If there’s a goal I’m striving towards in life, it would be happiness. Now I’ve had my share of philosophical discussions on the actual realization of this. If I lived a miserable life but experienced euphoria at the end of it, does that fulfill my goal? Or if I lived a lived a comfortable life and was content most of the time, would that be enough? Honestly I haven’t lived long enough to really know for sure. What I do know is that just by having this goal and constantly reminding myself of it, I am already a happier person than most. But it’s human nature to be discontent and insatiable, especially growing up in cultures (Chinese and American) where we are used to thinking “stuff” will make you happy in the end. So I’m always humbled when I meet people who seem to be plenty happy, even though they have a lot less stuff. This is the story of one of those encounters.
We took a 9 hour train to go to the tourist town of Sa Pa, hidden deep in the highlands of Vietnam. We took the night train from Hanoi around 10PM, an adventure in itself. Thankfully the hotel sent an attendant who actually went with us to the station, exchanged the vouchers for tickets, and found our compartments. We bought the most expensive ticket for a soft bed, which was actually better accommodation than we expected. There was air conditioning and even electric plugs for every bed. If not for the fact that air conditioner stopped working in the middle of the night, the journey would have been pretty great!
We arrived at 5:30 in the morning, and were rushed out of the train station into a crammed passenger van for an hour long ride to Sa Pa, high up in the mountains. The fog filled into the valley and we could barely see beyond the curve ahead, so it was quite surprising when this herd of buffalos appeared from no where.
By the time we had breakfast, the fog cleared and we were amazed at the lush green of the terrace rice fields, stacked up against the rising peaks of the mountain range.
The small town itself surprised us with the Western style buildings lining up both sides of a narrow stone paved street.
Then we met the happiest girl on earth. Chu is seventeen and she grew up in a Hmong village close to Sa Pa. She was a tiny thing, no more than 5 feet tall and seemed like a quiet little girl who she walked in. Then she greeted us with the brightest voice and biggest smile, and we immediately took a liking to her.
Chu was talkative and knowledgeable, and spoke better English than any of us imagined. Following our happy guide, we descended down a windy, dirt road into the valley. Along the way Dru and Dan found a new follower/pet.
We saw a lot of locals along the way, many were trying to sell souvenirs to tourists, and others just going about their day. The sun was scorching, but they were all dressed in dark home made traditional garments and barely broke a sweat.
Chu then took us to a traditional family home to show us how the cloth was made. Two old women sat quietly performing their tasks, and barely glanced up at us, as it was probably their job to be watched by tourists day after day.
Years etched deep lines into their faces and smiles were not to be found. I couldn’t help but wonder what Chu’s smile would look like years from now.
After about a mile, we reached a small Hmong village, hidden behind a beautiful waterfall.
A couple of kids were playing in the stream, and it was so very tempting to jump in myself.
We saw a culture performance there. The songs and dances were beautiful, but there was no energy and we soon lost interest.
Even though the trek was pretty easy, we were tired from the sun and opted for getting back into town on the backs of motorbikes. The ride up the windy rocky road seemed fun, and we contemplated getting our own bikes for the afternoon instead. But when as asked the tour leader, he said that since no one has a driver’s license and drive like mad, especially around turns, this should not be the place for our first motorbike rides. So instead, we tried a couple of massage places in town. There are plenty of massage parlors along the main road in Sa Pa, and some advertise amazing prices of around $7 dollars per hour. Be warned! Unlike the cheap massages we got in Thailand that were amazing, $7 massages in Vietnam was a pretty painful experience. not to mention the lack of privacy as there were no separate rooms or even curtains.
We hit the sack pretty early after a night of no sleep on the train, the long trek in the sun, and the painful massage experience. When we woke the next morning and looked out the window, a thick layer of fog covered the entire town, and we couldn’t even see the building that was only 10 meters away. We marched on anyway, hoping that the fog would lift during our journey, but it never did 🙁
Although missing the gorgeous scenery was disappointing, the fog made our walk quite a different experience.
It was quite like a surreal dream, where you are not really sure what you’ll see around the next bend.
Instead of the main road, we chose the one through the hills, which after the rain was wet, slippery, and adventurous!
Since we couldn’t see anything, Chu taught us a game that the locals played. She took a fern from the side of the road and took off a few branches, then hid the branches back into the big branch. We were challenged to find which ones were the broken branches, and it proved much more difficult than we thought!
She also made these beautiful hearts out of other ferns for us, and taught me how to make my own 🙂
In this day of modern technology, where kids start watching TV on iPads before they could talk, we were reminded of how simple fun could be, if you just look around.
We are also reminded of how lucky we were, to have enjoyed childhood without the burden of supporting our families.
We made the best of the foggy day. Dru took a walk on the wall…
And we all bravely walked across a mysterious bridge that seemed to lead us into the abyss of nothingness.
The trip was short and we were back in Hanoi the next morning. As we readjusted to the bustle and hustle of the big city, I already started missing the quietness of that foggy road, where we followed the footsteps of the girl who smiled like she didn’t have a care in the world. I wonder if she’s home sewing beautiful patterns into the clothes she made herself. I wonder if the boy she likes ever realized how she feels. I wonder if she’s really going to be an independent and marry late (after 20, she says) as she cheerily envisions. I wonder if she’ll always have that wonderful smile.
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