New York City is an assault on the senses. Arriving on a cold November evening after over 25 hours of travel, I watched as the amber light of sunset descended behind the jagged skyline. The clocks had changed during my flight, dragging night forward an hour earlier, and painting the sky so black that the lights of buildings glittered like stars.
I had two weeks in Manhattan, working out of the Phocuswright office in the run-up to The Phocuswright Conference in Florida last month. The last time I set foot here was eight years ago on a summer holiday with my family. It was an entirely different city to me then – more of a checklist of attractions and activities over a four-day time frame, than a place to experience living in. It was time to form a new impression of the city I’d seen in movies and magazines.
In many ways, New York is exactly the city depicted on screen. Police officers queue for bagels and coffee while on-duty. Steam rises from manhole covers. Bright yellow taxis stack in rows like Tetris pieces between lanes of gridlocked traffic. Car horns and sirens blare so often that it almost becomes white noise. The ground literally hums with the vibration of the subway below.
There’s a sense of urgency everywhere. Everything is about speed, focus and delivery. New Yorkers keep their eyes up, aware that walking down the street means dodging and weaving around each other – unlike Singapore, where we keep our eyes glued to our phones. Despite looking forward, their ears are wired in to their Air Pods as they chat on a call, passing the time as they travel from A to B. Even yoga classes are an intense affair – with static poses and Vinyasa flows being set to the tempo of hip hop and contemporary hits, as opposed to the meditative hum of gongs.
The air is a heady mixture of smells, some identifiable, many foreign. Occasional powerful wafts of marijuana burn through your nose, no matter what neighbourhood you’re in. You get the sense that people here are thirsty for anything that will help them relax in this high-wired city. And who could blame them? The cost of living is phenomenal and it’s a rat race to survive. The pressure is constant.
The buildings of Manhattan are stacked so closely together, it can get claustrophobic. Though just over the bridge, the atmosphere in Brooklyn is entirely different. There is space here; people seem less tense. It’s no wonder most opt to commute in and out of Manhattan daily.
And yet, despite its intensity, I’ve fallen in love with it. Having grown up with the smooth running of a city like Singapore, whenever I travel, I find myself almost looking for the jagged edges that reveal a place’s imperfections and idiosyncrasies. It’s how we feel the character and spirit of a place. It’s the purest form of experiential travel.
Experiential travel lies not just in the ‘tours and activities industry’ that are quickly coming online, but also in the everyday banality of day-to-day city life – from grocery shopping in Trader Joe’s or a Whole Foods to walking to work. Experiential travel isn’t just reserved for our holidays, but our professional lives too. We want to see how we can adapt our lives in foreign circumstances – to see what our daily habits become in places unfamiliar to us, whether for a week or a month or even years at a time.
Speaking to friends – young professionals working across industries in data and software, finance and advertising – they held no illusions that life in the city could be tough and often overwhelming, but held high reward.
The one in advertising compared her career to being in the industry Olympics saying, “It doesn’t matter if I don’t get the gold medal. Getting the job out of the New York office meant I at least qualified to compete in the first place… it’s the big leagues.” Originally from Singapore, she grew up dreaming of living in New York. She wanted to trade in the comforts of home for something more daring, exciting and foreign to her.
The guy in finance compared his job to the one he held in Singapore and explained, “In some ways, I’m more relaxed in New York. I get to go home at 9pm instead of midnight, and I can cycle over the Brooklyn Bridge and be home in 20 minutes.” Having grown up in New York, he saw working in Asia (Singapore and Hong Kong) as his big jaunt abroad, and his return a homecoming to what he knows best. The ease of travel is what he misses most – how Asia is a gateway to some of the most colourful destinations on Earth. Domestic travel in the states simply doesn’t excite him as much.
The one working in data found her dream job working for a company she had admired for years, after completing her Masters degree at Columbia University. Originally from Germany, she said, “I think I’m ready to go back to Europe [after four years]… I’ve loved it here but it’s time for me to go home. I’m trying to get transferred to the London office.”
Her American colleague on the other hand has his ambitions set on opening an Asia outpost for the business and is working on ways to get the company to back him. That’s the beauty of international business. You can just about get things done from anywhere.
Unsurprisingly, we’re all on the hunt for job roles that grant us the opportunity to go abroad and see what the grass is like on the other side – not necessarily whether it’s greener, but we want to feel the difference. So, we either work to raise enough money to afford us travel, or we work in roles that give it to us as part of the deal.
None of us really know what the future holds as we tread carefully into the next decade. Though something tells me it’ll be the same as when we find ourselves in a new place – that perfect blend of thrill, anxiety and endless possibility. So here’s to 2020 and whatever it may bring.
