The expat bubble

There are two worlds in Hong Kong. On one side, the local Chinese world with small street-side dim sum restaurants and Chinese medicine shops. On the other side, a place full of English, Irish, German, French restaurants, countless bars and clubs and expensive fashion shops. To some extent, the local, Chinese feel is found in Kowloon and anywhere north from there, the other place, the expat feel, is on Hong Kong Island, mostly Central and Wan Chai.

These areas provide the so-called expat bubble. People who were moved in their jobs from Europe to the Orient are going to look for their familiar environment, familiar home food and likely also hang out with similar people in western-style bars. I also enjoy my Western food every time I get it and drool over any cheese and crispy bread I can find ;) But some of them never get out of that bubble even though something new, interesting is waiting just across the harbour. And when I mention a well known place in Kowloon, they'd say, "I've heard about Kowloon but haven't been there". After 5 years of living in HK. I'm having trouble understanding that.

And if you never venture outside of the expat bubble that has been prepared for you by some other people, you'll never see the outside and therefore won't be able to take the good & useful things into your life. You'll just keep using what's already inside your bubble but the problem is that those things were not selected by you so you can't know if it's the best choice. Without venturing into the local world (which is right outside the bubble!), you'll never see the way of life of the local people and you'll never have the opportunity to see that there might be something to the local way of life. You can miss out on opportunities.

See you in Chung King Mansions ;)