Not your typical inaugural post

Such a historic moment. My first blog post. It makes sense, given that I have been approached by so many friends on travel tips and advice. From now on, just read my blog (lah).

I talked about starting a blog for quite some times. But somehow, it took me t i m e ……  This post was first drafted in Nov 2013, and I have finally made it public after endless revisions in April 2015. Go figure.

Inspiration came about during my trip back to my ‘hometown’, my beloved Vietnam. It’s estimated that of the 6 million population in Hanoi, there are over 5 million scooters on the roads.

We were people watching, or rather, traffic watching, on the front steps of the Hanoi Opera House (Vietnamese: Nhà hát lớn Hà Nội, French: Opéra de Hanoï). Traffic was chaotic at the roundabout fronting the building, which is considered to be one of the architectural landmarks of Hanoi.

Lo and behold, a busload of ‘camera clicking’ tourists arrived. They were probably there for 5 minutes, taken all the obligatory photos posing in front of the Opera House.

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination.” ~Roy M. Goodman. 

Not about taking that obligatory photo, and not about ticking off a list of famous landmarks.