Indulge me the format of this post. It felt easier to write it this way. Images are of our train journeys down the coast of Vietnam over 15 days. We took what is referred to as the 'Reunification Express' running from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City some 1726 KM or 1070 miles over 34 hours. Some boats and buses were mixed in for fun. The necessary patience needed for far flung travel is highlighted. Our stops will be featured in location posts soon. For now, I'm 'getting over' a 2 day, 19 hour combined train tour and a previous night spent in a sleeper car wondering why on the train.
Facing the wrong way,
On an inside seat.
10+ hours they say.
One way.
Vietnam is fascinating
with thai and french influences,
colorful places and people
and endless motorbikes.
Colored lanterns and busy streets
beside communist manifesto frescos
and endless rice fields.
But the trains
are strange.
Food carts carry unusual
items.
Cleanliness might be here but
it's buried in age and crowds.
Da Nang to Saigon
via Nah Trang
We're blessed-- we know.
To see this world
and to skip the 2023 snow.
A gift of time
requires great patience to
endure.
And yet we know.
Missing home is wasted energy in
such once in a lifetime venues.
You must be all in to breathe
and see and hear
and taste.
That seeing and tasting creating the miss.
For tea and coffee
bring our minds back to fireside chats
and snow glistening lawns
and family.
All the while I'm sitting
backwards.
Traveling against the grain
swaying in the wind outside my window.
I've shared this memory because
I can not think straight moving backwards
For 10+ hours
Pinned inside
Wishing to work
Wishing to be driving forward in another
Continent half a world away
And yet we stay
The world outside the window
Even backwards
Begs us on
to see that one more unexpected face
and place
Might sitting in this place
Moving against the wind
and with no way out but forward change
us
if we stay.
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