Post-Typhoon Bliss & Found by a Trufflepig!

Since Wednesday's typhoon no. 3 came and went, we've had amazing weather here -- clear blue skies, cool breeze, sunshine, no haze and amazing visibility. The only other times we usually see this kind of weather is when the factories in southern Guangdong province shut down, like the Labour Day week (1-7 May) or National Day week (1 October). Before the typhoon, I got an sms from AP in Singapore. Move to Singapore, she told me, because she was reading an article in Time about the dire state of pollution in Hong Kong. Given the current situation, if I continued to stay here, "you might as well start smoking and stop exercising". But on the rare days like today, Hong Kong is really beautiful. The verdant jade green of the trees set against a cystal blue sky. It's funny, but everyone is so grateful for clean air and clear visibility. People walk around with smiles on their faces and a new-found spring in their steps. Everything just looks more beautiful. Life is more beautiful. So I just couldn't resist moving my office outside. I've spent the afternoon fixing formatting on the layout for Little Cream Book: Golf. Not the most exciting thing to do, but made much more enjoyable by sitting on the terrace of RED at IFC2. If you look at the picture to the right, it's amazing that you can actually see the white houses perched atop the clear outline of the Peak. I suppose they're all grateful up there that they can actually see to Kowloon side of the harbour today.

On the line of rare and unexpected occurences, yesterday morning, I got an email from a guy called Charlie Scott who was in town after a research trip through SE Asia. He said he had chanced upon WANLILU Play's website and discovered that our two companies do the exact same thing and share the same sensibilities and taste. Normally, in most industries, this is either no big deal (because it's such a common business) or cause for concern (because they're competition). But for me, going through Trufflepig's website was akin to finding a soulmate. For the longest time, we've felt like we've been the only fools to operate a travel planning business by charging only planning fee instead of taking commissions from suppliers and planning every single bespoke trip from scratch rather than tweaking existing packages. We both felt that the old model of travel agents and packages trips did not meet the needs of a growing market of independent travellers who don't want cookie-cutter experiences, whose needs are better serviced by a breed of travel professionals that are willing to devote the time to understand the client's desires as well as to invest time in making new discoveries in various destinations. We both spend a lot of time with our clients to get all the details sorted (how many travel agents will also recommend the right kind of restaurants and make the booking or arrange to have your luggage shipped from point to point during a long trip?), but we also have to spend more time on the road finding the gems, or in Tufflepig's case, the truffles. So Charlie and I spent a good part of our conversation swapping travel addresses and sharing experiences. Anyway, I hope I'll continue to have such surprising meetings. It's exciting to see that the acceptance and demand for bespoke travel planning services is growing. I'm starting to see clear, blue skies...