As our time in Vietnam drew to a close, the final days of our trip lacked the adrenaline and non-stop exploration of our first week. The grand city tours, the thrilling trains, and the crowded tourist spots were behind us. Instead, we spent almost the entirety of our final days inside the comfort of our accommodation. The pace of our journey significantly slowed down, shifting from an adventurous exploration into a quiet waiting period.
Because we weren't going out, our daily routine revolved heavily around the kitchen. We found ourselves cooking all three of our daily meals—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—right there in the accommodation. I have to admit, while cooking together was an exciting novelty during the first few days, doing it three times a day by the end of the week started to feel a bit tedious and boring. The excitement of culinary experimentation faded, and it simply became a basic survival routine to keep our stomachs full while we waited for our departure date.
The Ultimate Survival Test: Market Duty with Erland Spending so much time cooking naturally meant we needed a lot of ingredients, which brought back some of my most challenging memories of the trip. Throughout our stay in Hanoi, my friend Erland and I were assigned the piket belanja (grocery shopping duty) several times. Going to a traditional Vietnamese market was a completely different beast compared to buying snacks at a convenience store.
It was incredibly difficult. The local market vendors—mostly tough, no-nonsense Vietnamese aunties—did not speak a single word of English. Erland and I would walk into the wet market, surrounded by unfamiliar sights and smells, trying to figure out how to buy basic ingredients for the group. We quickly realized that speaking was useless. We were forced to rely entirely on technology and body language. We would furiously type into Google Translate, hold our phone screens up to the vendors' faces, and hope they understood. When the app failed, we resorted to exaggerated sign language—aggressively pointing at a piece of chicken or a pile of vegetables, holding up our fingers to indicate the quantity, and nodding enthusiastically. It was highly frustrating but also incredibly comical. Despite the massive language barrier, Erland and I always managed to bring the right food back to the accommodation, which felt like a massive victory every single time.
Running Errands: The Local Laundry Experience Besides cooking and shopping, we also used this downtime to take care of some highly necessary practical errands. After more than a week of sweating profusely under the intense Hanoi sun, my pile of dirty clothes had grown out of control. I decided it was time to try out a local laundry service located just a short walk from our accommodation.
I hauled my heavy bag of dirty clothes to the small laundry shop. When they weighed it, my laundry came out to exactly 3.5 kilograms. The total cost was 87,000 Vietnamese Dong. Paying that small fee was absolutely worth it. A few hours later, retrieving a neatly folded, fresh, and amazing-smelling stack of clothes felt like a luxury. Having clean clothes ready to go gave me a massive sense of relief as we prepared for the next grueling leg of our journey.
Packing Up and Looking Ahead to Laos The reality that our Vietnam chapter was officially ending truly hit me when we started packing. We spent hours pulling everything out of the closets, rolling our clothes tightly to save space, and reorganizing our backpacks. By the afternoon, the chaos of packing was completely finished. Everyone’s belongings were securely zipped up, our bags were neatly lined up against the wall, and we were fully prepared to move on. Our next destination was a completely new country: Laos.
The Circle K Survival Stash However, getting to Laos from Vietnam meant we had to endure an incredibly long, exhausting cross-border bus ride. Knowing that we would be trapped inside a moving vehicle for hours on end, I knew I had to be thoroughly prepared. Before returning to the accommodation for the final night, I made a strategic supply run to the nearby Circle K.
I walked down the aisles, carefully selecting my emergency rations for the bus. I bought several loaves of bread and a variety of other snacks. The last thing I wanted was to be starving in the middle of the night on a highway with nowhere to buy food. Having my snack stash secured in my bag gave me complete peace of mind.
As we spent our final night in the accommodation, sitting around our packed bags and eating our last homemade dinner in Hanoi, a quiet sense of anticipation filled the room. We were bored of staying indoors, yes, but we were also mentally resting. Vietnam had given us unbelievable memories, challenged our independence, and taught us how to survive. Now, with clean clothes, full stomachs, and a bag full of bread, we were entirely ready to leave the bustling streets of Hanoi behind and see what adventures awaited us in Laos.