In late 2022, Huong Nguyen, then 33, a HCMC-based marketing manager, was introduced by a mutual friend to Amit Sambrekar, a 30-year-old Indian data science graduate working in Ireland.

Agreeing to act as his tour guide, the two went on a trip spanning HCMC, Hanoi, Ha Giang, and Ha Long Bay. On their final day in Ha Giang, Huong slipped and severely sprained her ankle, leaving her unable to walk. She urged him to continue the journey without her so as not to ruin his plans.

But he insisted he would “be her feet.” For the rest of the trip, he carried her up and down the stairs at their homestay, onto a cruise in Ha Long Bay, and around Hanoi’s Old Quarter.

“Seeing her resilience despite the pain, and feeling her trust as she rested on my back, I knew she was the person I wanted to share my life with,” he says.

Sambrekar began to develop feelings for Huong. Though she too had reciprocal feelings for him, Huong kept her distance since she did not want to date a younger man or be in a long-distance relationship.

After their 10-day trip, Sambrekar returned to Ireland but the two stayed in regular contact. Wanting to get to know him better, she applied for a visa to visit him, but was rejected twice.

“If we can’t even find a way to meet, perhaps we’re just not meant to be,” she told him, suggesting that they stop seeing each other.

Hearing this, he became disheartened. “Every day, I went to work and just sat there writing code, but my mind was already back in Vietnam,” he recalls.

Two months later, he reached out to her again, but she turned him down once more. At 34, she was unwilling to start a relationship she saw no clear future in.

In September 2023, Sambrekar flew to HCMC to see her on her birthday. “Distance and visas are not valid reasons for us to give up on each other,” he told her. His persistence ultimately won her over, and she agreed to date him.

Not long afterward, they encountered their next obstacle: family objections. At first, Huong’s parents were hesitant about her marrying into a culture so different from their own. To reassure them, she pointed out that Sambrekar had a stable career.

On his side, the main challenge was religion: his family was Hindu. Sambrekar describes those days as “the most bitter” of his life. At one point, his father even scolded him over the phone: “Are there no other girls left for you to choose from?”. Instead of reacting defensively, he patiently won his parents over by speaking of the warmth of Huong’s family and her deep respect for Indian culture.

During Tet 2024, Sambrekar visited Huong’s family in Vietnam, and in June 2024, she flew to India to meet his. “My parents realized that though there might be religious or cultural differences, affection for family is universal,” Sambrekar says.

Finally, with both families’ blessings, the two got married, holding ceremonies in Vietnam in November 2024 and in India in June 2025. After their wedding, the couple continued to live apart while waiting for her Irish visa.

In December 2025, during a visit to her husband’s family, Huong discovered she was pregnant. The prospect of becoming a first-time mother at 37 made her even more anxious, especially as their visa application remained in limbo. She even gave him an ultimatum: “If the visa isn’t approved by the time I give birth, you have to quit your job and come to Vietnam”.

Fortunately, her visa was approved just two days later. “When I got the news, my heart was pounding and my legs were shaking. It felt even more dramatic than finding out I was pregnant,” she says.

In May 2026, Huong reunited with her husband in Ireland, where they finally settled into a home of their own after years of flying back and forth between three countries.

Looking back, she says she has no regrets about leaving Vietnam to start a new chapter at 37. “I feel lucky to have enjoyed 37 Tets with my parents before embarking on a life of my own,” she says.

Now, in mid-August, the couple are busy preparing a room for their baby girl. As Huong watches him carefully assemble the crib, hang pictures on the walls, and hand-wash each tiny piece of clothing, she smiles affectionately.

“It feels just like that moment when I leaned against his back on a mountain slope in Ha Giang three years ago, when every now and then he would turn around and say, ‘Just relax. Trust me’.”