight away walked out from the main gate very easily. I have to mention here that, I had exchanged currency at bangalore it self. i had denominations of hkd10, hkd20 and higher, absolutely no coins. There are many many gates, you got to know where to get out, else you will keep walking kilometers to reach the right place. Thanks to help desk, I exited at right gate.
Coming out of the airport itself was a different feeling. I have seen many airports, but this was different. Quite big, but crowded and plenty of instructions both in english and chinese, they have metro, bus and ferry. I had to catch bus 'S1' to reach Tung Chung station, to go to market. On reaching the bus terminus, I was amazed to see the discipline of all the passengers standing in a queue. Its a beautiful yellow shining double decker bus.
I had never seen a double decker bus before, my wanting to board that bus just got doubled. Now, I had to put hkd3.5 in a machine to board the bus, this machine don't give change, nothing comes out, its a black hole! Its the responsibility of the passengers to put the requisite amount, there is no conductor inside.
Since, I had 10 dollar note, I had only one choice to put in 10 dollars instead of 3.5. Obviously a bit of dilemma for me, each dollar costs 10 rupees. I decided to ask if someone in the line could give me change, that seemed like its unusual there. Then came in the moment which I wasn't not looking for. One gentleman, be of my age, white in color, little shorter than me, tucked shirt with black nicely ironed pant, said, "get on the bus, I will give you". I thought he is giving me the change, so I boarded the bus. To my surprise, he himself put 3.5 dollars in the machine for me, and, swiped his pass (they call it octopus) for himself. I gave him my 10 dollar note and asked for change, he said "don't worry about it, I don't have change to give you. I didn't wanted you to spend 10 dollars for this journey, its not worth it". That person just paid for my ticket, that's it! now the bus started to move.
I was bit confused, but couldn't help. Next surprise was, one more person in the bus standing next to me, who was seeing all this gave 2 Five dollar coins against my 10 dollar note, with a smile he said "now you can pay him". Third person gave two dollar and 3 one dollar coins against one five dollar coin. I could see happiness on his face.
I came to the first person and asked him to take the money. He took 3 dollars and said, "That's okay, I will take 3 dollars. Welcome to Hong Kong, enjoy your stay". All of us got seated in the bus, they didn't expect a thanks from me. All this happened in about 30 seconds.
Now, its been over a month now, this event is still a fresh in my memory. I am sharing this as a token of thanks to all those 3 gentlemen, whom probably I will never meet again, but they gave me a wonderful lesson.
Recently I had been to US. My flight had a layover of about 10Hrs in Hong Kong. Hong Kong gives a free visa for Indians, so it was my obvious choice to go out and see a new country. This story is about something I witnessed and I feel that its worth spending some time to write this blog.
For all who think Hong Kong gives visa on arrival, you are not correct. You got to pre-register on their website, get a visa, take a print and then you can go out. Here, note that print on paper is primary requirement at immigration. You will not get printer in Hong Kong airport easily. They have an arrangement to get this printed and they charge hkd310, which is obviously high. Anyways, since, I had printout of my visa, I decided to go out.
The story goes like this. It was a midnight flight from Bangalore, but got delayed over an hour. Obviously reached Hong Kong late. They have many help desks there, which was unusual for me, but the airport is so huge, they need many help desks. Since I was late, my prior plans were screwed, I wanted to inquire about timings because I couldn't afford to miss my onward flight. An English speaking lady gave clear information about me going out. The conclusion was that I don't have time for visiting Tin Tian Buddha and come back (which was my original plan). She instead asked me to visit their central market place. Its a shopping mall and is directly connected by bus. Good part of my conversion with the lady at booth was, she wrote all these details on a piece of paper and gave me.
Now at the immigration, I straight away walked out from the main gate very easily. I have to mention here that, I had exchanged currency at bangalore it self. i had denominations of hkd10, hkd20 and higher, absolutely no coins. There are many many gates, you got to know where to get out, else you will keep walking kilometers to reach the right place. Thanks to help desk, I exited at right gate.
Coming out of the airport itself was a different feeling. I have seen many airports, but this was different. Quite big, but crowded and plenty of instructions both in english and chinese, they have metro, bus and ferry. I had to catch bus 'S1' to reach Tung Chung station, to go to market. On reaching the bus terminus, I was amazed to see the discipline of all the passengers standing in a queue. Its a beautiful yellow shining double decker bus.
I had never seen a double decker bus before, my wanting to board that bus just got doubled. Now, I had to put hkd3.5 in a machine to board the bus, this machine don't give change, nothing comes out, its a black hole! Its the responsibility of the passengers to put the requisite amount, there is no conductor inside.
Since, I had 10 dollar note, I had only one choice to put in 10 dollars instead of 3.5. Obviously a bit of dilemma for me, each dollar costs 10 rupees. I decided to ask if someone in the line could give me change, that seemed like its unusual there. Then came in the moment which I wasn't not looking for. One gentleman, be of my age, white in color, little shorter than me, tucked shirt with black nicely ironed pant, said, "get on the bus, I will give you". I thought he is giving me the change, so I boarded the bus. To my surprise, he himself put 3.5 dollars in the machine for me, and, swiped his pass (they call it octopus) for himself. I gave him my 10 dollar note and asked for change, he said "don't worry about it, I don't have change to give you. I didn't wanted you to spend 10 dollars for this journey, its not worth it". That person just paid for my ticket, that's it! now the bus started to move.
I was bit confused, but couldn't help. Next surprise was, one more person in the bus standing next to me, who was seeing all this gave 2 Five dollar coins against my 10 dollar note, with a smile he said "now you can pay him". Third person gave two dollar and 3 one dollar coins against one five dollar coin. I could see happiness on his face.
I came to the first person and asked him to take the money. He took 3 dollars and said, "That's okay, I will take 3 dollars. Welcome to Hong Kong, enjoy your stay". All of us got seated in the bus, they didn't expect a thanks from me. All this happened in about 30 seconds.
Now, its been over a month now, this event is still a fresh in my memory. I am sharing this as a token of thanks to all those 3 gentlemen, whom probably I will never meet again, but they gave me a wonderful lesson.
"Practicing is better than preaching"!
