This August, the married couple Linh Dong and Sas Péter will quit their jobs, sell all the belongings and start their cycling tour in 1 year from Hungary to Vietnam through the tea-lands.
Loving Vietnamese tea, falling in love with the Vietnamese girl from the tea-land
Sas Péter, the 30 year old Hungarian man loves tea and later falling in love with a Vietnamese girl from Thai Nguyen, the famous tea-land of Vietnam. Linh (27 yrs) told us that it was tea which had brought them a chance to meet each other in 2011. They met at the annual meeting of IAESTE - the international exchange program for technical students which both Linh and Péter were active members.
"I was giving a presentation about my internship in Finland and noticing that Péter was one of the audiences who concentrated on my slides. After that, he came and talked to me as he was impressed by my self-confidence and English skills. My first impression about him is his honest smile and the nice green-gray eyes.", said Linh.
After the first met, "the green-gray eyed" man usually visited Hanoi and asked Linh to be his tour guide in order to meet her again. Through the talks, Linh started to have some feelings for Péter because of his honesty, friendliness and the similarity in their point of views. They started to date in secret since then.
- Their Vietnamese engagement
Time flied and it was the end of Péter's internship. The poor couple didn't know when they could meet again after Péter returned to Hungary. They kept the long distance relationship between two continents for 6 months until Linh was accepted to a university in Finland for the Master's degree. During the time in Finland, Linh and Péter maintained the long distance love with 2-3 times seeing each other per year only. The rest of the time, they just talked on Skype or sent letters to each other.
After Linh graduated with an Environmental Engineering Degree at Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland, Péter proposed her and they had beautiful weddings in both countries. Currently, Linh is an English teacher and Péter is a project coordinator at Audi Hungaria Motor Kft. They are living in Győr, Hungary.
At first, the thing that Linh disliked the most from her husband is his rational and strict personality, but later, it turned out to be her favourite as Péter is always punctual and keeps his promises. In return, Péter doesn't like the indirect communication way of his wife. Linh doesn't say "no" right away but just giving signs and ask Péter to guess. It might be the problem of most Vietnamese when talking to foreigners.
Linh believes that she's lucky as she is living happily with the big love from Péter's family. The couple lives independently and visits the parents at the weekend for lunch. As a Vietnamese daughter-in-law, Linh puts family at the first priority and loved her in-laws as if they are her own parents. This cultural behaviour brings the Hungarian family closer to the Viet girl imperceptibly.
- Their wedding in Vietnam (February 2015)
Conquering the tea-lands
The couple has had the idea of this big bike-packing trip for 2 years and they will start it this August. The approximated route is 20.000 kilometres long through 11 countries and territories (Győr, Hungary – Serbia – Bulgaria – Turkey – Iran – United Arab Emirates – Sri Lanka – India – Myanmar – China – Vietnam) from Europe to Asia within 1 year crossing the most famous tea-lands.
The humble reason for this trip is that they both love backpacking. The young couple doesn't want to start their dream journey only when they are older or too tired of responsibilities and obligations in life.
"Riding bicycle is not only environmentally friendly but also good for our health. We would like to travel as a local, not a tourist. I am a tea person and Orient culture lover so exploring the tea route has been my dream for years.", Péter said excitedly.
For months now, Péter and Linh have contacted many travellers and bikepackers as well as read many travel books and visited hundreds of websites in order to prepare the most for the coming trip.
This Grand trip requires specialised equipment for biking tour such as: trekking bike, tent, cooking kit, panniers, special shoes and anti-bacteria clothes. Their doctors also advised them to take different type of vaccines so that the trip will be less troublesome.
Finance is also a big issue as they are still quite young and started to work not long ago. The budget of the trip mostly comes from their saving. They also asked for sponsorship to reduce the expenses.
Cycling in one year, Péter and Linh have their own fears
"Each of us has fears that we don't want to encounter during the trip. My husband worries about cycling even when being ill or injured because of the pressure from the expiring visas. I, myself, am afraid to be stuck in a country because of some national changes leading to border closing.", said Linh.
Péter is ready for the choices after their big trip. They either get back to the ordinary life, work, have babies, save up for the future as many other married couples; or figure out their real passion in life during the discovery.
Linh wants to have a farm where they create the ingredients for their food and drinks. Moreover, the Viet-Hun couple also want to have a small tea house where they can introduce the best teas of the countries they've visited and encourage people to hit the road, discover the beauty of the nature as they did.
"The main decoration theme of the teahouse will be the photos, stories and articles about our bikepacking life", smiled Péter.
Original article:
http://duhoc.dantri.com.vn/du-hoc/chong-tay-vo-viet-dap-xe-xuyen-bien-gioi-tu-hungary-ve-viet-nam-20160514115659263.htm
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