One of the lessons I learned from visiting a foreign country is that the happiest place on Earth becomes the saddest if you don’t feel happy deep inside. Yes, I went to Hong Kong Disneyland!
I have been wanting to write about the lessons I learned from visiting a foreign country since I got home from Hong Kong on December 9th, 2019. Hong Kong is the first foreign country I visited.
Before I talk more about what happened at the time, here are the lessons from visiting a foreign country that we will talk about today:
- Sometimes, we think the grass is greener on the other side because we haven’t spent enough time there to experience the unpleasant stuff.
- Kindness is a language in itself.
- The happiest place on Earth becomes the saddest if you don’t feel happy deep inside.
- Traveling to a foreign country looks wonderful, but it is sometimes a waste of money.
Let’s begin.
4 Lessons From Visiting a Foreign Country for the First Time
I went to Hong Kong in December of 2019 with my friend. It was kind of an unexpected trip. We booked our flight a month before. Glad it happened.
We went there to celebrate her 23rd birthday. We were both born in 1996, but I am months older than her as my birth month is September while hers is December.
I can’t remember why we decided to go to Hong Kong. Our original plan was to go to Baguio City, which is a popular tourist spot in the Philippines.
But for some reason, we agreed to spend so much on a foreign trip. I wouldn’t change anything if I could go back.
Our Hong Kong trip was not perfect because, firstly, it was our first foreign country together. We were inexperienced in traveling outside our home country.
She went to the Maldives in 2018, so it was her second time traveling internationally. But it was my first time.
Secondly, some situations made it a bit inconvenient. Our flight was moved to tomorrow, so we had to leave the airport. We stayed at their house. I slept there.
I met her family for the first time, especially her mother who passed away just months later in July of 2020. I am grateful that I met her before she left.
1,813,188 people died of COVID-19 in 2020 based on the data by the World Health Organization. My friend’s mother is one of them.
And I want to repeat that I am grateful. I didn’t know that our first meeting would also be the last. I didn’t know that when I said goodbye, it was my final goodbye.
So, when it was time to leave their house and go back to the airport, I said goodbye to her family. When we reached the airport, I had to talk to two immigration officers.
I didn’t have a document to prove that I had a job at the time, so I had to talk to them about my work setup. I was able to get past them.
After that discussion, we had time to eat, so we ate at the airport as we waited for our flight. We met an old woman, and we talked to her while we were eating.
Moments later, we were on the airplane. It made me sad that I wasn’t sitting beside a window. I was in the corner, but the window was beside the seat in front of me.
No big deal. I just took a nap. While awake, I tried to look at the clouds through the window that was beside the seat in front of me.
I really wanted to look at the clouds.
Fast forward. We reached Hong Kong safely after about three hours. The Philippines and Hong Kong are in the same time zone, so no jet lag whatsoever.
We picked up our luggage, got a sim card that worked in Hong Kong for mobile data, got the tickets for the recreational activities we pre-booked, and then waited for the van that would take us to the hotel.
When we reached our hotel, my friend was the one who talked to the hotel staff. I couldn’t understand his English due to his accent.
We were in the room, and I liked it. The hotel had free breakfast, too, and I also liked it. There were people from different countries at the hotel.
We stayed there for three or four days. Protests were going on in Hong Kong during those days, but we were not worried. Or we tried not to be worried.
I will not talk about our itinerary as it will make this post too long. I will jump straight into the lessons from visiting a foreign country that is Hong Kong.
1. Sometimes, we think the grass is greener on the other side because we haven’t spent enough time there to experience the unpleasant stuff.
When we were in the van that, as I said, took us to the hotel, I was observing the places we passed by. And that was when I realized the grass isn’t always greener.
I was thinking of writing about that experience even before we got there, so I was thinking of some poetic words to describe Hong Kong right from the start.
And I thought something like, “We tend to like people based on what we see. But once we get to know them and spend a lot of time with them, will our feelings remain the same?”
Truth be told, there are parts of Hong Kong that don’t look appealing. The images you see online are either the best parts or highly edited to look good.
I mostly looked at the people living there. They didn’t look as happy as I expected.
And then I looked at the Philippines. The Philippines is a popular country among travelers because, undeniably, there are great beaches and sceneries here.
It is cheap, too. Your $100 can take you far and buy you a lot of stuff compared to other countries if you are good with money.
But whenever foreigners or even Filipinos say that the Philippines is so great, there is a part of me who wants to ask, “Really?”
But maybe that is the case if you are here as a mere visitor.
According to Grammarist, the phrase “wearing rose-colored glasses” is like seeing a dump site full of garbage as a magical wonderland with good fairies and rainbows everywhere.
Once you become a resident and stay here for good, your rose-colored glasses will disappear whether you like it or not. You will realize that the Philippines is not totally great, or not as great as you think.
I am not saying that the Philippines is not a great country. I am saying that it has flaws. All countries have. This is why you should think before you relocate.
That is also the case in other countries. Other countries look perfect from the outside because watchers and visitors don’t get to experience the bad parts.
That is also the case for people. Many people give importance to looks when what will make them stay is personality.
2. Kindness is a language in itself.
Hong Kong is a Chinese country, so they speak Chinese. I don’t understand Chinese. I didn’t bother learning it because I consider it one of the hardest languages. There are over 80,000 Chinese characters!
We talked to Hong Kongers using the English language. If they couldn’t understand English, we would use Google Translate and show them the translation.
But despite the language barrier, they are still humans. I could judge their emotions based on their facial expressions and body movements.
And they were not different from those I come across every day in the Philippines.
Non-verbal communication is possible between people who speak different languages. Verywell Mind says there are different types of non-verbal communication.
Honestly, I was terrified at first to go to Hong Kong because of the language. What if they were already planning to kill us, and we could have run if only we had understood what they were saying?
But natives don’t care about foreigners as much as you think. They may stare at you because you look different, but that is it. Usually.
Do you care about the foreigners in your country? Most likely, not so much!
Visiting a foreign country will make you want to be defensive because you are in an unknown place with people you don’t know. And that is advisable to not trust easily and be careful if you want to get home safely.
But don’t look at them as if they were criminals. Bad people exist, and I know that because one guy touched my butt while we were on the train!
I don’t think he is a bad person, though.
But that was my only negative experience in Hong Kong. And anyone can experience that in any country. And that guy might be doing that to anyone, Hong Kong native or not.
So, I don’t blame Hong Kong for what that guy did to me. Most of the people we talked with were actually quite nice.
3. The happiest place on Earth becomes the saddest if you don’t feel happy deep inside.
There is a Disneyland in Hong Kong. While I was there, my writer mind started to think of some descriptive words once again. And my heart wanted to chime in.
I thought, “The happiest place on Earth becomes the saddest if you don’t feel happy deep inside.” I was not sad, but I was not happy either.
I was feeling nothing. I think I had that realization because my friend and I had a silent fight on the Mickey Mouse train that took us to Disneyland.
We fought because I didn’t want to take a picture of her while we were on the train. She was posing in front of me, but I didn’t care. We laugh when we talk about it.
But honestly, I didn’t enjoy Hong Kong Disneyland. I am not sure if I would have the same thought if I visited the other Disneylands in other countries.
According to History, you can find the first-ever Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It was built in 1955.
My kinds of rides are those that are too extreme. Adrenaline rush. Those that will make me scream hard. Roller coaster level rides but more intense.
I know that Disneyland is for kids, so maybe kids will enjoy it. And maybe I would take my kids there if I had them; I thought about my future kids while I was there.
Still, I don’t think it is the happiest place on Earth. I think I am happier here at home.
4. Traveling to a foreign country looks wonderful, but it is sometimes a waste of money.
I don’t regret going to Hong Kong, but it didn’t reach my expectations. I believe I would have felt the same way if I had visited a different foreign country.
I thought traveling internationally would be magical. I was expecting to see some imaginary glitters and confetti in Hong Kong, but it was nothing special.
I am not saying I just wasted my money there. What I am saying is that a lot of people think being a foreign traveler makes you better than those who are not.
One of the lessons from visiting a foreign country is that foreign countries have some interesting qualities, but the reality isn’t always as good as your idea of it.
Psychology Today explains that people expect because they think that by doing or achieving something, they will be happy.
It feels like your home country but with a different culture and language. People may also look different from what you are used to. Sparks are not everywhere.
I think the reason why I didn’t appreciate Hong Kong and can’t really say I had a great experience there is that I hadn’t thought of going there before I did.
I don’t admire it as much as I admire Japan.
But I know that my inexperience contributes to this feeling. It was my first foreign country, so I was like walking on eggshells when I went there.
There were a lot of things I didn’t know about foreign traveling, so my options were limited. I will visit Hong Kong again sometime in the future.
Last Words
I am not sure when I will be visiting a foreign country again. I realized that I haven’t explored the Philippines, so I want to focus on local itineraries for now.
People tend to overlook what they have because they think the grass is greener on the other side. If you haven’t explored your own country, maybe you should.
Did you like these lessons from visiting a foreign country for the first time?
If you enjoyed reading these lessons from visiting a foreign country for the first time, here is a video of me talking about what happened when I was in Hong Kong:
