Preface
I've been living as a digital nomad since 2017. I lived in more than ten countries before I arrive in Vietnam on 25.01.2020. On 28.01.2020 Vietnam decreed the closure of the border with China after the news regarding the appearance of a strange virus in the Wuhan market.
On 1 February all flights from China, Macao, Taiwan were suspended. Subsequently, the flights and the border with China were opened, but the situation kept changing. The restrictions on the entry in Vietnam were changing accordingly to the number of cases growing in different countries. Thus, Koreans and Europeans were also banned from entering the country at the beginning of March.
On March 22nd, all foreigners were forbidden to enter the country. In 28.03 activities such as gyms, cinemas, tourist sites, massage parlors, karaoke, and others were closed.
On 01.04 Vietnam decreed the total lockdown implementing the social distancing measures. Since then, people can only leave home to buy food and medicine.
The restrictions imposed by the country totally changed my reality, my plans and my life as a digital nomad. I decided to write this diary to report these days and somehow continue to travel within an apartment of less than 60 square meters.
16.04_Hanoi in pieces
I wake up in a hotel room with no windows. I confess that this peculiarity of Vietnamese architecture no longer surprises me. The first apartment I rented in Da Nang also didn’t have windows that let you see the horizon, they only show you a gap where there was not much natural light. Why have windows if they don't let you see beyond? I never understood the Vietnamese architecture.
I'm hungry and being locked in that room doesn't seems to be a good idea. I take a bath, get dressed and do all the preparation to go out: mask, alcohol gel, wallet. I also take my camera. I want to register Hanoi, or at least that piece of Hanoi they let me see. I hate the idea of being in a place for the first time and not being able to explore it. That was one of the greatest sensations when I arrived somewhere... Walking around the town! We will stay in Hanoi one more night only. Our repatriation plane will leave on 17.04, so I don't have much time to see this little piece of Hanoi.
Wandering around is not recommended. All taxi services are suspended in the city, so I won't be able to go to far from the hotel street. I am staying in a hotel very close to the airport and far away from downtown. It seems to be a rural and poor area.
In the hotel hall I order eggs and a Vietnamese coffee. This, no doubt, is the most universal breakfast I have ever had. Everywhere in the world it is easy to find eggs and coffee for breakfast.
After my meal, I walk to the supermarket which is about 15 minutes walking from the hotel.
The day is grey because of the pollution and the streets near the hotel are far from be a tourist place. Most people wear masks, but not the simplest people or those who seem to work in the field.
Walking down this street in Hanoi was extremely inspiring for me and at the same time crazy. The portrait of a real pandemic in Vietnam. I took many pictures and I called this essay that I share with you here as "Hanoi in pieces". For me these pictures say more than any word...
Being there, walking down those streets, made me think in a lot of things. I'm sad to have seen my life change overnight. Yes, I can live anywhere, but now I have no choice. To have the possibility to travel anywhere and not be able to go anywhere anymore... These are very crazy days, these are hard times to understand.
Walking with my camera, however, I was able to see a lot of poetry in the gaps, in the corners, in the people who appeared quickly passing through the streets. I remembered how good it is to have that traveler's look. This look of enchantment about simplicity, the obvious, the common everyday of somewhere. I thought that this look, which I learned in three years away from home, nobody can take away from me. My traveler's look. They can interrupt my ability to travel, but they can never take away my traveling look. At the end of the day it's what really matters...
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