Next stop: Vietnam

When I decided to sit down and write this post, the main thought in my mind was: “What am I even going to say?”.

The truth is I do not have anything substantial to say about Vietnam.

After looking at a blank page for almost an hour, I realised how little information about the country I received my whole life. This really bothers me, especially, considering I am (hopefully) getting a degree in international relations this summer.

As someone who grew up on the other extreme of the world, my (failed) educational system have not paid enough attention in Southeast Asia. I remember mentioning Vietnam (really briefly) 3 times in school. First, in the geography class while learning the capitals of the countries of the world (the Vietnamese one is Hanoi, by the way). Second and third, history; the war and (extremely vaguely) the political ideology. While thinking about these moments in school, I reassured myself of something: the Brazilian education system is extremely western centric and needs to be reformulated (but this is another topic).

In 2013, I wanted to visit my aunt in Australia, and I decided to search for beautiful places to visit around the area. That was my first contact with Vietnam outside the school. Vietnam and its amazing landscape made the list of places you should visit if you are looking for a holiday on a clear water beach. Instantly, I fell in love with the landscape, and I tried my best to convince my mum to fly from Brazil to Vietnam for Christmas.

When bringing the idea to her, I had to convince her that there was no war, no conflict in Vietnam (IT WAS 2013!!!). That's when I realised how ignorant we are in Brazil about other developing countries. It's almost like we ignored the existence of every non-Western country (we barely know anything about our own neighbours - but that's a topic for another post). Ultimately, we ended up not going Vietnam, and the desire to go always stayed in the back of my head. I promised myself I would go on a Southeast Asia trip after graduation. I know it is a big region, but I would choose some countries, it just had to include Vietnam.

The year after that I moved to London to start my degree in Politics and International Relations. You may think now I finally learned about Vietnam, but, unfortunately, it did not happen. (This has been adjusted already in the curriculum of the University and the year below mine has studied and visited the country). There are too many countries and institutions in the world, and it is impossible to learn about all of them individually. So, the closest I got to the Vietnamese culture in the last three years was in a couple of Vietnamese restaurants I have been in London and the two Filipino friends I made. (I do not mean to say that Philippines and Vietnam have the same culture, it was just the closest I got regarding geographic location).

Nevertheless, in 2016, one of my closest friends from Brazil visited Vietnam for a month. He sent me pictures every other day which made me even more curious about the country. The dream of visiting Vietnam was more vivid in my mind, but it seemed really far from happening.

A couple of months ago, I found out the University was organising a field trip. I applied for the opportunity, but the confirmation of the destination came after. Vietnam. We were going Vietnam. We ARE going Vietnam. It's finally real, and I am really excited.