Later, opportunities to do different types of journalistic work arrived. He became the White House correspondent for National Geographic Magazine. He started to freelance, covering stories at the United Nations. Eventually, he decided to leave the Geographic and freelance full time. “I wrote for our own paper in Hong Kong and for some small newspapers in the southern states of the US. That was a good era for United Nations coverage. “

During these days, wife Greta and his young son remained in Washington while Robert Hung Ngai commuted to New York to do his United Nations stories. “I had quite a bit of freedom as a freelancer. The only instruction I had was the subject to feature and the amount of copy to produce. I didn’t have to write every day and small papers were not interested in complicated stories. They wanted straight news or interpretation. I spent maybe 18 months at the United Nations.”