Zach's guest blog

Blogging has proven to be tough for me because it's so hard to put all of my feelings and experiences into words. Often, I feel like it's boring and most things you really just need to experience to understand. So for everyone reading: go travel now! Anyways, I stole the below excerpt from Zach's journal and think it captures a moment he had perfectly. Enjoy this blog from Zach's perspective

This is going to be difficult to describe because I have never wrote about the experiences I have had while living in Southeast Asia. We have spent almost a week in Hoi An (our absolute favorite city in the world) and the beauty has become something far better then memory could ever describe. I have had countless experiences worth writing about, yet have never found the motivation to put them onto paper until tonight.
After the Chick and I spent an evening at My Canh- a place we have dubbed our favorite restaurant in the world- we made our way home via motorbike. The restaurant experience will easily be remembered as we watched a very intoxicated server ride a child's toy car with the owners son and daughter rapidly around the restaurant. I couldn't say whose giggles were louder between the three of them. The meal was incredible as always, and the atmosphere is everything we hope for being in a foreign country (we are always the only white people).

The waitress having a ball

Upon arriving to the room, Steph (as always) got right to the planning of our future endeavors (something which I will be eternally grateful to her for, as I get to be the guy who is just coming along for the ride). I excuse myself as she plans, to go have a drink outside. Our hotel shuts down at about 9 pm so I have spent multiple nights outside alone sharing a drink with the security guard. He is a gentle man of about 50 who doesn't speak a word of English. He has unsuccessfully tried giving me Vietnamese lessons before but I was lost in a fluster. Now we try to use hand motions but usually to no avail.
Tonight was different. I went out back to where the beautiful pool and breakfast table are located. After about 5 minutes of peaceful thought about our future workaway projects leading us through Nepal and Turkey, the security guard joined me for our nightly interaction. After sitting in silence for about 2 minutes, he went to check on a noise from the front of the hotel. When he returned he had his phone in hand (circa 2002) playing the relaxing, soothing music that is Vietnamese music. He set the phone down on the table between us and poured me some tea. We sat for about 15 minutes just listening to the peaceful music quietly playing from his phone. What makes this so memorable to me, and separates it from other experiences I have had while in Asia is that after sharing a beer and tea we at no point felt the need to speak. It was a silent understanding between the two of us that we were simply sitting there enjoying each other's company and listening to beautiful music in a perfect place. Language divide meant nothing. It is something I will never forget. It is in essence the "moments" I hope to encounter while traveling abroad.

the security guard