Note from 2020: This piece was originally written in 2012 during one of my last trips back to Singapore to close my chapter there before relocating back to Hanoi to work at McKinsey & Company as a Research Analyst for about 2,5 years. 

I have been indifferent until the taxi driver who picked me up at Changi Airport greeted me with: “Welcome home!”… I didn’t utter a word before that but perhaps after all these years, there is something… “Singaporean” in me, unspoken. The old uncle thought I was back after a holiday and kept commenting how lucky I was as Singapore had been too hot. And this is why it is funny. Exactly one month ago, on the plane to Hanoi on a gloomy rainy Sunday morning, I told the person sitting next to me: “Strangely enough, I don’t feel like going home… I feel like I’m going on a holiday, a very long one….” And I still feel so. Life has been too good, with everything being taken care of. My challenge now is actually to get rid of that “holiday mood”.

Back to reality, the taxi driver didn’t know the way and to save myself from paying extravagant fee, I showed him the way, directed him through the exact exit on the highway. Well, this place. I do know and own it in my own way.

Back to my old place, did some usual stuff, followed some routine and one thing was clear. I do not miss Singapore. This land, this route, this collection of habits has been integrated into me and I’d carry it everywhere. Yes, I do not miss Singapore. I’m pretty sure about it.

I’ve been stunned when someone asked me how I felt giving up the sort of lifestyle in Singapore behind. Same thing happens if someone asks me how life has been in Hanoi and whether I enjoy it or not. I don’t know how to answer those simple questions, the reason being I sorta gave up my right to judge or to dictate myself to like or dislike a place or its people. I feel the question of like or dislike irrelevant. They say “Action” and you, a professional actress, just act.

I have a mole on my right feet and my mom said I wouldn’t be a domestic girl as I would travel a lot. Half truth. As I just realize I’m the sort of girl who relentlessly tries to find and build a home everywhere she goes…

I found it in HCMC, Adelaide, and Singapore. I think I’ve done it again in Hanoi too 🙂