Bought my ticket to Vietnam just last week and again - that familiar "this is unreal feeling" crept up when I sped to the airport at 5am to catch my flight yesterday. It was a smooth, short flight just under 2 hours to Ho Chi Minh.
Here I am just lounging in my hostel bed at 10am. Deets: Top bunk, aircon's not working too well, flicked two ants off my bed a moment ago. But I am content. Happy, in fact. I like how Time seems to operate more slowly here. The sporadic honking from the traffic 5 floors down have become an alternative, but perfectly acceptable source of background music.
I also appreciate the growing realisation that a lot of the luxuries we as urbanites take for granted are actually not so necessary after all. You learn to live with all that you have - with the 10 pieces of clothing living in your backpack; adapting to the environment, and you even learn how to thrive. There is joy in every day.
The hostel pub crawl last night was fantastic, and the very sociable crowd certainly made a huge difference. It felt like Europe again - only it's summer and everyone was ready to party in tshirts and slippers. The only free shot I got was something that tasted like rice wine? It was kind of nasty tasting but in good spirit we all downed it anyway. Beers were going for 12,000 VND, which works out to under 1 SGD per bottle. Shots were about 70,000 VND ~~ 4-5 SGD if my math doesn't fail me. Yup. Don't have to break the bank for drinks abroad.
In dorm rooms or at hostel events, there is always an easy vibe of friendliness in the air. People are usually more amiable and chatty than usual. Kinda like at orientation camps - all the small talk and getting to know you stuff. Except that some of these people I've met at the hostels have such amazing stories to tell. (Not that orientation camp friends are boring ahha but it's all about the context)
One moment a Norwegian (from Trondheim! I thought of Misato :) ) could be asking you about politics and welfare systems, and the next he could be sharing about his country's fjords and the amazing landscapes of Scandinavia. Then if you please, you could plop down at a table, beer in hand, "hi can I join you guys?" - prepare to be welcomed like an old buddy. People from California, from England, from England but currently living in Shanghai, from Israel, from Germany, from Switzerland, from Poland. Globalisation on a micro scale can be pretty easily observed in hostels. ;)
I've also finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. At some points in her memoir, I felt so much indignance and frustration boil up within me. But perhaps it is so - everybody loves in their own way. Even if it's in impossible, unthinkable ways. It is an insurmountable challenge - to try and break down this whole....concept(?) of love. Particularly familial love. On a side note - I wondered how many of us live in semi-dysfunctional families, and what are the little changes or great efforts that we make each day to ensure that the family unit stays together. Or perhaps, the concept of a "perfect, normal" family is complete bull. Romanticised notions and societal ideals. We all know that it's fine to go off the rocker at home sometimes, yelling optional but preferably not (think of the neighbours!).
I digressed.
So it's been one day of sort of doing absolutely nothing but somehow I've managed to consolidate this post of my thoughts.
Off to get some banh mi now. And more pho. Yes, definitely more pho.
Till next time,
Cher
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