World of Ease

Archive for August, 2011

In so many ways, and not all of them entirely metaphorical, the world is a market.  There is often a compulsion, when one is deep in a new marketplace, in a strange city, to begin to see it as a miniature version of the rest of everything else.  It’s the place no only where things are exchanged, but the place where the social life of the local cultures enact themselves.  For the world traveler, this becomes a kind of tipping point to underline why people like to see foreign places.

When one is discovering Australia for the first time, on any tour, Sydney nearly always stands out.  The many layers of Australian culture are reflected here, revealing it as a rather remarkable and enormously diverse place.  At the same time, the world traveler becomes a part of this, and enters into the culture to influence it in subtle ways.  In other words, the social interactions here are fluid and flexible, and necessarily open enough to take in new influences all the time.  This dynamic can happen in the lesser-known places, or in Sydney’s best markets, because in a city as restless as Sydney, every moment holds the potential for excitement.

It doesn’t necessarily matter what the budget might be, either.  Whether one is staying at five star accommodations, or lovely and budget places like the Y Hotel, Sydney, Australia is a place where all walks of life can find something familiar, or something terribly unfamiliar and interesting.  That is certainly true in the marketplace, and perhaps it’s the place where this is the most true.  That’s because places like the Paddington Market need to be open and flexible in order to stay alive.

In some establishments, like fine restaurants, for example, the customer is paying for an experience, not only a meal.  This means that there are expectations about décor and atmosphere as much as flavor and service.  In a public market, it’s a very different equation altogether.  When most anyone can be a vendor, there is no target audience.  Some sellers will look for broad appeal, of course, but many are looking for a very specific customer, because the wares are specific.  Likewise there is a similar kind of mechanism at work with the public.  Some people will come to the market with a very specific purpose, holding a specific amount of money.  Others will come with large amounts, hoping to find a reason to spend it, and still others will come with nothing, or very little, in their pockets.  There is an expectation of trade and commerce, but those who frequent markets also have an expectation that something interesting will happen.  It’s here, in that part of the equation, that culture really starts to set itself in motion, and the marketplace truly does begin to reflect and create the world at large.