I’m tired of traveling. It seems no matter where I go, whatever the distance, it essentially takes a day of travel before beginning to settle into a new place. In SE Asia, travel days can be far from perfect. Instead of starting over
![Sky, skyline, trees, bushes and motorists crossing a bridge, Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Feature-Phone-Post-1200-X-628.jpg)
It was the first night in humongous Ho Chi Minh. I was adrift when it hit me: The phone’s battery is losing its juice really fast. It was almost 10 p.m. I was equipped with a fresh SIM card, but no battery juice
![Pour over coffee, green tea chocolate cake and people inside Brown Coffee, Siem Reap, Cambodia](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Feature-Post-1200-X-628-About.jpg)
For better or worse, likely the latter, I’m addicted to coffee again. In Cambodia, I’ve been drinking precisely one smooth cup in a café every morning for the last two weeks. For many of us humans, caffeine is an elixir, while to some
![Bills of various currency: Vietnamese Dong, Thai Baht, Cambodian Rial, Lao Kip and US Dollars.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Feature-Money-Budget-1200-X-635-ish.jpg)
I often get the question: How do you travel for so long between jobs? When I begin to answer, I realize it’s not so cut and dried. There are at least 10 ideas that want to jump out of my mouth simultaneously. So
![Colorful mural shows how to say hello in 11 languages.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Hello-Feature-Image-Resized.jpg)
I’ve done it in Arabic, Lao, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese. I gained language functionality in these foreign tongues with minimal, yet consistent, easy effort. Functional isn’t conversational. Functionality is using practical words for ordinary situations. Here we’re reminded to learn hello
![A lit up boat at night, heads for land on the wide Han River, with buildings and city lights along the the body of water.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Boat-Hanh-River-Night-Feature-For-Post-Resized.jpg)
Once in a while I get the question: What’s your favorite country? My answer has typically been:, the exact place I was in, or the last new country I had drifted to. Sheer newness elevates optimism. Fresh surroundings breed content and enhanced excitement.
![Mural that shows different coffee brewing methods.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Mural-Coffee-Brewing-Forms-Resized-Blog.jpg)
While Vietnam’s coffee allure may have pushed me into consuming more caffeine than ever, it also nudged me to give it up, at least for the last 19 days. I have no immediate intention on stopping this cold-turkey endeavor. Still, the abstinance could
![Sand, people, artificial light and mountains under a cloudy dawn sky, My Khe Beach, Da Nang, Vietnam.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Beach-Dawn-Sky-Resized.jpg)
I awoke at 4:15 a.m. I don’t want to deal with electronics at that hour. It’s a deal I’ve made with myself. Although the habitual thought loomed, I observed it, and let it slip away. Psychological win! Mostly, the only thing mindful was
![Lots of luxurisouly thick sand, buildings, people, cloudy sky, sea and hills at the urban My An Beach in Danang, central Vietnam](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Urban-City-Beach-Resized-Feature.jpg)
Wide sidewalks, yet long blocks, make Danang a pleasant alternative to Hanoi’s cluttered streets and practically endless buzzing traffic. Hanoi’s Old Quarter thrives in organized chaos while Danang seems to prosper without this potentially-perceived pandemonium. Danang has a wide, luxuriously-long, soft-sandy beach. It
![A view of UNESCO Luang Prabang and the Nam Khan River from atop Phusi Hill in north central Laos.](https://earthdrifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sunrise-Nam-Khan-Feature-Resized.jpg)
Laos is a land to love. It’s an earth space that can have you feeling like you’ve stepped back in time, while simultaneously, the country is developing at a moderate pace. I don’t believe that Laos is well-known to most of the eight-billion-plus