I love Switzerland – sweeping rolling landscape, royal blue lakes, rugged edgy mountains – exuding grandeur and peace, transmitting calm and transcendent serenity.
I’m lucky enough to be hosted by a great childhood friend who lives in a mansion overlooking Lake Lugano – an oasis of natural beauty, pure elegance and innocent embrace of eager visitors from all over the world. Every time I come to Switzerland over the years, I feel relaxed, very relaxed, so relaxed that this time – I keep dozing off while my friend’s driving us through tunnels in mountains, winding roads and towering bridges, passing town after town in Switzerland in search of new heights and fresh grounds.
Sensing an unusual dead silence in the car, Gaugau steered his eyes off the road towards me,
“How come every time I turn around and look at you, you seem like you’re falling asleep?” He chuckled.
“Haha, that’s because I am. I am too….”
“Relaxed. That’s good, relax, relax.” He pressed on.
Needless to say, rest and relaxation is the number one priority for anyone on vacation – my first this year. Launching a media start-up with a digital platform where you and I can now share stories and watch video has been quite a physically exhaustive task. My team and I did it in just four months. The break-neck pace in New York that I had to work against all kinds of production deadlines has finally come to a full stop – well, almost a full stop – when I arrived in Switzerland.
This is not the first time I’ve been here, the fourth time in fact over the last ten years. Many Swiss cities & towns I’d visited in the past, including Geneva, Zurich, Lugano, Lucerne, Locarno, Mt. Brie, have always overwhelmed me with their quaint, quiet yet strong and striking scenes that aroused and awakened all my senses. However, this time in Lugano, the deeper I tried to experience its characters – its calm and stillness – the more they cast a soporific spell on my mind and body. It suddenly dawned on me that this time, Switzerland is like a “rest” “refresh” and “reset” button for me, because subconsciously I know I needed a break, and I also know I have more work ahead. So, Switzerland has become a “comma,” not a “full stop” for me between the two action centers – New York which I left behind, and Hong Kong – my next stop.
Hong Kong is my hometown, I very much look forward to seeing my family – father, sister, brother and his family. I also can’t wait to see old friends and colleagues and meet new friends to catch up about our lives, our work, and to discover new opportunities for a new perspective on life and work.
For me, discovering the world is always a precursor for re-discovering myself. I needed a good massage, and Switzerland had performed excellent massage for my mind and body.
Now that I’m recharged, I realize it’s time to move on beyond the tranquilizing charm of Switzerland. I’m ready to discover new challenges and new opportunities next – even as they may lie in the familiar yet fast-changing scenes of Hong Kong and China.
我爱瑞士 — 因为那里画卷般展开的景色，皇家蓝色的湖泊，坚实又充满棱角的山脉 — 这些无不散发着庄严与和平，传输着冷静和超然的宁静。
我很幸运能被一个从小认识的朋友邀请到他的豪宅，那里可以俯瞰卢加诺湖 — 一个美丽的绿洲，总是以其纯净的优雅以及纯洁欢迎着慕名而来的世界游客。每次我来到瑞士的时候，我都会觉得放松，很放松，如此放松所以这一次当我的朋友开着车带我穿行过一个个山洞，越过一条条蜿蜒的道路，走过一个个村庄，寻找一个个新的山峰和原野的时候，我都在打着瞌睡。感受到车里的死寂，Gaugau瞥了我一眼，咯咯笑着说：“为什么每次我回过头来看你的时候，你都昏昏欲睡呢？”“哈哈，那是因为，我，我太…”“太放松了，对吧？放松很好，放松，放松~”他加了一句。毋庸置疑，休息和放松是旅行中的第一要务—尤其对于我今年的第一段旅行来说。启动一个初创企业，提供一个媒体平台使得你我都能分享故事，观看视屏实在是一个劳人心神的任务，尽管我的团队和我只做了四个月。在纽约那快速的节奏里，我不得不随时追赶各种各样的产品的截止日期，好在这些都已经到了一个终点 — 好吧，几乎是一个终点 — 当我到达瑞士的时候。
这并不是我第一次到达这里，事实上是这过去十年里的第四次。许多我在过去探访过的瑞士的城市，例如日内瓦，苏黎世，卢塞恩，洛迦诺 以及布里山，总是深深的震撼着我，用它们的古朴，宁静然而强烈的场景环绕，唤醒我所有的感官。不过，这一次在卢加诺，我更深的体验到它的性格 — 它的平静和寂静 — 它们在我的头脑和身体蒙上了催眠法术。我恍然大悟，原来，对我来说，这段时间，瑞士就像是一个“休息”，“刷新”和“重置”按钮，因为潜意识里，我意识到我是需要休息的，我也因此知道我有更多的工作要做。因此，瑞士已经成为一个“逗号”，而不是“句号”，成为我的两个目的地的中转战- 纽约，是前一站，香港， 是下一站。
香港是我的家乡，我非常渴望见到我的家人 — 爸爸，姐姐，哥哥以及他的家人。我也迫不及待地想见到我的老朋友和老同事，去更新我们最近的生活，工作以及发现新的角度去重新生活和工作。
对于我来说，发现世界总是重新发现自己的前提。我需要一个好的按摩，瑞士，则给了我一个很好的按摩，无论是身体上，还是心理上。
现在我已经能量满满，我意识到已经是时间告别瑞士所带给我的宁静了。我已经准备好去香港和中国探索新的挑战，面对新的挑战 — 即使它们可能存在在熟悉却又快速变化的场景中。