Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has always felt comfortable in Hong Kong. In the tough months after Thailand's generals forced him from power in September 2006, the city was a particularly important bolt-hole.
But Hong Kong has offered him something else - it is close to the nation he once led.
Staying in Hong Kong's top hotels during his usually low-key trips, Thaksin would meet Thai politicians by the dozen, plotting strategy and funding and trying to keep friendly coalitions together.
He used the city, too, for meetings with Washington-based lobbyists and publicity strategists as he plotted how to stay in the political limelight.
Being ethnically Chinese, Thaksin has often told aides he feels at home in Hong Kong. When he divorced his wife, Pojaman - a move still widely seen as strategic, rather than heartfelt - the couple chose to do it at the Thai consulate in Hong Kong.
But the events of last week suggest that the city may not be Thaksin's bolt-hole for too much longer. He is on the run from a two-year prison sentence imposed in Thailand, and Britain and Japan will not give him fresh visas. Hong Kong is not at that point yet, but the situation has suddenly become more complicated as his opponents attempt to draw Beijing into the fray.