Around the world in 108 Days

I didn’t plan it this way. When I flew from LA to Vienna for the final semester of my Master’s program my Pakistani research visa application was mired in red tape. Media coaching in Hanoi wasn’t even on my radar screen. Some free time was coming up after I finished my thesis. So, I planed a trip through Croatia, Hungary and Poland; personally some of my favorite places. Then both trips to Asia came through. I’d be flying back to LA for summer from Hanoi.  

 Just before leaving for Vietnam, I had a quick turn-around. I needed to leave Wroclaw, catch a bus to Vienna, wrap things up at the university, check out of my apartment and catch a plane to Hanoi via Moscow all in the space of two days. Travel often amounts to a lot of ‘hurry-up-and-wait’. So, while transiting through Slovakia I got board. I started thinking about culture and the importance of keeping an open mind in order to appreciate new international experience.

These thoughts were still fresh in my mind as I boarded my Aeroflot flight to Moscow

. Once the passengers were seated, the flight attendants announced that imbibing booze not offered on the flight was forbidden. Not that I was planning to, but I found the regulation a bit puzzling as this policy seems to be unique (See my post about Pakistan from May 2014 for a comparison).    

Unfortunately, I was only in Moscow’s airport. I haven’t been to Russia in years and would have liked to see it anew. Still, I did notice some signs of difference. Before embarking on my connecting flight to Hanoi, I noticed that more than one group of Russian-speaking people were passing around a bottle of vodka. Indeed, some of the Caucasian-looking people who boarded my flight appeared to be a few sheets to the wind. Well, I guess I understand the in-flight drinking rules now. I’m also not judging.

As part of my trip to Hanoi I was to assist in a TV news presentation training program for the government run television monopoly. Mainly I was to accompany news presenters as they went about making a Western-style news package for the course and advise them as to appropriate practices. As it turned out, I just missed the outing of the first group as I cleared customs and collected my bags. This meant that I had some time off. I filled it by taking in sights such as Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and Hoa Lo prison, referred to alternatively as the Hanoi Hilton by Americans and the School of Communism by Vietnamese.  I found the exhibits quite interesting. Although not in keeping with my personal political beliefs, they proved to be striking examples of how Vietnam is crafting its national narrative, a process that most-all nation-states undertake in one way or another. I also enjoyed learning about the country’s Buddhist and Confucian traditions and picked up a couple of socialist-realist posters simply because I liked the art.

During my stay, I found that the locals love to introduce Westerners to some of the more exotic aspects of the Vietnamese kitchen, if sometimes for no other reason than to enjoy their reaction. After a visit to a country-side temple, one group of journalists took us to enjoy a sumptuous lunch that included sparrow heads and blood soup. I refused balk, eating both without pause. I found both of those dishes not quite to my taste.  However, I apparently am one of the few Westerners who finds dog with shrimp sauce appealing.  There is always something to appreciate in other viewpoints, traditions and even cuisines.

Back at the training, I was advancing a different viewpoint of my own. I was able to accompany two groups into the field. The first analyzed the methods that the training program and my suggestions were advancing. They included many aspects of them in their report regarding relocating residents from Hanoi’s old quarter. The second insisted on doing business as usual, while reporting on trash in the street when there was very little of it. The first group made the best report of the training. The opposite was true of the second. While some of the technical changes included in the training can’t yet be used on VTV, there is still benefit to considering and testing new methods.

At the end of the training, the training group gave us silk robes to thank us for bringing our foreign perspectives to Vietnam. I felt honored to have gained so much from them as I boarded my flight to Bangkok and then another which took me over the pacific to LA. I’d flown completely around the world in 108 days. At the start of my journey I had no idea that so much would happen or that I would experience so much just on this leg of it. Though I may have been able to do the flying, none of the appreciation or enjoyment would have been possible without keeping an open mind. It is through this mental facet that travel has the power to improve life.

Upon arrival at LAX, the immigration officer seemed puzzled as to why I travel so extensively. In practice, I find many different reasons. Yet, I like to think of her question in another, more existential, sense. Why do certain people enjoy traveling extensively, while others remain confined? Hopefully, this post provides some answer.