On a bus to Hue!

We’re on another impressive bus to Hue, Vietnam. This one is not a sleeper bus but our seats actually are massage chairs! The buses here are officially unmatched. We just spent some time in Hoi An where we biked to the beach everyday, walked and ran through rice fields, ate more delicious food, got tailored clothes, and more. For a few dollars we rented lounge chairs under bamboo umbrellas and chatted with other tourists as well as local people. The local people are simply wonderful. How they treat people inspires me to do more of that. They look at every person they meet or interact with as an opportunity. I want to do this without draining myself by the end of each day. Maybe the well is infinite. Maybe you have to refill it everyday before you can give more. Maybe there is balance? If someone knows, please let me know. :)

It’s funny, when we’ve had longer travel days in our little capsules on the sleeper buses I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting. I almost go decade by decade, thinking about all the people and all the places I’ve been. I listen to playlists that bring me back to high school swim meets or college parties. I text old friends I haven’t seen or talked to in years. I journal, read, and think. Trying to return back to the physical, spiritual, mental wins I talked about a few posts ago. It’s interesting how quickly those things go when the conditions aren’t “right”. We had some hot weather and I gave up on all of it! Lame. I want to be able to return to myself and my values and my nonnegotiables no matter what the weather is like outside or no matter what the situation is. I want to be unflappable. That’s my goal for the rest of this trip (and maybe life?).

Our time last week in Dalat was wonderful too. Being up in the mountains, being down a few degrees, and hiking in a national park brought us back to the wanderlust that we were wondering if we still had. It’s a lot, you know? Moving hotel/hostels every few days, unpacking to repack to do the same again. The things that continue to ground me are movement, connection with people, and these luxurious buses.

We fly to Greece next week! We plan to rent a car and drive around the mainland for a few weeks, and then explore the islands as well. We will also be pretty focused on training for our hike. We are officially permitted for a 10 day backpacking trek called the Peaks of the Balkans. It’s “hut to hut” so we will be staying at lodges along the trek through three countries: Albania, Montenegro, and Kosovo. This will be the exclamation point on our trip as we will fly back to the US after we finish! More on this later….! I have to go finish listening to Noah Kahan’s new album! Thanks for reading.