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Postcard from Southeast Asia

Postcard from Southeast Asia

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since I visited Southeast Asia. I spent a glorious three months reading on beaches, eating from makeshift motorcycle food carts, riding motorbikes around Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Flowers on the back of a motorbike, Saigon HCMC Vietnam

I was nervous about visiting Southeast Asia, about being somewhere that I couldn’t blend in as a local and where I couldn’t even understand the alphabet, let alone speak the language. (Side note: when I asked my mom–who learned Arabic as an FBI special agent–what words she remembered, she told me hello, thank you, maybe and shot-gun. Right.) But all of those fears dissolved as I realized the universality of a smile, the humbling act of making yourself understood. Those memories are a comfort as I head to the Middle East for the first time today, a reminder that the world is good  and interesting and worth exploring.

Sunset in Hoi An, Vietnam

Postcard from Hoi An

Cow and calf in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

A day on a motorbike in Phu Quoc

Floating village in the Central Highlands, Vietnam

Postcard from Central Highlands

Clouds over Dalat, Vietnam

Postcard from Dalat

Schoolgirl running in Bali, Indonesia

Postcard from the back of a motorbike

Flower offerings in Seminyak, Bali, Indonesia

First impressions of Bali

Motorcycles and bananas in Saigon, HCMC VIetnam

Saigon: an assault on the senses

Long Beach in Phu Quoc, Vietnam

Postcard from Phu Quoc

p.s. I’m going to Jordan! While my blog posts are pre-scheduled for the next week, I’ll be posting real-time updates on my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook using the #MyJordanJourney hashtag.