1. After allegedly exploring the Thai island darling of digital nomads on a souped-up motorbike, I land at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam. It’s my first time in the country and expectations are high.
In the taxi, I look out the window at the Vietnamese capital with the eyes of a child. Strobe lights and neon billboards on the horizon make Hanoi look more like “Blade Runner” (1982) than “Apocalypse Now” (1979) – directed by Wong Kar-wai and scored by Angelo Badalamenti.
I pay the race with bills full of zeros and, in the historic Old Quarter, the heart of Hanoi, I finally feel what the late chef, writer and presenter Anthony Bourdain felt when he first landed in the country he was passionate about: the smells. From motorcycle exhaust, from boiling bowls of phở and bún chả, from candles and incense. Love at first sniff.
2. Good morning, Vietnam. As ladies in straw hats sell vegetables and pig’s feet on the sidewalk, I try to cross an intersection. I get the feeling that traffic signs around here aren’t mandatory; are just suggestions.
I see motorcycles going against the road, motorcycles parked on the sidewalks, motorcycles circulating on the sidewalks, motorcycles circulating on the sidewalks in the opposite direction (!!!). Official figures say there are 5 million motorcycles and 8 million inhabitants, but the impression is that there are more. Or perhaps they are an extension of the Vietnamese themselves, who, when not sitting on their bikes – sometimes with two or more people balanced on their backs – are on plastic benches on the sidewalk with their soups boiling, sharing the space with their own bikes. and with others that circulate in the opposite direction.
Like Os Sombras, those who were successful at Domingão do Faustão in the mid-1990s, I joined a Vietnamese family and finally managed to reach my destination, Bún chả Hương Liên, a restaurant where Barack Obama and Anthony Bourdain shared a meal in 2016.
Sitting at table 10, I see how the place managed to enjoy its 15 minutes of fame. The walls are now decorated with photos of the meeting between the two and for 120,000 Vietnamese dongs (R$24 at the current price) you can order the “Obama Combo” –bún chả, a seafood spring roll and a can of Hanoi Beer, the local beer. I try unsuccessfully to order a vegetarian version. I remember when Bourdain said that his body was not a temple, but an amusement park, and I have it in the original bún chả. I spend the night in the bathroom.
3. There is a lot of discussion among my fellow digital nomads about the difference between tourism and travel. It is said that tourists, who are usually on vacation and buy travel packages with pre-established itineraries, travel in groups and that ignorantly –in the literal sense of the word–, they make unflattering comparisons between whatever they are selling with the equivalent of their cities. Travelers, however, reportedly venture more because they want to have the full experience of the place, chatting with locals, sampling street food, wandering aimlessly through cities without the obligation to snap photos at tourist spots.
After following in the footsteps of Bourdain through Hanoi, I arrive with the same eyes of a child in Da Nang, central Vietnam. Not giving a damn about the discussion between tourism and travel, I try to compare Da Nang with Florianópolis: beautiful beaches with the structure of a big city. Enough for me to fall in love.
In recent years, Da Nang has become a haven for digital nomads looking to escape crowded Southeast Asian destinations like Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Bali, Indonesia. A walk along the shore of Mỹ Khê Beach is enough to understand why. Air-conditioned cafes, varied leisure options and, not least of all, a much lower cost of living than in Floripa. Oh, and the smells. Sea air mixed with… pizza. I order a four-cheese from the hipster food truck that obviously sells craft beer. I think I sleep well today.
