Ito ang Ghost-to ko! 👻

(Hindi pa naman too late for the “anong-MULTO-mo?” trend, right?)

Okay, my travel booking saga started with a room that had three king-sized beds. Three. For me, alone. It wasn’t a flex; it was a colossal, echoing nuisance – a spiritual burden I couldn’t quite explain. I literally couldn’t sleep peacefully knowing there were two empty, inviting voids beside me. And honestly, who could? You’d have to be a sociopath! 😅

That physical excess quickly turned into psychological dread. I was terrified to walk to the toilet at night, half-expecting a shadow or worse, a ghost, maybe a fallen soldier from the Saigon War, or some other remnant of history’s pain, claiming the spare beds as temporary sanctuaries. Those unused mattresses felt like unmarked monuments to unspoken grief. ✝️

But the fear soon deepened into something more profound. What if it wasn’t just a lost spirit of war, but a soul undone by something closer, more personal? A woman murdered by passion, a rape victim denied justice in life, or a man denied critical medical assistance whose final hours were spent in despair. Each vacant bed seemed ready to cradle a tragedy, silent, waiting, unresolved.

I tried to dismiss those thoughts, but they left me with an unsettling realization: pain travels freely. It crosses borders, skin, and language without needing a visa. It’s instantly understood. But justice? Justice gets held at customs, detained by language, power, and privilege. And the hardest part is knowing I cannot help them find it. I don’t speak Vietnamese. 🥹

And maybe the most devastating part isn’t when we speak different tongues. It’s when we look into someone’s eyes and realize we define compassion differently. That’s the real barrier: when our human dictionaries don’t align, and a soul’s plea gets lost in translation, leaving you standing there with the weight of it all.

Long story short, I was finally transferred to a cozy single room. And honestly? It’s perfect. I feel lighter, safer, free from existential dread and midnight hauntings. 🤣

Wisdom of the day: True luxury is psychological. It’s the peace that comes from having exactly what you need, and nothing more to fear.

Love,
Ana 💋

-Hanoi, Oct 2025