Airports

My favourite airport (among the three that I frequently visit) would have to be the Hong Kong airport. I feel at ease there, simply because people of all kinds can be found. Being the cosmopolitan country that it is, Hong Kong's airport is buzzing with people on the move, people who have places to be. These people come together with such a great diversity that regardless of the season or time at which I find myself at the Hong Kong airport, I always feel that I fit right in.

The Singapore airport, on the other hand, reeks of comfort topped off with a hinge of the unfamiliar. I see faces typical of a Singaporean and feel relief to know that I am back in my home country. Yet at the same time I am on alert, constantly people watching. During my year abroad, it has come to my attention that more and more foreigners have slipped into this country. I watch them and wonder if they are coming or going, if they have made a life for themselves here or if their purpose is only to rest their souls for a few days.

Lastly, the Beijing airport. The main reason why this cannot possibly be my favourite airport is because it is a cold and disconnected place. The journey to get to the luggages is a seemingly impossibly long one, including the train that I repeatedly dread to get on - it is too tiring after after the long voyage I've just concluded. There are no shops to browse around, the ceiling is high, the floor is not carpeted and the light is too bright for ease. Lastly, the majority of people at the airport are constantly, time after time, the Chinese locals. And while this makes perfect sense since the location is, after all, in Beijing China, this create a drastic contrast to that of the airport in Hong Kong and even in Singapore. I find it isolating and lonely.

And I guess this is somewhat symbolic since everything I go back to Beijing, that is how I feel.