The World and I

Life is passing by, and sometimes you have ignored something that is very important without knowing it. The random trip that my friends and I threw out for me in summer 2009 was my biggest adventure, which I had never experienced before.

Very early in the morning, we on our motorbike departed from Hanoi. In our dusty way, houses and roads, the rows of trees by sides were brought up the feelings of artificialness, emptiness and lonesomeness... The unknown streets, the anonymous faces...

We stopped in the central of Thai Nguyen City for a quick lunch break. Everybody took a quick cane-juice drink while watching people riding by jostlingly. I suddenly realized how fast my life had been going, and I wished I had stopped just for a moment to actually enjoy it. Realizing time was passing by, we continued on our wild adventure.

We took another break as entering the mountain area. Sunset! The nightfall fogs turned the mountain shady. The sun slowly went to bed, yet his light still remained somewhere ad nauseam, hiding behind clouds, ranges of mountains, and in the eyes of us the pedestrians. It was dark and lightly rained. We had yet 50 more kilometers away to seek the way through the dimness. Fortunately, the way to Ba Be (the destination) was serene, making nobody nervous; someone even sang gently on the way...

Riding for a while, I could taste the mist in the air. When we arrived and were done settling the place to sleep, it was already 10 P.M. I took myself a personal walk. The darkness wrapped around me; there are only some faint isolating illuminations. The night was cool, chilly; the silence spared my mind…

8 o’clock in the morning, the light penetrated the door crack; alarm clocks went off noisily. From the motel, it took us 2 hours to the lake. Ba Be Lake was huge and purely clean. We rent a big boat for 300 dongs (approximately $15). The boat owner was a very nice Tay man (an ethnic minority in the North Vietnam); he took us to see around the lake.

The sight was uniquely beautiful; its tranquility made up the difference, distinguishing Ba Be Lake from the other Vietnamese magnificent natural heritages. Butterflies were everywhere; little white ones followed each other flying into a wide circle around the big rocks that emerge in the middle of the water. On the limestone mountain, trees grow abundantly and thickly; among the greenness were some spotty red and yellow. There were places where the water level was shallow, a herd of buffaloes were calmly dipping in and enjoying their revitalizing baths. We encountered on a small dinghy floating by freely, an ethnic minority man was waving us…

It was quiet that I can hear the slightest movement of the water waving. It was so peaceful, like traveling to the heaven. There was no more jostlement, competition, unfairness, worrying… of an ordinary life; there were only the nature and myself.