Corona, daily life, travel
Corona explodes during a trip.
I arrived in Vietnam just before the Corona exploded and was scheduled to travel for two months. Maybe a month or so? Corona began to spread to Korea. I looked back at my trip to Vietnam, which was unpleasant because my eyes on Koreans changed, and I was anxious because my flight to Korea disappeared, and all restaurants and cafes closed down and felt bitter.
Wasn’t travel free from everyday life? But on my trip to Vietnam, I deeply engraved how much I loved everyday things, and realized the “importance of everyday life.”
security guard at Harong Bay
When I arrived in Halong, a city to rest for a while before entering Halong Bay and the island of Zadba, all travel schedules were canceled due to Corona. ‘Harong tour suspension’, ‘Hotel cancellation’. All the tours were stopped, and were placed in an ironic and unique situation of traveling and staying only at the accommodation. They decided to rent a high-rise apartment that is not common in Vietnam. As I entered the apartment, the security guard checked my name on the list. Until then, Korea had the second largest number of confirmed people after China and its image of Korea was not good, so I was embarrassed that I was wary of being “Korean.” And on the other hand, I wanted to make sure there were no symptoms.
It turned out that checking the heat was a must for anyone entering and leaving the apartment. It is also true that it was cumbersome to check the heat every time I went out. In the morning and evening, I checked the temperature at the entrance of the apartment and greeted the security guard. Before I knew it, this job became my daily routine and I feel sorry if there were no guards at the beginning and end of the day. Now it feels like a partner, with each other’s eyes bowed, and the guard measures his body temperature, then short, smiling, greeting, and coolly parting. The series of coronavirus checks became so natural, and the guard who had me by his side for a while was right and glad.
My daily routine is repeated to me,
The destination is a place where I have to stay for a while and leave, so it’s hard to remember the deep scent or to make what I love very much. The friendly people passing by taught me about the beauty of the world. However, there are very few opportunities to travel and share warm affection with soon-to-be separated people. At this very point, I felt a sense of regret as I traveled. It’s not that I left behind a dazzling landscape, but people I can’t often encounter make me feel sorry for.
There is a saying that a mere scratch of the collar is meant to be. But what really passes by a collar weighs ‘passing through’. Traveling is likely to be ‘passing through’ because ‘repeating’ does not allow a gap. Relationships are made only when the moments of the two pass by accumulate. The moment is just a piece of puzzle, and it is the way to make a solid relationship to make a little of it.
It is my daily life that contains my time more than traveling, and there are the connections that my time has created and the things that I love deeply. The scenery of Halong Bay is beautiful, but my growth period is not as good as five or six degrees, and one glance is enough for the cute puppies here, but my poodle “Joy” is not enough to see dozens of times a day. I could think of the treasures of everyday life because I entered the daily lives of one Vietnamese guard for a while. It was a unique experience to travel and have a “repeated” meeting with a kind person. The journey cannot be repeated, so I thought I should go back to my daily routine.
Daily life is a continual repetition of trivial things and may be troublesome and obvious. Nevertheless, when absent, it makes you feel empty and if you continue, it makes you love. Life is made up of trivial things, such as greetings shared with repeated people.