A quick start on being a tourist
I laughed at people taking photos in Times Square just to change a hundred poses in front of The Bean
Dear friends,
A blast of hot wind slapped our faces as we pushed the gallery's door open.
In half an hour, we already forgot we were in Hanoi.
Our existence drifted into another space – a dark oasis compressing an intricate web of circles cut out of X-ray films drooping from 18 hangers arranged in a fishbone setting.
A friend put a camping stool next to mine. In silence, we observed the mechanic structure slowly moving, casting its shadow on a projector screen.
At first, I thought of my bloated stomach and compiled a mental list of what I had consumed in the past three days. Then, I wondered what my once-special ones would do on such a sunny afternoon – going to a stationary store nested within a small, confusingly named alley, waking up after a power nap or wiping sweat off their face waiting for a train that might never come.
“It must be nice having a place like this in Hanoi just to exhibit indie artists’ works,” the friend said.
I nodded my head in affirmation, just a second before being pulled into the thinking of all operation costs and taxes and regulations the space’s owners should have dealt with.
I can imagine it might involve difficult conversations. What can we expect? Self-censorship, censorship, compromise, money talks or forever un-exposed drafts.
A person recently shared with me his idea of initiating an F&B business – not really an investment, he said, but an experiment of building a third space for local communities, a practice on a personal finance plan and a thesis for a soon-to-be video essay series.
I wonder whether the pitching was cited from a one-page drafted business model you canvas.
Four years ago, a senior I respect asked who I was – “a perfectionist who makes things done or a realist who makes things perfect”. I start reflecting on the question lately, disappointed about my inability to go beyond realities that can be seen, in other words, too grounded, too disillusioned.
I am drowning under the unbearable oppressiveness of being. I have seen a lot, enough to be inspired, to see potential, to be dreamy and also enough to be scared, to be worried that one day I would start off on the wrong foot.
Two friends, after weeks traveling in Vietnam, praised the country’s beauty, affordability and friendliness. I should have been proud if not being reminded of a recent conversation with an expat who was waiting for her visa to a third country. She worked for local tech companies and had called Vietnam home for nearly a decade.
“It’s the honeymoon before you decide to settle down,” she told me in perfect Vietnamese, bullet-pointing unimaginable expenses and inconveniences to live in the country.
“Always the first to pay, always the last to benefit,” the expat continued, reflecting on the time she was charged extra fee for an interpreter in a private medical center despite encountering no problems in communicating.
She chose Vietnam for an opportunity to move away from a war-torn country while keeping speaking the mother tongue with the growing diasporic community.
“Now it’s time to go,” she said before we departed.
“But this Phê La milk tea is just too good. I should have more before I no longer can.”
Stepping out of the gallery’s door, in a brief moment, I felt like blending in my city – once again, but as a tourist.
Till next time,
T.
data03_2409_9^18 by Le Tuan Ry showcased at Hanoi’s Manzi
This week’s top picks
A newly released EP by tlinh and Low G. I have listened to Low G since his tracks were first published on Soundcloud. There was a fun collaboration back then with tlinh which I still play from time to time.
An album by Rap Monster that was released in May this year that I slowly get the hang of.
Nodame Cantabile