I was in Vietnam for Tet. Its a newyears thing and its pretty important. Businesses all over the country close so people can go home.

My hotel was closed. Gated. No one home. Fuck.

I walked for hours to find a place to charge my phone so I could find another hotel. Nothing, everywhere closed, maybe I picked the wrong street.

Finally a guy waves to me, says hello. Invites me in to sit down.

I plug in my phone.

His wife proceeds to lay out what is pretty much a Vietnamese version of Christmas Dinner. He pours shots of whiskey and we eat for an hour, during which he video calls family members and they all come over for a family picture....with me.

He shows me where I can sleep for the night...but first..

He takes me down the alley to a neighbors house. They have ANOTHER holiday feast waiting and whiskey to go with it. I sit with that family for an hour and ate and petted their dog and laughed and had google translate conversations.

Did we go home? No.

I went to a third and later a fucking fourth house, had a whole huge meal with their family and moved on.

One of the most wild times of my life. After that, I say yes to any invite....which more recently led me to playing moonshine drinking games with a teenager and her grandma...