Travel

When the motorbike had been hauled up it was bent and twisted in all sorts of ways and could not be used yet; it would take a few days to repair. Seeing that Hớn looked decent, the farmer, Mr Sang, agreed to let him come home and stay for the time being. On a forest-and-mountain pass like this, where would you find a guesthouse? Only locals know to slow down at this bend; strangers who drive fast all end up in the ditch.
At home, after washing and eating, as they sat talking by the fire, Mr Sang asked:

• So where were you going, young man, that brought you to this remote region?
• Well, sir, I have the adventurous blood that my father passed on to me. I'm passionate about unfamiliar roads, I like to explore new lands and love folk cultures here and there. It seems I was born to go, to tour by motorbike. This time I drove head first into a ditch, though I drive very well. Luckily you came by and helped haul the bike up.
• And where is your father now?
• Sir, my father is now ill at home and cannot get about; my mother looks after him.
• Don't you think that in the past your father also loved touring and has ended his life lying in one place?
  Hớn looked at Mr Sang in surprise and asked:
• What does touring have to do with illness in old age? Everyone who gets old falls ill, don't they?
• How old is your father?
• Sir, my father is 69 this year. He started his family late.
• I'm 75 this year, and I'm this healthy.
• Is it because you work in farming, so you're strong?
• No, young man. I'm healthy at this age because all my life I have used my strength sensibly and usefully for the world.
  Hớn stared at Mr Sang; this sounded strange to his ears. Mr Sang went on:
• Nothing in this life is accidental; everything has its reason. Some reasons are easy to see and some are hard to see. You haven't noticed: when he was young your father travelled a great deal, to satisfy his own passion, never thinking of using his youth to contribute to life, and when he got a bit older he couldn't even walk around his own house. Do you see the fair balancing? How long has your father lain in one place like that?
• Sir, my father has been ill like this for nearly 10 years. At first he could still go to the toilet by himself, and later not even that.
• You will continue that picture if you don't stop in time. Today your motorbike plunging into the ditch is a stern warning from heaven and earth.
  Hớn was silent, wavering.
  Mr Sang added:
• Your mother's hard work for your father is also a debt from a previous life. And you, as soon as you earn a little money, stop work to go touring, leaving your father to your mother's care. Towards your family you have been irresponsible, towards society you are invisible. If everything is "ir-" and "in-" like that, how will you have a happy and peaceful life later?
  Hớn was shaken to the core. After a while Hớn asked:
• Sir, I don't mean to offend, but may I ask why you live so lonely here? If you did so many good things in life, why is this house so rough and lacking in comforts, with no family?
• Ha ha, this is only a camp house where I stay for a while when I come to plant forest. Forests are destroyed and cause floods, so I often reclaim land to plant forests, making merit for my descendants. My family lives in town. My children are all successful, and my grandchildren on both sides study well and behave well. I've handed the business over to my children, and I go in and out to plant and tend the forest for the joy of old age. Tomorrow they will drive in again to fetch me home.
• Sir, please give me advice, what should I do?
• Throw that motorbike away, catch a coach home, look after your parents, go to work to earn money for your family, and work as hard as you can to make up for the days and months you rambled for yourself alone. Touring seems like an elegant, harmless pleasure, but it is also useless and wastes time. Time is gold and silver; why not use that gold and silver to do more useful things? I have come across foreign backpackers whose faces were haggard because their merit had run out, yet they kept going to satisfy their passion. You should stop.
• Thank you very much, sir, I will do so. But what about people who travel in a luxurious, organised style?
• Whoever still has merit may enjoy it, but if you enjoy a lot, it runs out, that's all. 🏍️

Travel and touring seem to be elegant, harmless pleasures, but they also consume many things. A little is fine, but too much becomes a problem. We should spend our whole youth on cultivating ourselves, training, serving and contributing, rather than wandering far roads in romantic adventure.
Food, clothing, rice and money are not romantic matters but practical, fair ones. Whoever contributes to life will receive food, clothing, rice and money to sustain themselves in return. Whoever contributes nothing to life will find that food, clothing, rice and money abandon them and go away.

Many people, because they have jobs in one place or another, also get to know many other regions because of their work. But if it is not because of necessary work but only travelling for fun, then our merit and virtue are gradually depleted, which is very dangerous.
There are many kinds of pleasures in life: some are very sinful and some are more elegant, but let us set aside some of our pleasures and return to the harsh real life. "Food and clothing do not joke with the poet" (Xuân Diệu, the poem "Giới thiệu").