En Route to Vietnam

Vietnam. It grabs you and doesn’t let go. Once you love it, you love it forever. - Anthony Bourdain

When I was in middle school, I used to stay up late on Sunday nights to watch Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Discovery Channel. I don’t remember exactly when I started, but it became a kind of weekly ritual, right up there with Friday night anime and Saturday morning cartoons.

I was captivated by Bourdain. He had a beautiful way of speaking, exploring cultures through food and using it as a lens to tell deeper stories. I admired how he got people to open up, sometimes even to the point of tears.

One of Bourdain’s favorite countries was Vietnam. He loved Vietnam. In the lead-up to this trip, I rewatched all of his episodes set there: A Cook’s Tour, No Reservations, Parts Unknown.

I’m writing this post in New York City’s, JFK, it’s 11:56pm, I board my flight to Seoul in an hour, it’s a 13 hour lay over, then I’ve got another flight from Seoul to Vietnam. I’ll be there by Friday evening.

Watching Bourdain as a kid planted the seed of wanderlust in me. I’d sit there watching his show thinking, “Someday, I’ll go to these places too.”