Two bowls of beef noodle soup later

Vacation constipation?

Dear friends, 

A girl standing in front of me in the check-in queue insisted on knowing where I would head to in Taiwan. 

“What’s the paper you’re holding?” she asked, staring at the e-visa printout I slipped into my passport. 

“It’s my e-visa,” I said. 

“Travelling then, huh?” she responded, “I thought you were an exported laborer.”

Taiwan is one of the most popular destinations for Vietnamese overseas workers and migrant brides. The aircraft on that day was full of Vietnamese passengers. They switched between Mandarin and Vietnamese at ease, showing their children at home the carrier’s interior via video calls then asking Taiwanese attendants for extra blankets.  

That was the fifth time I had ever spent pocket money to travel in my entire life – the four previous trips were all domestic. 

“Travelling then, huh?” – I remembered myself nodding. 

My family has never travelled together, in other words, not mentally afforded to. 

There is always something more important than travelling for leisure – a cousin enrolling in college, a relative being hospitalized, a door that needs fixing. 

Fortunately, parents have jobs that offer them business trips to broaden their horizons, which they can extend a day or two sightseeing.

Souvenirs from those trips are rather practical. There was a picture of a one-year-old me wearing a purple knit jumpsuit sitting next to an electric rice cooker that dad bought on his art residency program to the Central Highland in the mid-90s. 

In Vietnamese, we have two common words for “travelling” – du lịch for the indulgent full package of nice hotels, good food, taxis and shopping compared with tham quan for trips organized and partially sponsored by employers which consist of sightseeing, home packed meals and shabby motels. 

For such a long time, tagging along parents and auntie on their tham quan trips was my only form of escapism out of the small town.

The nod toward “travelling then, huh?” was full of pride although it seemed so silly to admit that. 

As a strange group of anxious people in our early 30s and a grumpy teenager, we biked, walked, and hiked through numerous corners of Taipei. 

We ate a lot, made comments on the city’s urban structure and exposed our bare faces to the late Spring sun. 

Sometimes, while riding a bike under local shophouses’ porches, I was reminded of what I really wanted out of this life: safe bike lanes and accessible trails under a blue sky.

It was indeed a sense of liberty, of knowing in the world of various uncertainties. 

My passport was laundered along with a load of post-trip clothes.

Till next time, 

T.

It took me a couple of minutes to remember why I took this photo – a manga rental shop aka my childhood dreamland. 

This week top’s picks

The song I Shazamed as being played on a Uber trip back from Addiction Aquatic Development: 

The first movie I ever watched on an airplane:

The comma queen

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/03/31/the-elements-of-style-2025