Random Thoughts - Next Trip's To-Do List

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I usually do not have a detailed to-do list prepared for any of my trips. I am a traveller who prefers to take things easy and enjoy the unplanned chanced encounters; whether it is a trip experience or making a new friend during my travels.

The only planned items in my leisure travel are hotel accommodations and airplane, train or bus tickets, especially if my itinerary includes commuting between cities. Anything else is left to chance.

For my upcoming trip to Hong Kong next month in the first week of May, I do have a couple of to-do items lined up though. In a dinner conversation with friends over the weekend, I was reminded that there have been some new places of interests in the city. And one among these certainly raised my interest. This is the new Hong Kong Palace Museum. Only officially opened in July 2022, the museum is located in the West Kowloon district and showcase artefacts from the National Palace Museum in Beijing's Forbidden City. Having never visited Beijing before, this is a great chance for me to marvel at the exhibited artefacts in-person. An experience certainly worthy of being included in my personal Bucket List. Whether I could get the tickets to visit the museum during my short 4-day, 3-night trip is still a question. But I will try. If I cannot get to visit the museum during this trip, there is always a next trip.

The most recent time that I had been in Hong Kong was on a short transit at the airport while on my way back to Singapore from San Francisco in 2019, Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong SAR, China (2019)

Another item on my small to-do list during this trip will be to visit a supposedly small nondescript second-hand pen shop in Sham Shui Po. I have been to this working class district of Hong Kong many times before during my previous trips but had never know of this shop. Probably because my interest in all-things pen-related has not yet stirred in those preceding years. I read about this shop in a travel blog while searching for "Pen Shops in Hong Kong" via Google and happily penned it into my travel list as a must-visit place. I am looking forward to buy and add to my pen collection during this Hong Kong trip. And this shop might just be the place where I can get hold of that "prized antique pen" that will be ranked among the centrepieces in my humble pen display. All said, I am certainly no pen expert. Therefore, I will buy whatever catches my eye as long as the price is within my small budget.

And of course, when visiting Hong Kong, one must always indulge in the local cuisine of Dim Sum!

With my small to-do trip list done up, I can't wait to visit Hong Kong next month. Sight-seeing, shopping and eating, what's there not to love about Hong Kong?


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