The world lives differently - you're closer to it barefoot

We know it ourselves. When we come home, we take our shoes off first. Even when we enter someone else's house. It is also considered rude to walk into other people's living rooms with shoes on. Far more attention is paid to this in Asia, as we all know by now. There are practical, cultural and spiritual reasons for this in many Asian cultures.

In Thailand, it was new to me that people take their shoes off in front of some (Muslim) supermarkets, or before entering restaurants, cafés and bars. I found it astonishing in public toilets. While public toilets are best avoided in our clean Germany, in South Korea, for example, they are so clean that you could eat off the floor. In Thailand, you change from your shoes into the slippers provided in front of many public toilets.

In Vietnam, we stayed in homestays several times during our motorcycle tour. There, too, it is customary to change into the slippers provided before going up the stairs to the bedrooms. This was new, but not surprising.

The sleeping buses, which are only entered barefoot, were unusual. The first step onto the bus is still ok, but then the bus driver is already waiting with a bag for your shoes. You won't need them again until you arrive at your destination. During a break at a service station, the bus parks right next to a box with slippers. So you get off and stand right in front of this box of slippers.

Things are just as different in many restaurants and cafés in Vietnam. The Vietnamese take off their shoes and place their feet on the seats. What is considered a no-go here is simply the natural posture. Koreans also often sit at the table with their feet up or cross-legged, but I have never observed this in a restaurant. But there are often restaurants here where people sit on the floor anyway. It is simply the natural posture.

In Vietnam, being comfortable often means sitting barefoot - even in a café or on a plastic chair while eating pho.

But what is also a no-go here is never pointing the soles of your feet at other people - that would be rude.

So what might seem like “sloppy behavior” to us is an expression of closeness, comfort and down-to-earthness there.

I resisted wearing slippers as a child and still love walking barefoot today.

...and sometimes you only understand what's really under your feet without shoes.