Padel Playing Foreigner

For those that know me, know that when planning travel - a deciding factor of where I travel isn’t whether I can play Padel there or not, but I also cannot deny that if I can get a game in while there - I will.  So when the first Padel club in Hong Kong, Padel+ opened it's doors in September 2023 and offered free matches during a limited promotional 'soft launch' period - it was kind of a no brainer to visit my mate John in Hong Kong to test it out.  I decided to book a flight from Thursday - Sunday and chose to stay at the  Jen Hong Kong by Shangri-La   near Kennedy Town, which is where John was living at the time. Having not seen my friend in a few months, and this being only my second time to Honkers (and the first since COVID), I was of course looking forward to seeing if much had changed in the 5 years since visiting. John and Anna were nice enough to meet me at the express train station and escorted me to my hotel.  After dropping off my bags, and having a quick &quo

  Ask any Padel player in Singapore where they would consider the “Mecca of Padel” in Asia, and 9 (if not 10) out of 10 would give you the same answer. Bali. Also known as the Island of the Gods, Bali is no stranger t o popularity given its be autiful scenery, hospitable people and overall affordability. Tourists have been flocking there for years, until of course COVID-19! Needless to say, this hit Bali pretty hard, bringing the tourism industry (which makes up around ~80% of Bali’s economy) to a complete halt.  One "positive" C-19 did have around the world was it helped transform how people work, where they work and how they structure their days. Companies and employers alike were open to hiring talent in remote locations, they created work-from-anywhere policies and this in turn provided flexibility to the traditional 9 to 5 working days. It also led to a BOOM in the digital nomad culture. Right about now you may be asking - “But why is this important? I’m here to rea