It's incredible to be back in Hong Kong again. The complicated urban environment, efficient public transport, range of food, colours and smells. As busy as it is, this trip has reminded me of how HK also supports small interconnected communities, something you'd like to think would be more prevalent in an open, Western setting.
Whereas in Australia I have no idea what the people diagonally across the road from my place even look like, let alone their names or whether they'd gave me a hand if I was dying in the street. Not that here I know all the neighbours on the same floor, let alone on all floors in this tower of 7 to the housing estate. Such a concentrated mass of people, so undoubtedly the odds are going to be greater to be in each others' faces, talk in passing, help wherever necessary.
It must also have something to do with a society who still rely heavily on public transport. I could drive to and from work in Australia, avoid all contact with anyone other than work colleagues and the bare essentials when serving the public then head home, relatively untouched or confronted. Here they're in your armpits, shoving in front of you to get out of a train, sharing a claustro look as one more person squeezes into a lift, or amazing me when I'm still served with a smile 2000+ customers later, putting Western countries to shame.
In all this busyness everyone seems more relaxed than ever. Incredible. I will definitely take a piece of that back with me and apply it to my cushy Australian life. Really live out that creed of "no worries".
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