How Traveling Made Me A Techie

How Traveling Made Me A Techie

As somebody who’s worked in the telco industry and dealt with technology companies for years, my very limited knowledge on the latest technologies—gadgets, devices, apps, and everything else in between—surprised my work teammates and friends. My daily grind at work involves a lot of writing, editing, and proofreading technology driven stories, so I was stunned myself that I managed to get through.

Not until my first trip abroad as a young (and struggling) professional in 2010. The trip was a mix of both work and pleasure, which made it exciting and nerve-wracking. Traveling with workmates who were also my friends made the journey more fun, but little did I know that I was also on the road to becoming a full fledged techie.

As soon as we landed at the Hong Kong International Airport, my friends and I spent a few minutes planning how we can get out, pronto: go to immigration, pick up luggage, and get our Philippine pesos exchanged to HKD. So off we completed the process in a cinch. However, reaching the taxi stand was an entirely different story (we didn’t know then that it would be much faster to take the train or the bus to get to the city).

Hong Kong taxis are some of the most recognizable in the world and their drivers are some of the most memorable, too. While getting out of the airport was a breeze, talking to our taxi driver and making him understand where we were headed was much harder than we thought. It was almost 3p.m. and we hadn’t had lunch, which of course, made the conversations even more stressful for both parties.