What Three Weeks in Vietnam Feels Like

Visiting my home country left me with a sense of awe and privilege along with some complicated feelings

One of the islets at Ha Long Bay, a place you should absolutely visit.

You know you’re in Vietnam when the first thing you feel as soon as you step outside is the humidity.

Like being suddenly struck in the face by a gong, it can leave you feeling confused and disoriented. To add to that confusion, the streets in Vietnam are not in a grid-like pattern like it is in America. It’s more of a spiderweb, zigzagging and crossing with one another, to the point where you find yourself on a completely different street even though you’ve been walking in a straight line. This was more or less what happened to me.

The divider is just there for looks.

There are street signs and traffic lights in Vietnam but it doesn’t mean everyone follows it. In fact, most people don’t. In Hanoi, I was surprised to find that the freeways were paved and lined, and everyone seemed to be following the rules.

Once we exited the freeway and enter the Old Quarter, however, the rules no longer apply. The sounds of traffic reverberated in our…