First Day in Hanoi
When I Realized My Soul Always Knew the Way
🎬 Sometimes the story keeps writing itself even after it ends – A behind-the-scenes moment is waiting at the end of this post, for The Secret Journey members only.
📍Hanoi, Vietnam
I've discovered a new morning routine that I love. I wake up to notifications from Substack because my international audience is active while I'm sleeping. I grab my phone from my nightstand, scroll through updates, respond to comments, and dive into this magical bubble as I wake up. My heart feels so full. I wonder if others have their own Substack morning ritual, or if it's just my peculiar habit.
After finishing my urgent morning tasks (as a digital nomad, I need to be a responsible business), I realized I had no choice but to go outside and finally get to know Hanoi.
How introverted am I? It takes me a full day of recovery and an entire morning of deliberation to explore a new country. Sounds perfectly reasonable.
Yesterday, I only went out to collect my delivery from the grocery store – large bottles of water and some survival food. While meeting the delivery person, I spotted a laundromat right across the street, so today I ventured out with my laundry basket like a true hero.
I'd been told that in Vietnam, not everyone speaks English, unlike the Philippines, where almost everyone speaks fluent English. How fortunate that the Philippines was my entry point to East Asia - it was an especially soft landing. But easy is boring, right? So here's a new challenge – let's see how I manage three months in a country where English isn't widely spoken.
It started with my very first step into the laundromat. Despite the huge sign with a washing machine picture, prices per kilo, and lots of clothes hanging around, and despite arriving with a basket full of laundry like a walking billboard saying "I want to wash clothes," – the elderly vendor looked completely confused.
She called over a younger woman, who also didn't speak English, but at least we managed to communicate through hand gestures and numbers on the phone calculator. When I wanted to ask when to return, I pointed to the old wall clock, and she answered with her fingers: "7". Okay.
Every time I leave my clothes at a laundromat, I feel like a mother sending her child to kindergarten for the first time. Hoping he'll manage, hoping he'll return safely, hoping they won't forget to feed him. Maybe it's excessive to worry so much about shirts and socks, but hey, that's all I have here.
I continued wandering on foot, remembering the general direction of my next destination – a phone store to purchase a SIM card. Because after water and food (or maybe before), the most important thing is the internet.
While walking, I discovered nice little grocery stores very close to home. I made a mental note to stop by on my way back. I reached a flight of stairs and remembered I was supposed to cross the street. When I got to the top, I suddenly felt an especially pleasant sensation, like a wave of lightness. Maybe it was the cool breeze, maybe the bustling traffic on the main road, but something there made me feel freer than ever.
I deliberated whether to cross the street here or continue on the road I was walking, and of course, the finger of God guided me, and I returned to the same street. After a few steps, as if it were a gift from the universe, I saw a phone store. Ha! Great! Much closer than the one Google had suggested half an hour's walk away.
The friendly vendor communicated with me using Google Translate, helped me activate the SIM, and explained exactly how to recharge it again in a month. Needless to say, the SIM costs only $7, half of what they sell at the airport.
There, I also learned how to say 'thank you' in Vietnamese, and realized that with all my work, I'd completely forgotten to learn anything about the new language. Another item added to my list, this time with high priority.
I continued exploring and came upon a small, bustling market with a variety of vegetables, fruits, and an active butcher shop. You can imagine the smell yourself, and if you're familiar with East Asian markets, you know exactly what I mean.
Along the way, I saw many nail salons, and remembered the nail salon in Melbourne where the workers were from Vietnam. They were incredibly professional and knew exactly what they were doing.
And then came the moment. A moment of enlightenment, as they say.
Suddenly, I thought about how they are like me – they have a job they can do from anywhere in the world! Just like I worked as a bartender in different places around the world. I remembered the time I wanted to be a nail technician, and even took a course and started doing it as a hobby (in a parallel universe, I continued it as a profession), and suddenly felt this revelation:
Could it be that if I had taken that path, I would have also realized I had a job I could do anywhere in the world? Would I have left my country and wandered just as I do now?
In other words, would all the possibilities in my life have led me to the same choice in the end? Did my soul know exactly what it wanted, and I simply found so many ways to fulfill its desire? In the end, I chose to be a bartender, but maybe any other path I might have chosen in life would have eventually led me to wander the world?
Wow. That's a mind-blowing realization to discover on your first day in a new city.
I walked a bit more, trying to digest this thought. Between alleyways, I saw elderly women (really elderly) riding motorbikes with complete confidence, and near the playground, I found an open gym in the park where various retirement-age people were doing their daily workouts.
It was inspiring. I wondered what my daily routine would look like when I'm their age. Would I still wander the world? Would I find one place that feels like home? Or maybe I'd return to the place that was always my true home?
Maybe it doesn't matter so much, and maybe that's the point – in the end, any path I choose will lead me precisely to where my soul wants to be. Hanoi already taught me something important on my first day, and that's much more than I expected.
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