Home away from home

This past November, I had the opportunity to escape the brewing British cold and packed my suitcase full of t-shirts and shorts to visit my parents’ home countries: Vietnam and China.

We landed in Hanoi at close to midnight, but wasted no time the following morning visiting the bustling streets of the countries’ capital. The roads were jam-packed with mopeds, the pavements with people, and it truly embraced the feeling that traffic lights were a suggestion – not a mandatory requirement. There was a food shop or stall every 10 steps we took, and in an (failed) attempt to protect both my wallet and my waistline, I resorted to doing most of my shopping with my eyes. With that being said, I enjoyed my fair share of Vietnamese staples such as pho (soup noodles) and banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich). I also took a particular liking to starting my mornings with an egg coffee, which despite its slightly off putting name, was actually a very strong coffee with a rich custard flavour.

We also visited my mum’s hometown of Haiphong which is located an hour away. With her last visit being around 15 years ago, she found herself in a place that felt like home, yet also an alien feeling city as it had changed so much over the 21st century. She reminisced about her childhood, telling stories of her upbringing and pointing out spots that she would frequent in her youth.

We visited China during our second week, but seeing as I have written the country in a previous blog post, I won’t bore you with the full details! It was a nice relaxing end to the holiday, where we got to enjoy spending time catching up with our relatives before receiving a (cold) reality check upon landing at Heathrow Terminal 4.