Mai Chau

The peace and quiet in Mai Chau is blissful. Snuggled into a lush, green valley, the small village is a much welcomed surprise after less than 24 hours in Hanoi. The hectic, conjested, and filthy city was much too stressful for me, and after just one night I decided to leave. While in Hanoi, I applied for a Chinese visa, ans was shocked to find out that it was going to set me back over $100! And that's only because I'm American. For everyone else, the visa fee is only $30. After all of the additional fees, I ended up forking over $121--just to visit one small part of China for a few weeks. Ugh. But, I figure money is no excuse to miss this opportunity. The visa however takes 4 working days to process, so it won't be ready until Christmas Day! Instead of being in Sapa for Christmas as I had planned, I'll be in Hanoi. At least it will be easy for me to find a place to call home!

I've spent the afternoon wandering through the valley, through rice paddies, across dams, and through villages. I haven't seen a single other tourist and it has been so nice. That lonely solitude that was caving in on me just a few days ago seems to be lifting and transforming itself into a welcoming silent abyss. In an effort to abolish the loneliness, I found myself sitting in restaurants, drinking beers, surrounded by other Westerners, and more unhappy than before. Doing this I realized that I had lost what was true to me and what made me happy in an attempt to find temporary happiness. But being away from all of that is really what makes me happy. I feel so alive out here, surrounded by the mountains, the foreign jabbering of locals, the clucking of the chickens, and the rustling of the trees. And that loneliness, its not really loneliness, just the adjustment of finding my center.