Wandering Vietnam

Hi, guys. My name is Donnie Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life. So I'm recording live right now from Hoi An, Vietnam, where I'm just sitting at a cafe, the Hoi An Roastery. So if there's a little bit of background noise on this recording, I apologize for that. But I wanted to take a moment because I haven't posted this. Well, I haven't posted this week. I did a pre recording. But I just want to share an update on my trip, some of the lessons I've learned while traveling, as well as those lessons that I'm going to bring forward with me. So the trip started in Hanoi, which at first glance was a very, very chaotic city. But somehow, within all of that chaos of the scooters going back and forth, people hustling left, right, cutting through, it was just kind of like this. The traffic was this woven fabric that just worked and fit together. And it was in all of that chaos, all of that, that madness, that I actually was actually able to find some peace as well. Because sitting at a cafe, you see this world going by so fast, and it's so natural because when you see these. The Vietnamese people moving back and forth and just living everyday life, there is no stress. You hear the Hans, the horns honking on all the scooters, but it's. It's just that there's no. There's no frustration. It's more of like a cultural thing to say, hey, you know, I'm letting you know that I'm here. This way you can move out of the way. The coffee has been pretty phenomenal. The Vietnamese coffee is in the north, I find is actually getting. It's changing as I go south. So I started Hanoi. I'm going Hoi an, and then I go to Ho Chi Minh after this way, maybe with a short stop at a beach. And the coffee in Hanoi was stronger, had this very viscous, dark richness to it that reminded me much of a Neapolitan espresso. And it's probably no surprise because a lot of the espressos in Italy use robusta. And I wouldn't be surprised if they use Vietnamese robusta because they are the largest producer of robusta. And I know Indian robusta is also very good as well. So lessons I've learned. It's always when I start traveling that I start to, like, at first, there's this comfort level that I get into where I need to see other people, I need to be around other people, and in the beginnings of those travels, move around with those people that are familiar to me. Thank you very much. And as the trip progresses, slowly, I start to release that and realize that, you know, it's all gonna be okay. I can go out on my own. I could do my own thing, and I could meet people and then say goodbye without feeling that need to kind of hold on and connect. Even with people that I might have had just a brief. A brief moment with, Sometimes that's all there is. Sometimes you meet someone and they're meant to be in your life for five minutes, you know, to have a cup of coffee, and then you move on. And some people are meant to be in your life a lot longer. So it's always one of those lessons that I learn, lessons that are reoccurring in my travels, kind of give me that reminder. And that's what I just experienced today in Hoi An. Another lesson that I learned, and there's actually been several, was I was at the checkout, and I've been kind of. My mind has been very internally processing so many different things now. It's starting to slow down. But while I was in my hostel getting ready to check out, there was this. They give you this little flute in the shape of an animal. There was a rooster on this giant plate of mixed animals that had, like, a tiger, a turtle, a goat. Tiger, they said tiger, a cat. And I'd wanted the rooster because in this particular hostel, every night you'd go to sleep, a rooster would. A rooster would crow, and then when you would wake up at four in the morning, you would wake up to a rooster, and it would stop and kept going. It was very, very kind of, like, erratic in the sense that there was no sunrise. ROOSTER CROWS it crowed at all hours of the day, so sleeping could be a little bit difficult, say, nonetheless. And so I wanted this little rooster. I saw this rooster on the plate, and I was like, oh, wow, you know what? At first, there was only three animals. There was a rooster, there was a snake, and then there was a tiger. And I said, wow, you know what? That's a sign. This rooster. For me, it was a signal for me, or the symbol for waking up and coming to that realization. And also, it was a reminder of the experience I had while staying at this hostel in Hoi An. The rooster would wake up. And it was kind of like a joke too, because I was reading reviews about this hostel, and it said, be careful if you get the first room, because there's literally a rooster right outside the window, and it'll wake you up. At 4 o' clock in the morning, I arrived at this hostel. And the room I got was exactly that room when I was speaking to one of the Dutch guys I was rooming with, he's like, oh, yeah, you know, you'll hear this rooster. It starts growing early in the morning. And I started. I started laughing because I was like. I remember reading the review on this particular hostel and this room, and I just laugh as you know what? It's part of the experience. And so when I was leaving, I wanted to get this rooster whistle, but I instead chose to go with a turtle. I'm licking, if you hear me. I actually spilled coffee on my notebook, and I'm just taking the foam and licking it off with my fingers. And so I chose to go with this turtle. And then looking back, like, you know what? I. I really did want the roost, the rooster. But I put it back, and then a girl came, and she's like, oh, wow, I'll take this one. And she grabs the rooster, the one that I initially wanted. And it was a lesson for me to be decisive because so many, like, you know what you're. You know what you want, and yet sometimes you don't. You're indecisive and you don't go for it. You don't grab what you. What you really, really want to get. And it's kind of been a theme in my life in the sense that, like, different business goals, different aspirations that I have, both in travel and the professional that you just. I hadn't gone for because I put it off or I second guessed myself. So that was the lesson for me there. And the lesson from the rooster, I will kind of backtrack. I met this guy, Tony Zizek. He was from Croatia now living in Germany. And Tony was talking to me about this hardship he had while living in. I think he's in Bosnia now. So I don't know if it was originally Croatian territory, now it's in Bosnia. But he was telling me about the hardships he had growing up. And he was telling me how one day he was questioning his existence. He said, well, what if I didn't exist? And as he thought about that, everything started to shift for him. And it put him into a very deep meditative state. And when I met Tony, one of the things he. You could see that he has this very warm spirit. This is his first time traveling outside. He lives in Germany from Croatia, but this was his first time traveling outside the continent of Europe and probably outside of, like, those two countries where he Spent his entire life. And he was saying that in the world, in Europe specifically, is that like, there. There's this unity that people feel. They. They feel like they're connected to their neighbor, the people in different countries. I mean, I don't know. There's a lot. It seems to be a lot of turmoil, but I think to the greater extent, that is somewhat true. And he commented on how American. He said, well, we're great. Why I'm grateful for America, because the innovation and the. This innovative culture behind America and all the stuff that comes out. He said that it also feels like Americans kind of like separate themselves from the world. I thought about that in my own life, and it made me think. Question how I was. The things that were going on in my mind. Like I said, whenever I travel, usually I'm in my mind for a good part of it, and then slowly all that starts to dissipate. And I was thinking about my actions and my thoughts and how they were shaping the trip thus far. And it was true. I mean, I was. I mean, I'm sure everyone is. This is me internalizing it. I was very much internally focused in many ways playing a victim. If I saw people hanging out and I felt alone, which is stupid because if anything, I've actually bring people together. When I'm at the hostels, I literally gather groups of people together and create like these and introduce everybody, remember names. But at the same time, my mind goes to this. This place of loneliness sometimes, and it made me aware of these thoughts that I was having. So I was like, oh, wow, you know, this is the experience I'm having. And then when I went to sleep that night, the dream was how I was creating my own reality. I mean, this is all stuff that I know, but when your mind is really busy, sometimes you can't think clearly. That has been the case. But today I feel I'm extremely tired. I'm drinking two coffees right now, but. But my mind, I feel much slower now. I feel much more present. And I think part of the reason is I'm doing this podcast. So doing the podcast actually will help me internalize and kind of reflect on the experiences I've had and also do a little bit of writing in the journal, which also makes me go inward to reflect. And I find that that brings me a lot of peace. And it also helps me feel like I'm contributing, that I'm giving something to someone else this way. Because I know when you listen to stuff, when you hear others speak, you kind of internalize it's. Almost like telling a story. We learn best when we don't know what we're learning. So by listening to this, you might reflect upon in your own life and come up with these different epiphanies, these different conclusions and how they relate to you. So I am again in Hoi An. I'm sorry if I'm going off on a tangent and there's no really format to this because I'm sitting in the cafe. Normally I would kind of like plot out and write down the main points I want to hit, but I did not do that today. I'm just kind of free flowing. I am going to be going to Ho Chi Minh, to one of the museums about the Vietnamese. We call it the Vietnamese War, they call it the American War, which I thought was really, really, really ironic. And I don't know a whole lot or I don't remember a whole lot I should say about the Vietnamese War, but when I was in Hanoi, they had all these like, they had all these like, planes that were shot down by Vietnamese forces and how like, you know, one plane shot down 12American planes. And they also showed you pictures of all like the, the devastation that was a result of, of the Americans going to war with Vietnam. And I, I know it's going to be even exacerbated even more when I go down to Ho Chi Minh because there's. I was told that there's a museum there, that everyone who goes in there is literally just moved to tears. It's going to be a side that I know that we don't. And I noticed that being here, I'm seeing a view from their eyes, right? Just like when we're in the United States, we're seeing it from, from the perspective of those living in the United States. Is there a right one? Not really. I don't think so. Because, I mean, that's the experience of life, right? I mean, it seems to me like the Vietnamese people have been extremely open, extremely inviting, extremely friendly. More so than I ever thought possible, especially considering the history we have with them. I know one of my friends who's from Vietnam, when I booked the trip, she was like, oh my God, you're gonna be traveling alone. Kind of scaring me into thinking that it was unsafe. But I haven't felt unsafe these entire time I've been here. And you'll probably hear me reflect on some of this again when I get back into the studio and I start doing my recordings in my regular schedule time. But I was, you know, going down the street and the people. The people here are fairly, I would say fairly poor. Although the living standards are kind of consistent, I would say, across a lot of Vietnam in terms of what I've seen. But the people are happy as well. People are very giving. I think part of it is probably because of what they've experienced. When I was in Japan, I was in Hiroshima. I was really, really surprised that the. You see the peace to have such a, you know, the dropping of the nuclear bomb. These people lived peace because having seen what they've seen, experienced what they've been through in the Second World War, they didn't want any fighting, they didn't want any confrontation. Their whole motivation, the whole purpose for living was, was peace. And I see. I kind of relate that going back to Vietnam, the war. I mean, I'm gonna see pictures. They talk about the Agent Orange and the effects that's had on the Vietnamese people even till now, and how, having experienced all that, because they've been oppressed by the Americans, they've been oppressed by the French, Chinese, they've had so much hardship in their history, and I think it's a result of having that hardship that they've kind of blossomed into the people they are, I mean, extremely, extremely giving, extremely kind, extremely friendly to foreigners, especially those who you would think that they would have some kind of bias towards, like, an American. And quick story. I was walking on the street, it was raining, and a woman came by asking if we wanted to buy ponchos. And I was with two guys from Australia. Like, no, no, no. No money, no money, no money. And she goes, no, here, it's for free. Normally when you go to any other country and you say. They say it's for free. Beans are getting handed to you. You're gonna put it on and then they're gonna charge you. But here, she gave it. He goes, no, no, here, free. For free. She gives us that and then gives a smile, and then just kind of walks off in her own direction, like in. On her own way. And we're like, oh, my God. Wow, that was extremely nice of her. And she was like the spa owner. We're like, oh, well, you know, we'll come by for a massage. And I didn't go to that particular massage, but I also didn't say I was going to go there. The Australian guy said they were going to go there. I don't know if they did or not, but it was just this random act of kindness that kind of surprised us to say, wow, people are extremely nice here. And Yeah. I have nothing but a very, very deep, deep respect for the Vietnamese people. And this experience so far has been amazing. I was not expecting to like Vietnam as much as I have. I've been eating street food everywhere and it's been extremely safe. Maybe some little unsettling of the stomach at times, but for the most part, the food has been amazing. And yeah, there's no, no fear in eating stuff on the street, but experience has been so far, so good. And that's pretty much it. I think I'm gonna end this, this episode here, gonna sip the rest of my coffee, which is now cold, and I will connect with you maybe again before I leave and come back to United States. But if not, then likely that Monday. I will talk to you then. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in and I look forward to seeing you, talking to you, hearing from you. If you like anything I've said on this or any my other podcast, please leave a comment and come back to you live soon. Take care.