So I’d like to take a little bit of time to reflect on this trip.
First thing I’d like to say is THANK YOU to Sean for putting up with me this trip. I know I can be a pain in the ass to be around, and to be honest I’m amazed we didn’t want to kill each other after spending 20 straight days together. But I had a fantastic time travelling with you buddy! Let’s do it again sometime.
I also apologize for some mean things I might have said about you on this blog. I realize I sometimes use it as a place to “vent”, even though it’s a public form can see it, and it might not be appropriate to type those things here. Plus you can’t really defend yourself when I’m the one typing it. In any case, I think I cleaned up most of my blog posts to get rid of any angry rants I may have said about you or anyone else.
Again, thanks for travelling with me. I hope you had as good of a time as me 🙂
Next, I want to talk about the things I lost. On this trip, I lost
-2 charging cables(plane from SF to LA)
-A neck pillow(plane from LA to Taiwan)
-My $70 20,000 mAh charging block(may he rest in peace, left on a bus from Sappa to Hanoi)
Really I’m only sad about the last one. But I do constantly lose things on trips. My 2 month trip to the east I lost sooooo much shit(I think I have a blog post about it).
In terms of things I learned, I think I learned a bit more how to travel with someone else. This trip was the longest time I’ve spent with another person travelling — it was really fun, but you realllllly get to know a person, both the good and the bad(Sean has the *BEST* German impressions — ask him to do one sometime lol). It can really strain a relationship — I had a friend that told me she went on a trip with her best friend, and after that they didn’t talk for 6 months. I didn’t want that to happen, so I tried to be pleasent, and when I saw I or him was getting sick of the other, gave some space. Maybe even just spending a day or a couple hours away from each other can help with that.
Next, I learned a lot about Vietnam. I went in not knowing much about this history of the culture of the place, and I feel like I have a bit more understanding of it and how people feel(especially towards Americans).
As always, I learned a lot about myself. I realize what I think is important to me — rock climbing, going on adventures, having stories to tell — and what’s not so important to me(massages). I think I want to focus more of my trps around the outdoors and beautiful sights I can see — some of my best memories during travels are always outdoors stuff. The cave lodge in Thailand, the trail in Iceland, climbing on Cat Ba. So I want to do more of that, and less “fluffy” stuff — like hanging around Hanoi and eating a bunch. While that’s FUN, it’s not really fullfilling to me; it can be a fun treat at the end of a long day, but I don’t want it to be the primary reason for me travelling.
I learned there is a fine line between planning things out a bunch when travelling — having every hotel booked — and being a bit more flexible when you travel, maybe only booking the first night. I realize Sean probably likes more of the first thing, and I more of the latter. Everybody’s different, and there’s no right way to travel.
I think I got a bit better at “making friends” during this trip. I met a couple of people that were really cool that I added on Facebook, and even one person who climbs in SF that I’ll probably meetup with again really soon!(Also because I have some of her gear lol).
All in all, it was a great trip. I think we ran out of things near the end(I was struggling to find stuff to do in Mue Ni, and I was realllllly disappointed that we weren’t going to be able to spend time in Hue). But luckily it all worked out in the end.
I think if you REALLY want to get to know people in these countries, you need to move even SLOWER. 2 weeks is enough if you want to plane and overnight bus to places. But if you had, say, a MONTH, you could really slow things down, taking the train through the whole country, staying in the same spot for a week or so, travelling with other friends, etc.
But anyways. I had a great time.
And I think, with this, I’m done with Asia for a while. I think I want to concentrate on either South America, or maybe finally hit up Europe, or go to the Phillapines, or something like that. Maybe even the middle east, who knows. But Asia I need a bit of a break from.
And that’s it! Onward and upwards. Thanks for reading.