A Matter of Eyes

 A romantic landscape of verdant, terraced, rice fields stretching into the distance nothing romantic to them about being knee-deep in mud, sweat running down their bodies they see nothing – literally nothing.

A Trip to Mai Châu

When most of us, western people, go to such countryside areas of Vietnam as Mai Châu, the place from which we just returned, we see a romantic landscape of verdant, terraced, rice fields stretching into the distance up the misty valley surrounded by steep mountains partially enshrouded in clouds.  And, among those fields are set small villages upon copses of trees and bamboo.  And, in the fields work the farmers at their own slow pace, a pace dictated not by the clock, but rather by the season, the weather, and the rice.

Of course, I know those people there, people whom we have romanticized so much, toil all day long in the heat of the sun beating upon their backs mercilessly; battling the soil, insects, lack of water; and struggling with the local politics and national policies, and the endless uncertainty of every farmer in the world.  There is nothing romantic to them about being knee-deep in mud, sweat running down their bodies, sleeping on hard mats in houses with too little clean water, and barely able to eke out a living while trying to make their children’s lives better.

My Hanoi friends, used to the ever energetic fast pace of the big city with its never-ending demands and distractions, but still being Vietnamese people who know the harsh realities of rural life, see that place not as a place to escape to from the city but rather as a place to escape from into the city.  They think us westerners romantic fools when we tell them what our eyes see when we go to the countryside.  And when they themselves go there, they see nothing – literally nothing – just the boring quiet of the area, and so they cannot stay longer than a day, and even then cannot come alone, but must come in groups bringing with them the noise of the Karaoke, endless energy of having to be doing something all the time, and ceaseless self entertainment, thus leaving the area having neither seen nor learned anything.