After weeks of traveling through India, I flew to Hong Kong after a week in Nepal. In the express train that drives from the airport into the city I suddenly noticed that no one was sitting against me. In fact, the seat next to me was empty. I suddenly realized that I had something again that I had not had for a while: personal space. In India and Nepal, a van for seven people can easily stop about twelve people and when the train is busy - always so - the luggage rack is shared by three people: one is cross, two others lie side by side each other's head; a sofa for four people can easily hold eight, excluding children. I remember one bus ride up a mountain when I had a backrest standing up… just like the man behind me. The best man has remained unknown to me, although we were still very much in each other's '' personal space ''. The difference in Hong Kong is immediately tangible and makes me aware of that extra half meter of body that consists of air. That extra half meter that I now have back is not necessarily good or bad in itself, but it is one of the many things we build around us to feel '' safe '', to escape our vulnerability - titles, names, houses, cars, books, friends, ideas, and so on. An unstable structure that could just collapse… and well, how big am I really?
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