The Longest Plane Ride
My last days in Vietnam did not go well as I imagined. A burst of emotions, a disastrous last night in Saigon, and a weird version of myself the morning after. I’m not gonna go into detail about what happened but it sure was the ugliest page in my Vietnam journey.
Anyways, I have officially left Vietnam, and by that I mean this is not another visa run. As I’m writing this, I am 38,000 feet above sea level, on what seems to be the longest plane ride, from Taiwan, a pit stop before coming back home.
After years of traveling, moving, and living in different places, working many jobs, coming back home might be one of the hardest things I will do. They said there’s nothing like home and I totally agree but part of me feels home no longer has the same meaning as before. It’s like reverse culture shock which Nelson Mandela describes as “there’s nothing like returning to a place that is the same to find out how much we have changed”.
Of course, I’m excited to see family and friends, catch up with them, visit my favorite places, eat my favorite food, face my old daily routine. I wonder, would it be the same? After a couple of weeks, a few distractions here and there, I will start to ask myself again, “what’s next?” Maybe I do have the eternal traveling syndrome they call, the longing for the road and adventure and living abroad.
I don’t know exactly where I’m going next and like always it’s something I have to figure out when I go home. But one step at a time, we’re landing soon so step one: “fasten your seat belts and switch off any electronic devices.”
musing from 01/08/2020
