1,000 Steps

This Saturday, it was my room-mate's 39th birthday. She wanted to do something fun, so we decided to climb Pu Keng Mountain. It's one of the tallest mountains in the province. We piled up in the van with some local friends and headed to the mountain in the morning. Now, I knew it wasn't going to be some easy hike. So, I put on some tennis shoes, leggings, shorts, and a sporty shirt. Plus a hat. This attire means that Holli means business. I've got my backpack and water bottle. Ate some eggs, got my protein, and I'm ready to roll.

My room-mate was dressed similarly. Then? Our local friends show up. They look really cute. Cute, dressy tops. Jeans, cute shoes, and bedazzled hair clips. My first thought was... Well, this should be interesting once they start climbing.

On to the mountain! The mountain looked so mysterious and intimidating from the car. You couldn't see how far up it went into the sky because of the mist and clouds. We found the path and started our journey. Up, up, up. Slowly but surely. Up over 1,000 steep concrete steps to the top! At this point, my cute little friends weren't feeling so cute anymore. He he he!

They had signs for a "secret tunnel" and a cave near the top. In the Vietnam War, people lived in these tunnels and caves while the bombs were exploding around them outside. While we were climbing, we could see huge craters in the ground from bombs that had exploded in the past. It was fascinating to walk through this tunnel and the cave... Just to imagine how people ate and slept in such damp, dark places while the world outside was caving in.

Anyways! At the top of the mountain, the mist had cleared away. You could see out for miles! Rice fields, other mountains, small towns and villages in the distance. Wow. I know that it might sound cliche, but if you can see something like that and not think that God himself created it, then I wonder how you can believe in anything at all. True beauty.

At the end of the day, I had jello legs and slept in my hammock for a while.
If you can't seem to find something beautiful and good in this world, then climb to the top of a mountain and look around. The world won't seem so big and scary anymore. And you'll think... There is something more to this life. Something beautiful still exists.