Friends and cities.
Cities stay.
Friends come and go.
Now I am in such a coming and going.
Paths intersect
My Belarusian friend and I met in Haiphong, Vietnam, back in May. We spent a few days there together, then our paths diverged.
He went to China, I went to Cat Ba Island. But we stayed in touch. It always ends with “goodbye”, but this really includes “maybe” and “never”.
I met my German friend on Cat Ba Island, with whom we then spent a few days there together. Then twenty in Ninh Binh. Then I went on my current tour of Lao Cai (Vietnam), Hekou (China) and Sa Pa. He was going to continue within Vietnam, but in the end he decided otherwise.
Meanwhile, it turned out that the Belarusian guy’s visa was expiring in China, so he came back to Vietnam, and we met here in Sa Pa. A few days ago he went to Hanoi. We had another “goodbye.”
I’m traveling on tonight. I’m going back to Ninh-Binh for two days. To the accommodation where I spent 20 days.
My bus leaves today at 11:00 PM and it’s an 8-hour journey. It’s also going to be a sleeper bus, but I’m expecting something different than the one I got to Hanoi on. They promised me a private cabin now.
My German friend is still in Ninh-Binh, apparently he’s not the type to rush. So we’ll meet again on Tuesday morning, but he’ll really be leaving then. There’ll be another “goodbye.”
I won’t be alone for long, because my Belarusian friend will arrive on Wednesday.
The only interesting thing is that since I’ve been in Vietnam, there’s almost always someone by my side.
Just today, my host here asked me if I had any friends here in Vietnam.
I do.
And it feels very friendly.
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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