Backpacking Vietnam is unlike any other experience I’ve had before.
First, let’s define backpacking properly. It’s not just living out of a 40L backpack with minimal clothing and maximal back pain. It’s not just travelling for an extended period of time.
Backpacking is captured by staying in hostel dorm rooms. Forming intense bonds with fellow travellers then saying goodbye 48 hours after meeting them. Changing plans at the last minute. Booking your next accomodation just hours before you decide to go. Doing little research and relying exclusively on word of mouth. Taking sleeper busses for 10+ hours. Travelling with people you meet along the way. Enjoying a place and deciding at the last minute to extend your stay there.
The outcomes of this style of travel are truly magical. For example, on many occasions I’ve met travellers at one hostel just to unexpectedly see them 2 weeks later at another one. This happened 3 times with our friends Carl and Asger from Denmark. Each time we’ve seen them, it’s been like reuniting with old friends. It feels like we have a growing family spread out across the whole country.
Or our friend Kostas from Melbourne, Australia. What a lad this guy is. We met him a few days into our arrival in Vietnam and spent much of the following 2 weeks travelling together. He’s got a big heart and great energy. It’s been a pleasure to travel with him.
When I say “we” I mean myself and my travel companion Levi. Levi is my friend from Queen’s engineering (pictured in left above). You could say we decided to quit work to travel together. Back in the day of our employed lives, we used to have biweekly catch-ups. We frequently discussed the inkling we felt about the importance of capitalizing on the freedom of youth. Through mutual encouragement, we landed here together.
One of the experiments I’ve been running is travelling without a SIM card. You may read that and think I’m crazy. Most people back home respond anxiously when I tell them this. (Especially my Dad, who I told that I would get one and through this post am revealing that I didn’t.) But it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made on this trip.
At first, I thought it was crazy too. How could I survive without a phone! How would I navigate, communicate to make plans, or deal with an emergency?
The reality is we think you need your phone a lot more than you actually do.
Let me add colour as to why this is not so crazy. Firstly, there are some tricks to make sure you have all the resources you need for travel. In advance of going to a place, I download a city’s Google Maps in offline mode, all essential travel docs like hotel and flight reservations, and music/podcasts. I also text people more thoughtfully in advance of making plans.
Secondly, there’s wi-fi everywhere and Vietnamese people will always share the password. Thirdly, there’s always people around you with service to lean on.
The outcome is presence in its purest forms. I’m more focused in conversations, more observant of my surroundings, more invested in activities. I have no incoming messages or social media to retreat to when an experience stops fully capturing my attention. When I do get wi-fi and go on my phone, I’m intentional about it - not mindlessly typing or scrolling.
In addition, not being able to search Google leads to heightened interaction with my environment. A story that illustrates this:
One morning I was searching for a coffee shop in Hanoi. I didn’t look one up in advance. After walking through hectic streets for 30 minutes, I still hadn’t found one I liked. Since I couldn’t retreat to an internet search, I asked a group of Vietnamese people sitting outside if they could point me in the right direction. Instead, they invited me to sit down with them and offered me delicious green tea for free. I sat and chatted with them for 20 minutes before moving on.
I can’t trust just my willpower to stay off my phone. So I tackle the problem at its root by totally removing it.
The reality is we don’t realize how addicted we are to our phones. That’s why our initial response to not having a SIM card is a sense of fear. But really we’re just trying to justify it to satisfy our subconscious addiction.
There’s definitely been some ups and downs in my Vietnam experience. But after 3 weeks, I feel more content than I’ve been in a long time. The key: patience. Something I’m working on. Only through the investment of time has my travel blossomed into magic. More on this in my next post.
I’m writing this in Hanoi. Staying here for New Years. Then making my way up to the North of Vietnam to end my month in this country. I think I’m going to go to Bali after? Will let you know as soon as I do :)
Thanks for joining me on the adventure 🏔
Journal entry of the week. A bit old but relevant:
In no way shape or form does this post, and related parties, endorse mountain climbing without a rope or a sim card 😃
OK , great move on the no SIM card. And I gotta admit, google maps would have been a help for me, especially in India, when I had to find my way back from the middle of nowhere often usually due to protests during the 1989 elections there.