On the road again! It sure feels good to be traveling for work again after an almost 3-year moratorium!

At the end of March our APAC team consisting of Philli Wong and myself participated in our partners quarterly event called “APAC Network Huddle” hosted by Expat Academy.

Jeff Hawk, AIRINC’s Vice President Americas, recently wrote about compensation challenges “How Does Your Job Offer Stack Up?”. My colleagues Adam Silver and Michael Joyce followed up with posts on how to attract talent if affinity between two locations is low.

Beginning in mid-March 2020, any resident arriving in Hong Kong from abroad is required to undergo compulsory quarantine if not demonstrating any symptoms as decided by the Department of Health. After returning from my international travels in June, I had to go through mandatory screening procedures and a 14-day quarantine before returning to work in the office.

Air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic is unique and full of odd experiences. A few weeks ago, I was lucky (or unlucky?) to experience international air travel for the first time in months.

Relocating is already a challenge, but relocating during a pandemic adds a new level of difficulty. After years of surveying based in AIRINC’s Cambridge office, I was honored to accept a position at our Hong Kong branch late last year. From the beginning, I was excited to move to a vibrant global city, but the logistics proved more challenging than expected as a novel coronavirus (at the time still unnamed) spread in January. Even before being declared a pandemic, COVID-19 was having a broad and unpredictable impact across the globe.

During a recent survey quarter, I had the pleasure of surveying Athens, Greece. While I was on-site, I encountered several protests and demonstrations, which allowed me to really feel like an assignee, navigating the change of social disruption.

The rental housing market is slowly picking back up in Aberdeen after the slump in global oil and gas prices. Despite current events like Brexit and climate change concerns, the oil and gas industry is seeing a slow but steady revival in this coastal city, bringing in more expatriates who are increasing the demand for good quality housing.

East Timor, or Timor-Leste as it is known in one of its official languages, Portuguese, is a small country in Southeast Asia just north of Australia across the Timor Sea. It is one of the world’s youngest nations and still feels relatively undeveloped. The main expatriate population comes from embassies, NGOs, aid organizations, and banks.

During my November 2018 survey, the dollar-to-rupee exchange rate showed minimal fluctuation. When I exchanged money in my hotel in Mumbai, I received new, crisp green 500- and pink 2000-rupee banknotes, along with the older, lower denomination notes of 10-,20-, and 100-rupees. Throughout the five major cities that I surveyed, all the 500- and 2000-rupee banknotes that I transacted were part of the new series.