Our hasty departure from Ha Long Bay meant that we made it to Hoi An just in time for their monthly Legendary Night. The Hoi An Legendary Night is a celebration timed with the full moon that  aims to transform Hoi An back in time. Electrical lights are turned off and colorful lanterns are used instead, motor vehicles are banned from the streets, and incense and other offerings are put out in front of all the stores. In addition, local people turn out to play games and participate in dance and musical performances. Older Vietnamese  men put on pajamas–I’m not entirely sure why–and play chess in the streets. Similar to what we experienced during the festival in Varanasi, people also light lanterns and float them in the river. It sounded like something not to miss.

We also enjoyed walking around Hoi An during the day, as the city has a lot of character and looks almost equally beautiful as it does at night.

The highlight of our trip to Hoi An was splurging on a fancy hotel for our 10 year anniversary! We found a resort right on the river and across the road from the beach. Our room itself was along the river, which was very peaceful and relaxing. There was also an infinity pool, which somehow neither Brian nor myself thought to take a picture of, but was exciting because I’ve never been in one of those before! The hotel was an elephant sized step up compared to where we have been staying on this trip, but was still amazingly only $86/night.

Being able to afford a fancy hotel in Vietnam at the same cost of a cheap motel in many parts of the U.S. highlights the ongoing conflict that has colored our experiences in this part of the world. Although we have really enjoyed and appreciated traveling in Southeast Asia because of the low cost of everything, it has been challenging for us to recognize what this low cost of living means for the people that live here. Most of the local people we meet will most likely never leave the country, and it will certainly be difficult for them to travel to a place like the United States. It’s hard not to feel extremely privileged and oftentimes guilty when we would pay someone for a service that was such a small amount to us, but a much more substantial sum for them. This also creates a strange power dynamic when you are traveling in someone else’s country: You should be put at a disadvantage not knowing the language, culture, customs and area, but you end up still feeling like you have the advantage because you are the one with more money. On the upside, the more we encountered this type of imbalance, the more it helped us be comfortable with paying a bit more. In India, as mentioned in our previous posts, we really agonized about being cheated into paying more for things even if the actual cost to us was very nominal. By the time we got to Vietnam 3 months later, we were still careful of scams and used caution in our financial transactions with people, but we felt ok if we ended up paying a bit more. We knew that it would help the people we were interacting with much more than it would harm us to lose those small amounts. We could feel a bit less guilty for having the resources to take 8 months off from work and travel the world when we focused on the fact that the money we were spending in these places was doing a small part to help their economies. It’s difficult for us to share these types of sentiments on the blog, because it feels incredibly indulgent. It’s similar to the most beautiful girl in school complaining about how hard it is to be pretty. But it feels important to discuss because it is something that has not only been an important part of our trip, but is also something that is an important part of our identities and who we are.  Though we recognize the privilege we have in the United States and have been motivated by this to pursue professions that address the inequity in our own country, we had not been confronted with the even greater disparity that occurs across countries. In addition, the fact that we are only passing through these places means that we haven’t had many outlets or opportunities for channeling our feelings towards this into something productive. Since we have exhausted the topic in conversation with each other, it is helpful to more formally express it on the blog. I’ll end this by saying that while it is hard to not feel like it is unfair that we get the opportunity to see the world when so many others will not be able to, it definitely makes us appreciate our position in the world and continues to motivate us to help make the world a better place.