I’m writing this post from a van that’s driving us from Hanoi to Halong City, where we’ll board a boat to sail around Halong Bay for the next three days. In case you didn’t catch that, the van has wifi. So, needless to say, life is good.
We got here a few days ago... wow, nearly a week ago, actually. Traveling from Cape Town to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, was unpleasant, to put it mildly. It took three flights over the course of 30 hours (one delayed flight and a subsequent missed flight extended our travel time) to finally make it here. That would suck on its own, but Mike was battling a nasty stomach ache and I had an annoying cough develop out of nowhere. It was almost like our bodies were telling us to quit. But, of course we can’t do that. We have eight months left to go!
Thankfully, Mike started a brief but powerful course of antibiotics that we got before leaving the U.S. and was feeling himself again on our second day. After adjusting to the change in time zone, we’re ready to take this country by storm.
So far, we’ve checked out Hanoi, a bustling city of more than 7 million people where old and new worlds collide, and Sapa (or Sa Pa), a farming region northwest of Hanoi most famous for its dramatic landscape of terraced rice fields in the Muong Hoa Valley.
Both were totally charming in their own ways and we’re excited to share more information, stories and photos from each very soon.
To arrive in Vietnam is bittersweet. A year ago, I would have said SE Asia was the place that I was most looking forward to seeing. For years, I have dreamed about experiencing the culture and eating asian food nonstop. However, we’re a little bit sad that the first chapter in our travel story, Africa, is finished.
An interesting thing happens when you've been traveling for a few months. You accept that you no longer have a “home” in the traditional sense. And then, as you stay somewhere for a few weeks, you can start to feel connected to it, like it’s your new home. Your new normal. Your new comfort zone.
That’s how southern Africa was feeling to us after two months. We drove around in our own car (a rental, but still). We went grocery shopping. We went to the movies and we even cooked a Thanksgiving dinner. It was home. And we were sad to say goodbye.
As I think about it more, though, it’s not something to be unhappy about. If we could feel at home in Africa, we could probably feel at home here, too. Maybe in a few months, when we’re once again transitioning, from the Philippines to New Zealand, I’ll be reflecting in a similar way, upset again to leave the region that has begun to feel like our new home.