Papaya Voyage

A few snippets from my iPhone of our trip to Hong Kong last year. We spent a month there in late November/December — our first time back in three years! We survived the plane ride with TWO toddlers in tow, and though we wondered during that first week of illness/jet lag if it was worth it, it didn’t take long for us to find out the answer was a resounding yes. Oh how we missed the sounds, the textures, and convenience of life just outside your doorstep. It was so interesting to see the city through our kids’ eyes as well (Miikka’s first question: ‘Why are there so many people mummy?’). Both of them learned how to hail cabs, the joys of 7-Eleven and being out past bed time! It was a trip to remember! 

We thought it’d be fun to share a little peek into how we created our book cover. Hong Kong’s skyline is so iconic, it was an obvious place to start. But we also wanted to try out a couple of different ideas just to be sure. 

One of the earliest versions we toyed with was the idea of doing a pattern of bauhinia flowers (the official flower of Hong Kong). We hadn’t even written the book yet at this point, but envisioning it as a finished product was so fun! (Remember those beautiful Penguin classics they redid a few years back with gorgeous patterned covers? Yeah, we were totally inspired by that.) 

In the end, we thought a floral pattern was too abstract and we wanted something more recognizably ‘Hong Kong’ (although we did use it inside our book!): 

Fast forward a few years later, when we actually had a finished book, a publisher and a release date, Nick sat down to seriously crank out the cover. One idea he had was putting the reader right in the thick of the chaos:

“Basically, I wanted to capture the street life and turn it into a pattern or texture that you absorb,” he says. 

(Did I mention he was the art director? Ha! I definitely do not think or speak in those terms!).

Below is Nick’s original ink drawing of a wet market, which he then scanned into the computer to add colour digitally. The use of ink is in homage to traditional Chinese art.

But in our hearts, we kept coming back to the skyline. The tricky task for Nick was trying to capture all the textures in our book, which we likened to a timeworn sketchbook, while also being bold so it would stand out. He admits it was hard.

Above is the cover when it was still a work in progress. Nick had the idea of making the buildings look like a paper cut out, in reference to the different patterned papers we used throughout the book. 

And here’s the the final book cover! Nick wanted to bring in some of the watercolour elements from inside, so he asked me to paint a watercolour background. Then he added in various elements, such as the tape and different papers which we used throughout the book to get the ‘journal’ feeling. 

We were pretty content to let our publisher make the final call since we really trust his instincts. Although we were really glad when he chose this one! We hope you like it as much as we do!!

A blog post is up on our publisher’s website on how our book was made. 

But I thought I’d also summarize, and add a little more here, too…

1. The idea wasn’t mine The idea for How to Hong Kong sprung from my husband’s mind, not mine. Though it would become something of an obsession for me, I was steadfastly against it at the beginning. I was a full-time journalist at the time, and though plenty of my colleagues had written books, this was never something I aspired to. The whole idea felt daunting. 

2. Joy was the reason But as Nick, who’s used to having lots of passion projects on the side, pushed on about the idea, I began to resist less and less. I loved the idea of working on something completely joyful — a much needed respite from the grind of journalism. This book became my happy place. I was still anxious about pulling it off, but mostly I was excited!

3. It was always Hong Kong Ok, that’s not completely true. In a moment of insanity, I tried to sell Nick on the idea of writing about teahouses of Vancouver. (What was I thinking???!) He looked at me like I was a crazy person. There was only ever one subject for us and that was Hong Kong. The city we both love. The city where I was born and raised. The city we escaped to annually. We love Asia and wanted to showcase it.

4. This book is everything we love about books in one place I love reading literary travel. For a while, it was pretty much the only type of book I read. (Some favourites were written by a former editor I worked with, who I admire hugely.) We’re also big fans of gorgeous Taschen photography books and art books. But sometimes I’d be looking at an art book and wishing there were more words, or reading a novel and wishing there were pictures. So we made a book with a bit of everything: Stories, illustrations and photography.

Illustration by Nick Tay

5. Patience We started our research during a two-month stay back in 2009, but realized later we needed more material. Each time we travelled back in subsequent years, we would find more to write about. In total, we worked on the book off and on for six years. We did most of the work on weekends and before and after our regular jobs. There were times when I wondered if we’d ever finish, but then I’d remind myself that Helen Hunt once said she took about 10 years to get a movie made. And she’s famous! So I figured I could wait that long, too.

6. Meeting new people The great thing about writing this book was that it gave me an excuse to strike up conversation with people I wouldn’t normally have the courage to. We discovered a silversmith tucked away in the lanes of Sheung Wan, an old family-owned tea shop on the edges of Causeway Bay, and chatted away with a lovely old lady who specializes in the ritual of da siu yun (hitting the small people). As this was very much a travel journal, we wanted that spark of discovery to be inherent in our pages.

7. Rediscovering old passions I once told Nick that I loved my design and communications (or D+C) class in high school and I still have my portfolio from then! I never considered myself an artist, but I guess a part of me has always loved being creative. I think he always knew I loved art. And I suspect this book project was his grand plan to get me back to drawing and painting. It worked! I was really tentative at first, thinking he would do all the art, but as we got into it I started to enjoy doing the illustrations so much! I cannot stress enough how generous he was with his time and support. I now paint and draw as often as I can and it is one of the things in life that makes me really happy!  

If you’d like to read the original post, visit the Blacksmith Books blog.

Thank you so much to Ricepaper magazine for this interview on How To Hong Kong! You can read the full interview here.

We’re so excited our book is finally here! We’ve been working on this project for seven years (!) so it’s amazing to see it finally come to fruition. Part sketchbook, part travel memoir, How To Hong Kong is our love letter to a city that has played such a large role in our lives. For me, it will always be home. For my husband Nick, it’s the place where he’s felt most at home. Through illustrations, photographs and stories of our time spent in the city as well as interviews with locals, we take you along through some of our favourite neighbourhoods. Here’s a few pages from our book. . .

Each chapter is devoted to a different district and trying to capture the mood of it. Sheung Wan is one of my favourite haunts and it’s all about slowing down and ambling through its old lanes and steep hills.

We love the mix of east and west in Wan Chai. . .

Tai O feels like a step back in time. Sunset here is pretty magical too. . .

We hope this book brings you a smile whether you’ve long loved this city like us, or you’re an armchair traveller who’s never been. We hope it inspires you to look past Hong Kong’s brash urban veneer (which we also happen to love) to find a softer, more intimate side that isn’t often portrayed. 

How To Hong Kong is now available in major bookstores in Hong Kong such as Eslite, Bookazine, Swindon’s, The Book Centre and Commercial Press.

You can also order it online through our publisher (who ships worldwide).

For those in the U.S., Canada and U.K., it’s also available for pre-order through Amazon and Indigo/Chapters (Canada). 

Our sweet Dashiell arrived almost three months ago. I can’t believe how long ago that feels already, and at the same time, like no time at all. He has such a sweet, sweet gentle spirit. He gives us the biggest smiles every morning, his big eyes turning into little half moons and today we heard him laugh for the first time (of course daddy made him laugh)! He feels like such a kind soul and we love him so much!

Dashie was just 6 days old in the photo taken above and here he is at two months old giving us his goofy little smile! What a gift you are to us, my love! 

There was no travel on the agenda this summer, but rather plenty of books to indulge my wanderlust instead. Some of my favourites from these past few months include. . .

I thought this quote was by Einstein, so you can imagine my disappointment when the Internet told me it was actually Bob Samples. Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it? Still, it’s a good thought. And who is Bob Samples? An author and scholar who wrote The Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness, in which he interprets and sums up Einstein’s perspective on the mind into the above quote. 

High Summer

June was filled momentous occasions (first father’s day, birthdays, arrival of parents and visiting family) and not-so-momentous ones: Breathing in the summer solstice, quiet walks, low tide, squishy sand in between toes. Yoga evenings, doors wide open, the best cardamom ice cream ever and a passionfruit cake (all in one day). Summer life is magic.  

INTENTIONAL NOURISHMENT

Seven months into this astonishing and sometimes bewildering gig that is motherhood, it occurred to me last week that I needed to tend to myself. And not in that rushed, harried way, like “I’ve got five minutes for tea, quick, relax!’ But in a slower, more intentional way. Even if it’s just drinking Vitasoy and eating an egg tart while driving the babe around the city for 40 minutes so he gets his last nap of the day. (I reeaally enjoyed that dan tat yesterday.) Or, a walk at the beach, even when you’re beyond tired and your back is sore.  

Half the fun of travel is discovering treasures along the way. This white tee is breezy enough for subtropical summers and special enough to make casual look cool. It's made by one of our favourite Hong Kong brands, Moustache. 

Temple on Lamma Island, Hong Kong