What Was The Most Challenging Thing About Lockdown? | Season 7 Compilation

Join the Seven Million Army on Facebook and tell us your answer!

Join the Seven Million Bikes Community.

Thank you for listening to A Vietnam Podcast by Seven Million Bikes.  We share the stories of people with a love for Vietnam. Host, Niall Mackay, has lived in Vietnam since 2016. As the show has grown we now talk to people from all over the world who have a Vietnam story to share. At the end of every episode we ask our guests the same set of questions each time, so enjoy this bonus compilation episode.

-------------------
Theme music composed by Lewis Wright.

A Vietnam Podcast is made using these digital tools.  We 100% recommend them. Any questions send us an email or message on the socials.

These are affiliate links so they will give us a small commission, only if you sign up , and at no extra cost to you! You'll be directly supporting A Vietnam Podcast too.

Episode Edited with Descript
Episode art designed by Niall Mackay using Canva
Podcast Hosting Platform Buzzsprout
Clean Your Mac by MacPaw
Keep your privacy safe with NordVPN
www.sevenmillionbikes.com Hosted on 10Web

Need a stunning new logo for your brand? Or maybe a short animation?

Whatever you need, you can find it on Fiverr.

I’ve been using Fiverr for years for everything from ordering YouTube thumbnails, translation services, keyword research, writing SEO articles to Canva designs and more!

Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a seasoned podcaster, or anyone in between, Fiverr has got you c

Get 68% off and three months free when you join NordVPN today with Seven Million Bikes.

As an affiliate partner it also means that I will get a small commission when you sign up, but at no extra cost to you. 

So not only will you be getting a great deal through Seven Million Bikes, you get a great VPN and you'll be supporting Seven Million Bikes Podcasts. Stay safe online and enjoy the shows you love.  Any questions, just let me k

Transcript

Niall Mackay: 2:23

Thank you for listening to, uh, Vietnam podcast by Seven Million Bikes. We share the stories of people. Connected to, and with a love for Vietnam. I'm your host Niall I've lived here since 2016 of Started show It was a Saigon podcast But as the show has grown we now to all over the world who have Vietnam story to from the end of every episode we ask guests the The same set questions for each season we This is bonus compilation episode why season seven and where you where you hear all our guests the question What the challenging thing about lockdown for you know this was a tough Show your Answer with us We love from you send us a or Instagram or join the Million army Facebook group And you can post answer there can find seasons of Vietnam podcast from wherever you get podcasts And you can also watch newer episodes on YouTube as well look Out for season biggest soon The are in the show notes and don't subscribe From wherever you're listening So always get about. About future episodes. eight the challenge for you

Brian Letwin: 3:48

on the personal level,

Niall Mackay: 3:51

you can

Brian Letwin: 3:53

or interact with other children or go have play dates or go to school or, you know, spend time outside and be Well that's think it's me and my wife because we know what the potential could compared to Luna is again just like kind of unaware of things She's just happy to hang out with us and you know pretty occupied just playing crayons and things Generally the other artists it's just work like we're our company done a really good job and our staff of of you know professional their being like we don't micromanage at all Like we have weekly check-ins for editorial and social media and like different things like this But everybody despite the mental challenge that everybody has throughout the company living their parents their significant others have done a good job of plowing through But at the same time we're a very family oriented company and that we see each other like I have a feeling I don't know if they admit it or not without a lot of our The company overlaps is like their more immediate friendship circle as well I am I feel like that way as much as a boss Ken like I try not to you know to be aware of that kind of you know you have to if you have to make tough decisions you can't be friends with everybody Luckily our staff are so good and senior and the way that they think and my self-managed themselves that I've been able to kind of become more friendly with them because the times where you'd have to be like sit down and have a serious conversation like don't really exist very often So the need to like have to like oh well if I have to be a Dick about something I need to like not be as friendly with them to their credit like they they've made it So that that kind of situation never really occurs Thanks to them I guess for letting us kind of be friends and a family together and have that mutual respect for one another So not being in the office of hanging out having beers after work and just having these conversations and you know trolling each other in person we do it online but it's more fun to troll in person than digitally That's been that's been difficult And I I just I miss I miss those guys so much talking on slack does not replace the inner the human interactions Shit I mean I even miss my clients at this point

Thuyen Vo: 6:09

I've think that I'm pretty good with day to day things but I think it was really challenging for me It just had to look into the future you know about how when things have gone going to be more and more again because I see the cases of rising up in even the UK when they pass 70% of fascination Great to know when is it going to be normal again And every time I think about it and just of deep breath So I try not to think about it Yeah I try to focus on the day-to-day thing

Phuc Map: 6:40

being a YouTube creator just not being able to go out and fill a lot of people that watch from outside of Vietnam They want to see the streetlights They want to see the scenes of the city And right before the lockdown I started a new segment similar to what we said Chris was doing or he would just walk around and film everything right

Track 3: 7:02

Just walk around with the GoPro or the Insta 360 and talk about the area that I'm in and random people come up and talk to me And both of those videos did very well In fact one of them is close to 200,000 views I believe And I said great this is a new sub category I'm going to run with And after I put the second one out lockdown so as much as I want to just go and make these easy videos podcasts with myself on the street I can't do it So I think the most challenging thing as a YouTube creator is having fulfilled everything at home And as an English teacher having to teach online the classes are great with the little kids can get hard to control after two hours or so Yes Having to do everything from home will be the most challenging thing It's tough Have you thought about doing a YouTube video just like walking about your apartment and just commentating on lake So I'm just going into the Kudlow Drake now So I'm just going to get a bag of chips I'm going into the fridge Yeah Oh yep That's about blah blah blah blah blah You can just do like a commentary on the I've considered it not how long A lot of found villainous that I may have to get cremated I want to do a skit where I teach myself Vietnamese were on the student and the teacher and it just does a split screen and you know just joke back and forth about Vietnamese And I'm just come up with these creative ideas I have to come up with them because there's what else am I going to do Give my politics I'd rather not

Jovel Chan: 8:38

at the beginning I was living in one of these cordoned off areas So I was like in one of these you know 50 meta like you know lockdowns where I couldn't get my own food couldn't get like way couldn't get anything Right And that was Suffocating I remember actually going into anxiety because you know one of the things it's it's like what am I one of the things of like anxiety it's like sometimes you feel the symptoms and you scare it Like maybe it's a little serious and it is yeah You know like if you feel like you're a Chet's getting tight you're like oh no a track I'm dying Like what if something's happened And it kind of gets you to the hospital in time There's like none of the hospitals are open None of the pharmacies are open So like that was like a constant thought There was in my head which made like the lockdown very stressful I think some of the tips that was and I mean I'm very very lucky as well You know this is my 10th year going into anxiety I've gotten to know myself a lot better what my triggers are and also like what myself soothing is I'm also very open to talking about it Sometimes like when my anxiety is really bad my chest gets really tight and actually like cannot breathe So usually what then I need to do is pick up the phone and talk to somebody and say like Hey you know like I'm having an anxiety I need to talk to somebody just to talk to somebody and because I'm quite comfortable with talk about how I feel and I have support systems around me to understand it like that This is just the way I need to do that that was one of the things And that's why I really want to normalize it because I really want to just I want people to be able to pick up the phone and talk about it because it's so powerful

Martial Geniére: 10:22

I think it was to tune to that new rhythm and mostly exercising So during the first part of the look down we could still go out I would go for walks Every night and now I'm really missing that So I'm trying to do stretching and exercising you know every morning but that's not as as fun as getting outside or going to the gym

Zoonie Nguyen: 10:45

not being able to hug my parents and my husband's parents I think that's what I find the hardest than COVID to not be able to be with families and hug them in your arms And but now we're all vaccinated so it's better But aside from that family and personal side I really really miss traveling and meeting people and we could have a coffee right now face to face Neil but I'm happy to see you on my screen It wasn't even better to see you in three dimensions and to travel And you know I used to travel and give keynotes and speeches and and I love zoom but it's not the same So the I find that tough

Hayden Lowry: 11:27

it's going to sound the wrong I'm sorry I apologize from that It really hasn't been that problematic

Track 3: 11:35

and the reason being is Multitudinous And in that one I'm very cognizant of the fact that I'm a foreigner My my lifestyle here affords me a level of comfort and safety that the average Vietnamese person doesn't have And if there's anything that I've had difficulty with it is just knowing that within a five minute drive where I live I could see the complete opposite someone who's suffering really really really badly And that that that's had an effect on me I've seen video letter you might've as well Some of those videos have loaded with like there's this pregnant lady who died at a factory in renewing And it was So cruelly unceremonious her she was dealt with in her body was dealt with And there was apparently a near And the police matters to show up with the swiftness to put down the right I'm like well what could their ambulance show up just as quickly the day before and get her in the hospital You know seeing footage of people essentially writing for food seen photographs of some of the field hospitals where they've got thousands and thousands of people just convalescing beds That that's been difficult for me just to know that here I am in this really nice apartment with Evian many naked possibly have other people who can't haven't been able to get food delivered to their house Yet I can go downstairs cross the street over at the Lexington and walk into to Kmart and do groceries You know that as somebody who grew up in in in a poor neighborhood to immigrant families I'm sensitive to it because it's reflective of my upbringing And I know what it feels like to be on that side of So that to me honestly has been the hardest in terms of just like surviving through a day that and the other, like, I can go up on my roof and get sunshine. What I'm saying. That's good though, because we don't have that. Right. You're going to get people who have rooftop access. So our kidneys is pretty good, but let me, let me follow up on what you said there. If you've made me a bit emotional and mom was tearing up because I feel 100% the exact same as you. So yeah, I mean, there's challenges as like, as any kind of ex-pat has, but nothing that's that difficult. Same as you got full fridge, got water, go. My wife and my dog with Nissan, nothing really to complain about. And I've got, who gets hired. If it, we could leave, he could leave. Like we all, like I could think it's pretty fair to say that damn near half your friends have left already. And half of them already left already. How. Yeah. I've thought about that as well. How some people complain and then they just leave and it's kind of late. Well, at least you have the opportunity. And a lot of other things, we don't have the opportunity to leave, but that's because we have a dog and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, but so last Friday it was, I woke up, got on my computer. I had quite a lot of work to do. And I read this article in the guardian, in the UK about Vietnam and about how people are starving, no getting food. Weren't getting read that. I read that yesterday a couple of weeks ago and I was in tears. Like literally in tears I am seeing, as you are, this is not been the most difficult thing for me. And just like, what you said is what, because we live in a similar area, knowing that those people just five minutes down the road and I'm not from like a super poor background, we always had food on the table, but then we ended up much money growing up as a family. But I don't know if that's, what's made me feel like this, but I can, I'm empathetic to that as well. So I was literally in tears. I was talking to him, my wife came out of my class and she's like, what's wrong? And I showed her the article and I felt so helpless as well. It's all lucky. So I immediately like stopped to just donate money to some of the charities that I've already been donated to. I was like, yeah, we need to give them more. And like, just donate it to three or four different organizations. Like I was like, that's all I can do. Like, I can give people food, I can kind of trust these organizations. So I did that made me feel a bit bound by pretty closed in and out of tears all day. And then I'm trying not to tear up right now. Then in the afternoon, my best friend, I've known him since I was five years old. I was best man at his wedding. He messaged me and he's like, Hey be in the way from the kid of open, just tested positive for COVID. So I was just fucking, and, and I was in tears. I've I've had a friend here. I'm not gonna name names to call him out his name. And public, he's a foreigner. Who's married to a local lovely local lady and they've got some kids and he's got a family member back home living with him and, you know, just, just taking that family member to go get their shot, but they ultimately didn't get, because some arbitrary Mandarin decided that we're not going to give any shots to the foreigners. Despite the fact that we said your message to come here, we're not going to give you that. And they went home with the virus and their whole family got sick, you know? So I think at this point we all got, we've all got experiences that hit close to home. So yeah, I totally annually, I they'd also doesn't help as well that, you know, we're dealing with that here and just trying to stay sane here and do what we can just kind of like find some balance in our lives. And then I don't know what it's like, where you're from. Or I'm from, we got people protesting in front of hospitals and blocking ambulance and getting in and out all because they don't want to take a vaccine that we over here. I don't think that's too much of a problem in Scotland, but I obviously obviously see it around the world, but it's like you said, you're got to find that balance. And even when so I did my comedy show on the weekend and that was my, my biggest show I've ever done. Headline act and 50 minutes of comedy with four people from around the world, which was just amazing. And I kind of finish with that and I was like an a, and it was true what I said. So, you know, it did that thing where you, you're going to Julia, you know, comedians do, when you see a special, they, they bring the kind of atmosphere down and they get kind of serious, whatever the topic is, whether it's LGBT Q issues or race issues, whatever it is personal to them. So I brought it down on purpose and it was like, you know, it's a tough time. And, but this part is true as a committee. I'm always putting out content on Facebook, trying to make people laugh on putting on comedy shows. And I've asked myself, like, should I be doing that? Like, should I be trying to make people laugh right now? And anytime I do put something on trying to make sure, like I'm not being insensitive to the fact that people are dying and people are sick. So I try not to make complain about not getting stuff delivered and things like this. Like I actually make fun of the people like I did in the beginning of this who make a big deal about not being able to get a fucking kick for the pet delivered. Do you know what I mean? Like this balance to everything, but what I see is kind of come out and that's in the doubt to a reason why I do continue to do it is because we do need to fade in balance and last don't enjoy it. And when I talked to my friend who runs one of these charities, he said, he's having trouble with his staff because they're obviously going through all the stresses that we are and the de-motivation of being locked up in and locked down. You know, all the normal stresses that, cause we're all going through a crazy, crazy time. But then because they're on the front line and they're seeing and helping these people who are really struggling, they're not taking the time for themselves because they feel like they don't deserve it, dissolve it. Right. And he has to kind of tell them what we're talking about is like, no, just because they are having a hard time doesn't mean that you'll not having a help team as well, because that's what we're all going through. So, so he has the challenge of trying to keep his staff, like, you know, that balance, like you said, Don't forget send us a message or post on our Facebook group the Seven Million army If you can join the community We're building up more and more members you get special exclusive benefits And we do community meetups If you're in Saigon Thanks for listening Don't forget to follow and subscribe wherever you are listening to this podcast and this