As a city-dweller, I love spending time in villages, in the countryside, closer to the mountains, forests and lakes, even though there are times when I miss the kind of convenience and efficiency we take for granted in our everyday lives. Last Christmas, we travelled up the mountain roads before arriving at the viewpoint that offered a panorama of Shirakawa-go surrounded by the snow-capped mountains.
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I love venturing into third spaces, maybe because they are platforms for interaction between people. I first learnt about this term in Urban Sociology back in University. Coined by Ray Oldenburg, he calls one's "first place" the home and the immediate surroundings. The "second place" is the workplace where people spend their time at, earning their keep and sometimes even spending more time there when work gets increasingly overwhelming and demanding. Third places (or spaces) are the anchors of community life, essentially where people are drawn together. Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon - forever a significant third place in the heart of the city and the locals. |
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July 2020
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