YA LEUM.51 — Goodbye Asia, Hello…
We arrived in Vietnam, our last destination in Asia.
Our time in Hanoi was short because we had a scheduled trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina.
We looked for a couchsurfer because we wanted to have a local experience during the five days we had left in Vietnam and in Asia.
We could not find a better host: he took us to try the most delicious foods in Hanoi.
One day, he woke us up at 6 a.m. to try a special Pho, a rice noodles soup, close to his house. We sat at the restaurant at 6:15 a.m. while I felt my stomach still against my back and the smell of food was making me nauseous. Yet, an invitation is an invitation. Although I could not eat the entire soup, he was right! It was delicious and the flavor was quite different from the usual. Vietnam has a wide Pho culture. Pho is a traditional soup, made with rice noodles and a broth with a diverse range of meats.
The noodle soups were already my favorite dish since I lived in China but the Pho experience in Vietnam made me wish noodle soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
On another day our couchsurfer made us try the best Bun Cha in the city. It is another dish I could eat every single day of the week: rice noodles, sliced grilled pork, a lemon broth, garlic, fish sauce, among other ingredients.
We also tried some pancakes that came on a pan, filled with vegetables, shrimp, and meat, which are typical in Vietnam too.
Every single meal was a gastronomic experience that I still have in my mouth.
One day, by coincidence, we passed by an old café and its owner, who was sitting by the door with a big milkshake machine… I had no idea what it was for, but he mixed a few raw eggs inside, stirred it and handed over to its customers… I was so curious to try! So, we gave it a go.
In the end, I learned that this delicious and simple deserted is simply made with raw egg whites, powdered chocolate, and a pinch of condensed milk. I can still feel its taste in my mouth! There is another version made using coffee.
And the Vietnamese coffee? Another pleasure to talk about.
Delicious, elegant, and can be found in every corner. The coffee comes to the table covered by phin — a metallic filter — where the crushed coffee is placed before hot water is poured. It is a dark coffee that is slowly poured into a mug, which tastes between sweet and unexpected.
Hanoi was a delicious and tasty goodbye. We ended a chapter with our mouths full.
We spent two nights at a nice hotel in the center. We walked around and lived like tourists. We ate, sat at the coffees, snooped stores, took photos in colorful corners, and beathed in all that vibrant magic.
I observed that city the best way I could and I promised to return sometime later.
We were happy, very happy. And we felt quite nostalgic too.
Nine months had passed since we arrived on that continent.
We received much more than we offered.
At that moment, I felt I was a different person.
Not because of the Vietnamese food but rather due to all that we have been through during the past nine months.
My spirit was changing.
My eyes were more attentive, my touch lighter, my taste was more diverse… all my senses were sharper.
My soul was lighter.
Yet, I did not yet know it. At that time, I felt another person.
But, I did not know who…
I took time to understand the transformation that was slowly happening.
Asia offered us the world. It showed us its amazing people.
We learned about marvelous stories that should be in the fairy tales books.
We met families of five who traveled together, wanderers who traveled across continents already for years, and others who waked all the way from Europe.
The ones who hitchhiked all the way, and others who preferred trains
We met people who left their previous lives and opened a business in the Orient.
We met people those who shaved their heads to became monks. And others who were already working through their laptops much before the world heard about remote work.
We also met people who dreamt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a boat to get to America.
There was everything. New and old people. People who had only a stamp on their passport and those who lived with their bags for more than 10 years.
They were all travelers with an explorer spirit, whose fingertips were filled with curiosity.
Many of them had lives similar to ours, but all of them had the same eagerness to experience the world in his most natural state like me
They were not the only ones who left a mark in our journey.
Particularly, the inhabitant of each country touched us the most.
Their distinct way of living and observing life.
Their way of welcoming and listening to us.
Their kindness and serenity.
Their beliefs, their actions, their hearts.
They left a footprint in the person I am today. They are our brothers and friends, the citizens of the same world in where I live.
They are our next-door neighbors who invited me to come in.
They told meabout their lives, their families. They shared the things they were proud of and what took their breath away.
We shared fears, wishes and learned that, in the end, we are all truly equal.
They gave us the world.
With them, we became better. And with them, I left a part of me.
There was so much more yet to feel. So many emotions still to bloom. Plenty of ideas to formulate and many more questions yet to ask.
Yet, there was no time left. A plane was waiting for us to take us to the other side of the world.
And I could not stop. We could not feel anything else other than storing these poems in my soul to remind them later.
Traveling is also about stopping, taking a deep dive into our emotions, in the images, and the silence. So, we can better look at the path we are taking.
We can look to what stays behind, what lays ahead of us, and to every single side so we can understand where we are and where we still want to go.
Yet, the journey must continue because the traveler will always want to go.
The traveler wants to keep walking hoping to find new and better paths that have the power to change their hearts.
