Footprints still getting on the world
Working holiday is not a bursting bubble but a long-lasting way of life
What would you do after coming back from working holiday? This has never been the question that Aiko Chow Yuen-ying has to answer. Her journey never ends since she went on the first working holiday in Australia in 2008.
After the two years in Australia, she has been to New Zealand and France for working holiday respectively. In the meantime, she also travelled to Europe and South East Asia. Working is not the major part for her trips but a way to experience life and save money for her next destination.
Traveling and exploring all the time is her life now. Young adults like her will not be eligible for applying a working holiday visa after the age of 30. But she believes that this way of living can go on as long as she wants.
Her exploration at Tongariro National Park in New Zealand.
“I can come back to work and save some money in Hong Kong after 30. Then I can quit the job and go travel again as long as I have enough savings. This is not as difficult as in others’ eyes, just that you have to make sacrifices to make it work. Like you can not buy a lot of clothes or stuff that you like,” said the 25-year-old.
After graduation from secondary school, she found a well-paid job at office. Neither was she hated the job or was unhappy with it, she just did not want to live the rest of her life working at the same office.
everyday and work with nice colleagues will do.”
“It would be hard in Hong Kong to find such a job. In Europe or Australia, people do not have the strong sense of saving money, they spend when they are paid. They can still live. But in Hong Kong, if you stop for a while it would be like you are against the society,” she said.
When she is getting older, her mind-set changes a bit for each journey as well.
“The first time when I was in Australia, it was great that I was always around with a big group of backpackers. We did almost everything together,” she said. They hung out and traveled together with three or four vehicles to various places. It was the time that she was energetic and excited about everything at the age of 18.
Then for the second time in New Zealand, it was a more relaxing trip. She spent more time on looking at the nature sceneries and the trip was not as packed as before. For the experience in France, she switched to a more enjoying lifestyle. She went to museums and tasted mouth-watering food more often.
“When you are younger, you are happier with more people having fun together. Things were easier as the burdens on you were not that heavy. Now that I have more opinions on what I want to do and explore instead of following the group,” she said.
She believes that growth is also an important part of her journey as she interacts with different people and discusses various issues. Even though she did not have a stable life struggling for work as others in Hong Kong, she believed she also became more mature.
Her thoughts about Hong Kong also changed a lot although she was not physically in here.
She discussed Umbrella Movement with Turkish friends when she was traveling at that time doing couch surfing. She thought it was horrible to have police using extreme violence against protesters and was sad about it. But her friends told her similar situations had been happening for a long time in Turkey and it was not that Hong Kong was collapsing.
She suddenly realized that hope is still there for Hong Kong and the end of the movement did not mean a loss for the city.
However, in recent years, she found herself more difficult in understanding Hongkongers.
They complain about working overtime and having too much pressure from work online; but they seldom express to their boss or look for changes. They queue for a “buy-one-get-one-free” ice cream for more than an hour to post photos on Facebook even though it takes them a long time. They post videos of young people who do not offer seats to the needy on the MTR train; but they do not ask these people to give the seats at once.
These were the phenomenon she observed when she was back in Hong Kong. She believed these may be due to stress that they can not find a way to release. They need the appreciation from others to make their lives go on.
She still likes Hong Kong as she grew up here, but she wants Hongkongers to find more ways to be joyful. On her journey, small things like new discovery can make her happy. That is one thing that she finds it difficult to get in Hong Kong.
Some believed that she was going to study abroad when she first started working holiday due to the lack of information. Her mother thought she would be back in one or two months, and never expected it would become her life.
“It was not that I don’t want to settle down in Hong Kong, just that there are so many places that I want to go. When I get back here, I will think of new destinations that I want to explore in and learn new things,” she said.
She does not have a specific “dream job”, but only wants a job with more freedom. “A job that allows me to be off on time
Similar to many other working holiday makers, Ms Chow also worked in the fruit packing sector in New Zealand.