After just over a week in Vietnam, I’m finally getting the hang of stepping into traffic regardless of the sea of motor bikes streaming our way (they’ll never stop for you, but will go around), the honking horns (which mean nothing except “here I come!”) and the constant calls of “Hello!”. I’ve also starting to develop a knack for eating a bowl of lovely fried rice using chop sticks without spilling 75% of my dinner on the floor.
Leaving the US has me reflecting on my first trip abroad to Argentina more than two years ago. When I arrived in Buenos Aires I fully expected to immediately jump into an experience straight out of Rolf Potts’ “Vagabonding” full of warm offers of hospitality from locals, spontaneous adventures, and a world that would simply open to me as soon as I left the US. The reality was, of course, very different and I was soon cured of my illusions. For the first day I couldn’t muster the nerve to order lunch in my broken Spanish and I went hungry for hours until I found a MacDonald.
I was equally unprepared for the “what do I do now?” feeling and profound disorientation probably common to all first time independent travelers. Completely contrary to my expectations, being without a purpose or set goal actually inhibited by experience of a new country. It wasn’t until I settled into my volunteer work in Peru that I felt that I really dug into South America. Of course, having your expectations challenged, in fact being challenged in general, is at the heart of independent travel.
I can’t speak for others, but those challenges are what prompted me to go on the road, so I’m not complaining about the experience. It was inevitable, and (I hope) not unusual for someone who had never before left the US.
That was more than two years ago, when I was straight out of University. Now, navigating Ho Chi Minh’s endless sprawl and manic traffic on my way to shops to price power tools and meetings with NGO heads, I can’t help but look back on Argentina and see how far I’ve come. With the purpose of setting up EDV’s deployment, I immediately find my way off the tourist track. The purpose makes me braver, more willing to confront and overcome the inevitable disorientation that comes along with being in a new culture.
Now that I’m not actually traveling – now that I’m here to work – I immediately find what I was looking for when I left for Argentina. The trick to getting what I was looking for in South America by traveling seems to be to not travel.
In more concrete news, we’ve just arrived in heavily Typhoon affected Danang in central Vietnam after the delays of Tet – the lunar new year celebration here in Vietnam. While the flower shows, parades, and frequent calls of “Happy New Year” from passing motorbikes have been wonderful, the delay was frustrating to say the least. We came to work, and Tet delayed us a full week.
Danang is a wonderful city. Situated near the ocean, it has a wonderful sea breeze that is keeping it much cooler than Ho Chi Minh was. We’ve been eating mostly lovely street food, paying less than a dollar a meal and having very slow phrase book conversations with whomever sits next to us. The residents are very anxious to speak what English they know, and very impressed but our pitiful attempts to speak Vietnamese.
The delay imposed by Tet has made our arrival here in Danang, and hugely positive meeting with the Head of Foreign Affairs here in Danang all the more sweet. It’s early days yet, and far too soon to call our assessment a success, but all signs are positive at this point. We’re very much looking forward to working with our local contacts in the coming weeks to more fully assess the typhoon damage and need for long term disaster reconstruction and risk reduction here in central Vietnam.
I can’t think of a feeling more satisfying than implementing a programme that you’ve spent more than a year setting up. These are exciting days, to say the least, and I look forward to the possibility of a long and successful deployment here in Vietnam.
