Wan Chai: My Second Home from Manila
Between 2013 and 2017, I shuttled back and forth between Manila and Hong Kong to build something I truly believed in — iTravelerAsia, the first Online Travel Agency in Southeast Asia.
I set up the admin, built the finance, and poured everything into making it work. And for a while, it did. But the market wasn't ready yet. Online booking was still a foreign concept to most Southeast Asian travelers at the time, and after four years, we had to make the painful decision to close.
Today, online booking isn't just the norm — it's the only way most people travel. The vision was right. The timing just wasn't.
Golden hour on the streets of Wan Chai — double-deckers, skyscrapers, and all the city's pulse.
These pictures are from a visit back to Wan Chai — almost 15 years later. And it still has that magic. The bars and cafes are alight, the streets are vibrant, and the energy of the district is as alive as I remember it.
The people of Wan Chai have always been accommodating and, before COVID, incredibly hospitable. Many Filipinos who lived and worked here will tell you the same — this place has a warmth that stays with you long after you leave.
Jollibee in Wan Chai — standing proudly right next to McDonald's. A proud Filipino moment! 🐝
And speaking of Filipinos — look what's standing proudly right there in Wan Chai. Jollibee. Next to a McDonald's, no less. If that's not a sign that we've arrived, I don't know what is. 😄
Left: the tiled underpass — old Hong Kong geometry. Right: a Wan Chai back alley, raw and full of stories.
The Ancient Ritual of Da Siu Yan 🪄
打小人 — "Villain Hitting"
Perhaps the most fascinating thing I witnessed on this visit was something deeply rooted in Hong Kong's soul. Under the Canal Road Flyover — and in little corners across the city — you'll find elderly women crouched over small fires, armed with a slipper or a piece of wood, furiously beating a piece of paper against a brick.
That paper represents your enemy, your bad luck, your obstacles — whatever or whoever is holding you back in life.
The "villain hitter" chants and beats the paper repeatedly, calling out misfortunes and banishing them one by one. It's part prayer, part therapy, part performance art — and entirely captivating to watch. For many Hongkongers, it's a genuine spiritual practice, especially popular around the Jingzhe solar term in March, when thunder is believed to awaken evil spirits that must be driven away.
Whether you believe in it or not, there's something deeply human about it — the desire to name what's hurting you, and then beat it into submission. 😄
Maybe I should have done a Da Siu Yan back in 2017 to banish the bad timing. 😄
A basketball court tucked between skyscrapers — community life thriving in the heart of Wan Chai.
Wan Chai isn't just bars and neon. It's real life. It's a basketball court tucked between skyscrapers, filled with people just living. It's the gritty back alley with a lone motorbike that tells a thousand stories. It's the tiled underpass that has seen a million footsteps.
I do hope Wan Chai continues to reclaim its charm, with more businesses reopening and life returning to its streets. It deserves it.
So here I am again — back in Wan Chai, in support as always,
of what I will always call my second home. 💪🏡
To every entrepreneur who was too early, too bold, or too ahead of the curve —
your time will come. It always does.
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