the wifi password is "xincamon"
the eat, read + cope feels on leaving Thailand (and my life) and arriving in Vietnam
Three mere days into my two intended months in Vietnam, I missed Thailand with a deep pang. The longing for what I had come to know, and find my place in.
On February 26, I arrived to the central coast city of Da Nang, Vietnam to an immediate (duh) contrast in people, places, food, language and time itself. Culture shock Time lapse.
My reaction of nostalgia was a touch unsettling. It was so unlike me.
I fully admit I can be a sucker for seasonal nostalgia. The short subarctic summer. Then, the snow melting. However, travel me? No, no. No.
Something else was underway. This current, emotionally activated version of jess was processing feels. Aka emotionally…raw…vulnerable…jaded…eager…open…animated…exhausted…and certainly perimenopausal.
See all of the above, darlings. And at 42 with all of those descriptives and a real life inside, I’m using “darlings”. With flair.
My two weeks of volunteering in Western Thailand had just warmed my heavy heart.
Literally + figuratively: the new friends, the pups, the sun, the heat, the messy head of untameable curls, the hard work, the bright choice of two 7-11s and those calm evenings on the balcony lounge at the sanctuary.
Consequently, I then needed 2 nights in Bangkok to recuperate from all it gave me - that, and the 9 hour bus ride back across the country.
Come end of February, I was suddenly in a new-to-me city in Vietnam. More firsts.
It seeped in that I was alone, again, after those intense two weeks of community immersion in Sangkhla. It all happened so quickly, with such open arms, that I barely had time to process it. That, was, good. More on that another day.
This was right after two plus months of getting comfortable in Chiang Mai and having my sister by my side for a while, in my sorta new home.
You know, on top of the deep, guttural draw for friendships & routine & something resembling my own space after leaving all I’d known for years. And years. So it went. So it scones.
And yet. A new part of my hiatus had begun. I was in Da Nang. I was on the other side of the planet from what I was moving on from.
I pushed on.
24 hours in, I was immersing myself in the draw of cà phê culture (coffee), eating banh mi chays, collecting even more tropical! local! and obvs! seasonal! fruit ! and riding my smoothest rental bicycle thus far.
Cooking in my little airbnb kitchen. Cherishing my space.
Existing feels of fondness were being channeled. New feels of change and potential were emerging.
One week in, I was back to aggressive, hydrated urban bicycling (with my helmet and bright night lights, rest assured, darlings), talking to my fellow humans again, visiting ‘chay’ eateries, and consistently in a bit of awe + almost jaw-dropping appreciation for my somewhat decreased budget.
Thinking, okay, I could do another month in this area. A new routine was forming. I was getting into it.
I acknowledged that I had been holding myself back. Oh, oh. Again, feels.
‘Cause, there’s so much to learn, so much fruit to peruse, so many paths to cross, and layers of your truly to unravel, ravel, repeat.
It’s taken me two decades of writing on the internet to get this open.
Four decades of life and the drastic (to me, then) space of SE Asia to feel so comfortable sharing this….my raw, ongoing story.
BTW, I intended this missive to be a “quick share” of my ten first impressions of Da Nang. I jotted them down A-S-A-P.
Then came the outpouring of an intro, and as is my biggest hobby besides biking and worshipping fruit stands as of late: reflecting on my past, present and future from a coffeeshop or other temporarily pleasant nook.
So, expect another missive quite sooner than later.
‘Cause, remember me? I've been living out of a suitcase and doing a lot of thinking in SE Asia since my life went rollercoaster. Rather, it went, one way ticket to Bangkok.
Thinking, and writing. Biking and thinking. More writing. It’s helped so much.
Behind the scenes, I’ve been developing an interview & storytelling series with a bunch of the small businesses in SE Asia that have made me smile these past few months. Made me feel at home.
The tofu seller. The tattoo artist. The hip hop coffee shop. The restaurants. Such special people and places.
With that, I appreciate y’all reading, and staying tuned for the coming weeks of ‘scraps & sconin’. In other words, subscriptions and revalant stuff are around the bend.
It’s simultaneously weird and scary and invigorating in this ongoing study of time, self-worth and reflection. <3
References + Relevant Links:
2024’s da nang coffee shop crawl, roast.love october 14, 2024
curry stain chronicles, these scone archives january 30, 2025
the khao soi that changed my life, ditto february 25, 2025
→ @scone.archives on Insta + @scone on sub’scrap “notes” for ongoing “storytelling” & updates from SE Asia
P.S. “Xin cảm ơn” is Vietnamese for a polite “thank you” and a wifi password I have seen at a growing number of businesses, hence the title. More feels, dah-ling. : )