In Kampot's countryside, there are seemingly endless fields of green, where I felt comforted amidst nature. There, I chatted with my friend, who I will refer to as Keith for privacy reasons, a farmer, who shared that he hoped to move to urban Kampot to live more comfortably one day.
Returning home to Singapore last Thursday, I recalled his words when I saw our familiar HDB flats. In urban Singapore, we have fields of tarmac and concrete instead, along with our modern comforts and appliances. Forest bathing and city immersion are starkly different. Yet, both urbanites and rurality yearn for the "greener" pastures of the other side.
What is the best solution? If we could only have the best of both worlds! r+ bridges urban sophistication and rural rusticity, marrying the benefits of both ways of life as we create the new rural.
