Ode to Avatars

Last week, I was lucky enough wanderlust the weekend away in Zhangjiajie, China// the home of the Avatars! Okay, maybe not the Avatars… but the Avatar Mountains! Blanketed in a gilded green canopy, these statuesque, stand-alone mountains are nestled right between heaven and a chicken salad croissant sandwich! Zhangjiajie National Park, in China’s Hunan Province, has been more or less out of the international tourist radar in the past, but that is definitely going to change. And soon. Following a soaking rain, a soupily sensible fog will settle over the valley, dressing the base of these pillar-like mountains in a buttermilk brume – creating, The Floating Mountains. The perfect fantasy dreamland.

Within minutes, I was completely transfixed. My mind melted a little more with each belief binding view. How did they happen?! “Summer’s erosion and winter’s expanding ice” is just not a good enough answer for me. Why not anywhere else?! Why only here!? How?! Baa! Anyway, forget my total volcanic mind eruption… our hostile was within a right-out-of-a-movie mountain town. With wood cabins, crisp air, antique cottages, and cute locals. I felt like this village was my own hidden treasure; my personal, yet infinite, secret garden. And I never wanted to leave. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend filled with 3,100 sandstone pillars, street vendors, zzzt, cable cars, “China Pants”, ponchos, phony student I.D. cards, frustrated Chinese employees, guilty discounts, “…and it wasn’t weird”, rude chain smokers, hunchbacks, slurp the P juice through a straw, a 365 story elevator, “Dani! Daaani! Oh bay-bee”, credit card swiping, female leg scissoring, buses on buses on buses, stairs on stairs on stairs, Asians on Asians on Asians, rich food, and even richer conversation. All completely inhabited by these rowdy lil’ wild monkeys. Just the way I like it.  

But… I so badly wanted to ruin all sentimental beauty of this place and just paint myself blue and hide in a bush whispering “I see you.” But I figured that I’d probably just call more attention to myself by just being white. 

And I really love all these people: