Dong Hoi

Tree Hugger Cafe
Tree Hugger Cafe

I’ve been in Dong Hoi for almost a week now, mostly reading and going out for food with my friend, Thao. I’ve decided to stay on another week so we can spend some more time together. Plus I found a well-reviewed hotel room for $15 a night and that’s just too cheap to pass up. (For what I paid for one night in a mediocre hotel in Seattle, I can stay a week here.)

Still struggling with what to do next. It’s the indecision that gets me. One of the books I’ve been reading lately is Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D. H. Lawrence by Geoff Dyer and he summed up my predicament nicely. In deciding where he should live he said,

I could live anywhere, all I had to do was choose — but it was impossible to choose. It’s easy to make choices when you have things hampering you — a job, kids’ schools — but when all you have to go on is your own desires, then life becomes difficult, not to say intolerable.

I’m still struggling with letting go. I admire people who stay in hostels with just their backpacks. I’ve been spoiled. I’m not staying at 5 star hotels but they’re not cheap either. In Da Nang, I moved to a hotel that was $22 a night, significant progress in my quest to strip away the luxuries I don’t really need but have become accustomed to.

I’m not sure how long I’ll stay in Vietnam but I feel it still has something to teach me. I need to stay here until I figure it what it is.