ERIC KIM

3 Life Lessons I’ve Learned Living in Hanoi

Dear friend,

I want to write you a letter giving you a life update from Hanoi:

Time flies

First of all, we only have 1 month left in Hanoi. Damn, the last 8 months have passed by fast. I appreciate you for following me, for supporting me and Cindy, and making this journey so personally-meaningful.

Here are my life lessons living in Hanoi for the last 8 months:

1. You don’t need much money to be happy for your basic needs

The apartment Cindy and I currently live in only costs $380 USD a month.

It is a small, comfortable, studio apartment. Everything is brand new.

We don’t need much to be happy in life. I wake up, my bathroom is right next to my bed. After I shower, I walk two steps to the kitchen, and make a coffee.

My laptop is perched on top of a counter on the left of the kitchen. Another two steps.

All my worldly possessions that I need (laptop, headphones, Ricoh GR II) fit inside my backpack.

I wear the same outfit everyday.

My daily expenses:

  • $1 for taxi ride in the morning
  • $1 for coffee at the coffee shop

The wifi at the coffee shop is free.

Then another $1 for (another) espresso.

Maybe another $2 for another taxi ride to (another) coffee shop:

Maybe another $1 for (another, another) espresso.

Then walk to dinner, meet some friends, and spend $3-5 for dinner.

My daily expenses are only around $11-15. $330 to $450 a month (this is living lavishly, by my privileged Western standards).

I’ve decided that living here in Hanoi, I have been having a personal creative Renaissance. I have to factor this to three things:

  1. Super-fast wifi: the wifi in Hanoi is ridiculously fast.
  2. Good coffee: strong coffee=more caffeine=more productivity
  3. Less stress about expenses: when I realize that living is so simple, I feel less stress about making money, and more focus on making art.

Life is simple. Why do we make it so complicated?

I think the purpose of life is to create art, and to share that art with others, to empower, uplift, inspire, or connect with them.

If we have enough to feed ourselves, to pay rent, and money for transportation, what else do we need money for?

2. Appreciate your loved ones back home

The only thing I miss about America is my friends, family, and loved ones.

I’m starting to realize that photography is just a meditation on life and death:

To remember to photograph our loved ones. To photograph death; realizing that we should photograph our loved ones while they’re (still) alive.

I don’t really care to live in a hipster place anymore. I just want to be close to friends, family, and loved ones.

The only two priorities in my life now include:

  1. My creative work
  2. My loved ones

That is pretty much it.

3. Never stop hustling

If we’re not growing; we are dying. We need to grow, advance, to evolve, and to become the best versions of ourselves.

In order to uplift the souls of others.

Conclusion

That is how I could distill my life lessons living here in Hanoi: the importance of focusing on your creative work, the importance of being close to loved ones, and to never stop learning.

Thank you for always being with me on my journey.

This is our next steps:

  • After 1 month (left here in Hanoi), move down to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in the south of Vietnam.
  • Spend a few months in Saigon
  • Move to France
  • Live in Paris/Marseille for several months
  • Cindy is done with her research — then time for her to start writing her dissertation
  • Spend 1-2 years writing dissertation somewhere abroad (maybe Paris)
  • Move back home to California (probably Cindy’s family’s house in Garden Grove)

I’ll keep you in the loop with everything.

Thank you thank you thank you, for supporting me and Cindy in this journey of life together.

Oh yeah, and if you missed out, check out this interview I did with Cindy.

Be strong,
Eric

Past Hanoi Diaries

eric kim cindy project portra 400-

Life in Hanoi: