I’m typing down this email from a little cosy café in the city of Toowoomba, in the state of Queensland, Australia, where she lives with her boyfriend Rex. Kim’s studied across Germany and Australia and currently works at the local hospital. She’s just a year younger than me and was kind enough to offer to host me for a week or two. So it’s been really great to connect, both of us as young adults at the beginning of our professional lives, in Australia of all places.
Let me recap this: I’m French. And I’m meeting my German cousin, on the Vietnamese side of my family. In Australia. For the first time. After more than seven years chatting on the internet.
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(No, this is not a catfish story, far from it. But if someone adapts this story in some sort of movie, please credit me as a producer —or something?!)
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By the time I’m planning to send this email, I should be back in Sydney for 48h, before flying to… yes Vietnam. However this time around, I will be going to Saigon (otherwise known as Ho Chi Minh City — HCMC if you’re trendy or too lazy to write it entirely).
Over the last few years, I’ve been meaning to go to Saigon, and stay in the city for a few weeks. I wanted to see the development and the modern Vietnamese life with my own eyes. I’ve been to Vietnam twice before, but on both occasions, I was traveling with my family, and visiting as a tourist. This time, I want to give it the chance to experience life a little more like a local.