It was the beginning of my
long-awaited tour of Vietnam and Cambodia. My total elapsed travel time to
Vietnam was some 20 hours.
My first and only stop en route to
Vietnam was Taipei's Chiang Kai Shek International Airport. I had forgotten
that I had been there years earlier until I stepped out of the airplane ramp,
set foot in the terminal and took my first breath. Upon inhaling, I was hit
with the smell of camphor - the smell you get when you first open a cedar
chest. That smell brought it all back to me. Memory by scent.
The flight to Taipei was approximately
14 hours long and would be followed by a two hour-plus layover in Taipei and
3-hour flight from Taipei to Hanoi. On the flight from Taipei to Hanoi, I was
seated in an economy class aisle seat at the bulk head. When the airplane
doors closed in preparation for take-off, the adjacent aisle seat was empty.
After we were in the air for 10 minutes or so, a young American gentleman
(probably in his mid-30 s) came up the aisle from the back of the economy
class section to claim that seat. ("Seat roamers" are what I know to
be professional travelers. Travelers with the experience to know that any
vacant seat is fair game once the entry/exit doors close, who have the courage
to claim a vacant seat better than their assigned seat.) We did not speak a
word during the flight. It was not until we were debarking the airplane and
claiming our bags, that we spoke a few words. When we debarked the airplane
and took our first steps into Hanoi's Noibai International Airport, he looked
over at me and prophetically commented, "Isn't it strange how every city
has it's own smell." Having had that same revelation a few hours earlier,
I agreed and told him about my experience in Taipei. He told me he used to
live in Bangkok, but that Hanoi was his favorite Asian city. He said Hanoi was
beautiful in December – a high volume tourist month – and that he likes to
go for a run through the city at midnight. However, he recommended against my
going out alone at night. Alas, when it comes to foreign travel, a single man
has the inherent security to do some things a single woman should not.
I do not know anything about this gentleman.
However, I will remember his comment about cities having their own smell. That
is one of the intangible "gifts" of travel: The stray remark of a
stranger that resonates in your soul and will be forever in your memory.