Vietnam has a special place in my heart, because it’s where I met Mickey. It’s where I fell in love.
We were both on the same motorbike tour, slated to wind through the mountains of North Vietnam. We immediately hit it off. The first night of the tour, we stayed up late talking on the roof of our hotel, after everyone else had gone to bed. He kissed me, and I knew this could be something big.
I had a flight booked for India two days after the tour had ended, so we had to have a conversation about whether or not this was going to be anything beyond our time in Vietnam. Both of us struggled to articulate our true feelings and be vulnerable. I mean, who falls in love in 4 days? Plus, we’re both from different countries, and I was on a worldwide tour that I planned to take totally solo. I didn’t want a relationship, let alone a travel partner. And even if I did, what were the chances he’d want to link our journeys together? There would be so many challenges to overcome, kinks to work out. Entertaining the idea that what Mickey and I had over these last 4 days could be something real, and really big, scared me. Terrified me, actually.
So I said nothing, and he said nothing. In an awkward search for the right words, he mentioned something like “I’m really bad at keeping up with social media” (whatever that means), which only made me more angry about the whole situation.
I got in the taxi and headed to the airport. I felt simultaneously sad and frustrated that I allowed myself to fall in love like this. I was heartbroken, and then upset about the fact that I was, indeed, heartbroken.
When I turned on my phone when I landed, my phone buzzed with 6 new messages. It was Mickey. He apologized for how we had left things in Hanoi, and said although he had no idea where this was going, he just couldn’t NOT see if this was truly something more something bigger. He didn’t want to uproot any of my plans for the year, and he also had plans of his own. We agreed to keep the lines of communication open, and just let things naturally evolve, if they were going to. No pressure, no commitment — we’d just let things flow.
And things did flow. Quickly.
Up next: India 🇮🇳
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