NGO VAN HA hitched up his new jeans, turned to the media and said in near perfect English: ''I never want to see Hong Kong again!'' The 16-year-old Vietnamese orphan was at Kai Tak airport and about to board a flight to Tokyo and onwards to Los Angeles - yesterday was his first day of freedom in a Western society.
He now hopes to sample all that his new home in San Gabriel, California, has to offer and that means hamburgers, surf and what Ha says is most important of all - an education.
Ha, who arrived in Hong Kong in a boat in 1990, was at the centre of a controversy for many months when moves were made to forcibly repatriate him to Vietnam rather than reunite him with relatives in the United States.
In February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees overturned its earlier decision and gave permission for Ha to go to the US after information came to light that his relatives in Vietnam did not want him.
Yesterday, although a little anxious about his first flight, Ha was thrilled to be leaving the territory for a new life.
''I am so happy, the only thing I am sad about is leaving some of my friends behind,'' he said.