Gasping the Hongkongese spirit
One of my favorite pictures I took in Hong Kong. A fisher in the middle of the city in a day when the sky was constantly giving rain allerts. (So no worries, all grey there is not pollution :D) The air actually felt rather good because it was so close to the sea. I didn't even check the pm2.5 there.
The thing I noticed straight away was that everything seems to be narrow and small wich forces to see how mwny people there really is. I stepped out of the train, could even find the station at firs because it was under construction and I found the MRT startion first... only to realize that I don't have any Hong Kong dollars to get the MRT ticket.
Laughing at my self I walked out and followed the signd to go somewhere where would be people. After exchanging all my Thai-baths for HKD I realized that the hostel was quite near and I didn't have to take metro at all. Easy? Yes. For a change something is easy to find because the informaton is accurate. Also English-speaking people were a welcomed add-on for a change.
Accuracy and English might be among the things that made feel home straight away. There was also the must have scenery with lights. I just love the sqeneries with lights and water. In the city they work like the Finnish woods for me. Stop, stare and think.
But I found the city be more than crowded and place with beautiful lights to fill up my addiction.
One a little bigger sized lady was climbing up the stairs from metro. She had a heavy looking trolley with her. She was using the rails to pull herself up and then after that to lift the trolley with her. "The colorfulness of the bag is not making it any lighter I guess," I thought. It looked really hard for her and I thought that everything in this city was so narrow and there were starirs everywhere, not really escalators at all... only in few places. Then just an eye blink after I had seen the lady and started to symphatize her wondering how her life must be here, a young guy dressed in black coat came behind her and crabbed the trolley without saying a word. He was listening to the music, really not a word was said when he carried the trolley up, like it was selfevident to him that this lady needs help. She really did, I can tell that much. Then he waited the lady to come up and then he just left - again without saying a word. Lady was trying to shout thank you after him but I never know if he heard it. I just stood there, stunned. Does a place like this REALLY exist?
I was honestly stunned. The guy really was dresssed in black and looking like the streotypical version of "I don't care" which got me thinking my own culture again. In Finland you're supposed to ask do you need help and if that is a total stanger, you should think first if you can ask that. Then if the asker is stranger the obvious answer should be no. Especially in this case because the lady wasn't an elderly or pregnant. But from what I saw, it seems that helping someone in need is selfevident.
I spent there two days, mainly to get the feeling of the city and because I felt like I have to go away for a while. The feeling I got was that everything is narrow, they love to walk, there's still cheaper food than in Finland and that people are happy and they smile. It is only 2 hour train ride away and the tickets were about 176 yuan/210 HKD/about 20 euros one way.
Very convenient. And I got the feeling I could live there. Looking for opportunities and keeping eyes open ;)
