Photo by Daniel Arndt
On the last day of 2008, I was in Interlaken, Switzerland, a very small village that I circled it in about an hour by walking. Yes, it is much smaller than Macau, and it is not even a town.
Interlaken is a very small place, and a very slow place. If I am correct, there is only one supermarket in the village and you can memorize the streets on day one. Everything is slow and is completely against my biological clock pace.
On the countdown day, as you might have guessed, there is no equivalence of the crowd in Macau Tower or Leal Senado’s Square here, but only a score of musicians and a horde of townsfolk. They do not get any celebrities or show stages. There was some small scale fireworks display ( that I missed ), but nothing more. The countdown is simple enough – each in a bar or cafe screaming “Happy New Year” to each other, and then came a dozen of drinks which they treat as water. Compared to what I have had in Macau, it was shockingly plain.
It has been ages for me citizens to find rest in a slow paced place, and now I have realized I can only live in places as fast as Hong Kong, or faster.
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