Da Nang, Hoi An

Xin chào you snuffies!

The next morning our bus took us to Nha Trang. The route there was so winding that I felt a little sick for a moment. During a stopover we once again found two super cute puppies that we could have taken with us straight away. Three hours later we arrived in Nha Trang and looked for a café where we wanted to plan our further trip. There we struggled with a brief outburst of emotion until we realized we had lost our passports and panic set in. Chaos travel group in action again. As we found out relatively quickly, we had left them in the hostel in Da Lat. We actually didn't want to stay in Nha Trang, we wanted to move on directly by train, but this situation left us with no other choice. Once again we were really happy for the nice people from the Red House, because they sent us our passports by bus directly to our hotel on the same day. We passed the time in Nha Trang by walking around and drinking a few ciders on the beach. The next evening our bus left for Da Nang. When we arrived in Da Nang, we went straight to our hostel, where we tried to while away the next few hours because we couldn't check in until later. During our time in Da Nang we had a wonderful day at the beach where Julian tried surfing for the first time. When it comes to things like this, I always like to deal with the theory first before diving into practice, but Julian cut a very good figure on the board even without theory. In the evening he was definitely pretty flat. We also took a trip to Hoi An, which is totally worth it once you're there! Hoi An has a beautiful old town consisting of small yellow houses decorated with colorful lanterns everywhere. Personally, I'm always very interested in what's behind the facades of the beautiful, colorful shops, and so here too we found a few corners where piles of scrap were piled up and a few barracks that only had a corrugated iron roof in which entire families live. But not nearly as many as in Cambodia. It sometimes feels very funny to walk through cities and streets here and know that my sister has also walked there. As if I were following their footprints in the world. A nice feeling.

The last two days I've been struggling with a bit of homesickness. The thought of how much can happen and change at home in a year or more is strange and makes you wish you could get back home quickly. Fortunately, thanks to social media like WhatsApp or Signal, you are no longer so cut off from your world at home these days, which makes it a little easier. The video calls with my mom do me a lot of good, and the regular contact with my sister does even more. We are in contact with Julian's family more often, but I still really miss my relaxed Wednesday lunches with Grandma Giesela at the table playing UNO. Despite occasional homesickness, we are of course looking forward to the wonderful places we will see on our trip. Next stop…Dong Hoi. Until then…

Tạm biệt.