I went to Vietnam 4 months ago and finally came around to writing this. I still haven’t unpacked all my feelings about the trip but figured it’s overdue and whatever I’ve got is good enough.
If you like big cities, then this is the place to go for your next adventure.
HCMC is vibrant, full of life, and filled with people who are all looking to make the best of the life they’ve got. I am no different from them, except I had the supreme fortune of being very very lucky in life. It’s easy to ignore your own privileges when you’re surrounded by other privileged people, but it’s a lot harder when your guide makes in a month what you make in a day.
When/if you go, I encourage you to enjoy the hell out of the cultural experience and food, but also to reflect on your place in life and the good fortune you have. It really made me think deeply about my riches in life, real happiness and the role travel and tourism play in my life.
I had to edit this post 20+ times because I wanted to avoid coming across as preachy or being on moral high ground. I disagree that there’s one right way to travel or if travel is necessary at all. You can go to 5-star hotels all over the world and come back no more enriched than someone who only read about other places but spends time challenging their own world view. But 5-star hotels are also super fun to go to and a valid vacation choice.
I’ll put the pictures here because the rest of this is very “first-world problems”. The only people who have time to debate the different types of travelling and the duties of the privileged are those who can afford it in the first place. Enjoy the photos and I hope you can make your way there 🙂
First World Problems
In my two years working in London, I had a checklist mindset when travelling. I found myself very…bored with all these beautiful sights and sounds. I really don’t talk about it with other people much because it sounds very whiney. So I’m sharing it here with internet strangers. I think the vague boredom I fell into was due to a couple of things:
- Visiting the same sort of places > major cities in Europe
- Checklist travelling
- I realized I’m a bit of a homebody
The last one was a surprise. Social media and FOMO culture has really ingrained in me a mindset of go-go-go and do more, see more, taste more. Now that I’ve tried it I can officially say I would rather just stay in my area and get people together for a movie night. It’s a bit of a privileged stance because if I haven’t already travelled so much I would probably feel as if I’m missing out. I’m glad I got to experience it and can now comfortably be a homebody.
Travelling through Asia has been a great break from Western Europe. It’s hilarious that all the Asians love to visit Europe and all the Westerners want to experience Asia. I’ve seen more of Europe on various media growing up so in a way it didn’t really feel special. I saw the pictures before I went there and read reviews by thousands of others like me – it felt like I’ve already been there second-hand. Ho Chi Minh was very much new to me. The tourist spots have been sanitized but just barely – you have no choice but to face the reality of the country in which you are visiting. It is a developing country, and you see it staring you in the face.
I stayed there for 8 days and did get to see local attractions. I went away with a weird mix of feelings of awe, gratefulness, anger, frustration, and unease. It brought up a lot of questions about my place in the world and how I can make it better.
I’m not sure I agree that we’re all only responsible for ourselves and we owe nobody else anything. The undervalued labour of others is what props up my first world life. It’s foolish to think I reached my level of (moderate) success on my own. I’m early on my FI journey and this brought up some thoughts about what I can do in the between years and how I can contribute after.
I don’t have a very good answer for that yet, and I’ve made so many edits trying to determine a good set of reflection questions. Back to the original point, this tangent is proof enough that you should go to HCMC – it will force you to confront the uncomfortable realities of your own privilege.