End Day

Today is the last day in Saigon and already nostalgia is setting in. It isn’t even over yet and in many ways it will probably be a good thing that it is over tomorrow (for our sanity, for one thing), but still there are already doubts creeping in. Did we spend our vacation the best we could? Did we make good use of our time? Will I regret doing anything or, more importantly, not doing anything? Am I satisfied? Was I hoping for something different?

Ironically, the answers to all those questions seems to be ‘yes’. For us this was the best way to spend the vacation, we got to recover and recuperate and yet go crazy. There will absolutely be things that I regret not doing, but that is the nature of a short holiday, there will always be things you wish you would have done, how ever much you do. I am largely satisfied, though, and that is important. Especially, since I’m planning to head off on a long backpacking trip in a few months time. I was also hoping for something different, but that’s the danger with expectations anyway, they almost inevitably end up being disappointed.

One of my mates put it well, when he said he wasn’t disappointed with how short the trip was, because he was going to come back anyway. I think I’ll do the same, though it might be a few years away. I think I wouldn’t mind living here for a while. Not too long, but for a while. Vietnam is both an exciting and a liveable city. It isn’t easy, but then easy gets boring really fast.

I feel that Vietnam is more a land of opportunity then many of the other South East Asian countries. They are disciplined enough to make the most of the capitalist mechanism, while being independent enough to have creative thoughts and political opinions. They are also generally nice and that isn’t something that can be said about every country in Asia.

Yeah, when I come back from Europe, Vietnam is definitely one of the strong contenders for where I’d like to move to. A list that is currently very short. I hope I’ll find more places to add to it.