at 11: a.m. on March 7th, 214, at the gate of a hotel in Kathmandu, we said goodbye to nine travelers, including Zhang Xuewen, Chen Yun, Yang Xiaoming, Hou Aiqin, Ding Ying, Tang Xuezhu, Yang Qingyuan, Yang Yiling and Song Chunling, and sent them to Malaysia Airlines, then returned to China via Kuala Lumpur to meet in Beijing. Ten hours later, their flight MH37 lost contact with the ground forever. Nine of them and 218 passengers from all over the world, including 145 China citizens and 12 crew members, have been separated from the world forever!
The motion for this trip was initiated in the winter of 213. We have been traveling with Mr. and Mrs. Wang Dongcheng and Shufang Ling for ten years. I got to know another group of travelers through Wang Wenjing, who I met while traveling in Cambodia. So the two groups met and traveled to Nepal at their own expense in late February. In order to buy low-priced discount tickets as soon as possible, experienced travelers decided to buy their own plane tickets. Due to the limited number of cheap air tickets on each flight, 9 people chose Malaysia Airlines flight and 14 people chose China Southern Airlines flight, and agreed to meet in Kathmandu on the same day, and then they would have activities together.
On February 23rd, it was midnight when we arrived in Kathmandu by China Southern Airlines. The next morning, we got together with nine travelers who came by Malaysia Airlines at noon the previous day to form a tour group, taking the same bus and being guided by the same tour guide, and started the journey of Nepal.
Before we left, 23 of us stood in two rows at the gate of the hotel, wearing garlands made of flowers presented by Nepalese tour guides, leaving a group photo with a bright smile.
After that, the 23 people took photos several times. After meeting in Beijing, they shared with each other. Unfortunately, it was impossible.
during the 12 days of traveling together, we watched the Himalayan snow-capped mountains, entered Hindu temples and palaces, rode elephants through virgin forests, sailed in canoes on the strange and quiet rivers, enjoyed the unique dances of local ethnic groups, experienced the grand scene of Shiva Festival and ascetic monks everywhere, went to Lumbini to pursue the trail of Sakyamuni, experienced the hardships of the Tang Priest and tasted the joy given by nature.
of the nine travelers on Malaysia Airlines, only Zhang Xuewen is an old friend. He is over sixty, and we swam through Changbai Mountain together a few years ago. He was born as a soldier, likes collecting, and has a loud and generous voice. Four people take a boat when swimming in Lake Fava. Each boat is equipped with a rower, and tourists can row together. This lake is the second largest in Nepal, with several kilometers long and clear water. There are Hindu temples in the middle of the lake. If Boccara is known as the Swiss of the East, this lake can be associated with Lake Lucerne. Zhang Xuewen took many photos for us on another boat.
One morning, we were taking photos in the courtyard of a beautiful hotel. Xing Xiaoqun pointed to the outside of the hotel and said to Lao Zhang, Look, that woman is carrying a basket of things on her forehead up the dirt slope. It's really a wall separated by two days. We went to India once a few years ago, and the environment was amazing. Unexpectedly, the situation in Kathmandu is even worse than that in India. The buildings and public facilities are more backward, there is no centralized control cable, and the wires on the street are hung in the air in piles. There are no viaducts, overpasses and subways, and the streets are always blocked in a mess; Except for the central area, garbage is piled up everywhere, as if it had never been cleaned. Because of the dry climate, the streets are always dusty. In Nepal, wearing a mask on weekdays becomes a scene. So do their locals. On the afternoon of March 6, Lao Zhang bought a silver pot in the Great Buddha Pagoda in Kathmandu, and the price was not satisfactory at that time. On the morning of the 7 th, he rushed to buy it back. Finally, he packed his luggage at the speed of a soldier. Ding Dong took his suitcase and put him on the bus all the time, making an appointment to see you in Beijing. Along the way, Xuewen shared a guest room with Zhao Cheng, and talked for several hours every night, talking about everything from family affairs to current China to world events, and they exchanged views wholeheartedly and became good friends. Regarding the death of Xuewen, Zhao Cheng said sadly: "Happy and happy, new friends, sad and sad, parting."
The other eight people are new friends. Among them, Yang Qingyuan and Tang Xuezhu are a couple. They behave gracefully and don't talk much. The other six are ladies, mostly enthusiastic photographers, wearing a full set of photographic equipment such as tripods, welcoming the sunrise and sending the sunset every day, and forgetting to eat and sleep to capture light and shadow. They especially yearn for the natural scenery of Nepal, especially the unique snow-capped mountains.
A few people in the team used the names of flowers to send WeChat messages, such as wisteria and lilacs, and we followed suit. I feel in my voice that they live so beautifully. Wisteria, whose real name is Yang Ailing, is an expert in computer. Look, we have a problem with the ipad. Help us solve it immediately. The real name of Lilac is Ding Ying, 62 years old. On a driving trip, Chen Yun played a joke to us with his mobile phone. The voice was as good as that of an announcer. After the whole car laughed, he realized that the voice recorder was lilac. Along the way, they laughed and teased each other, and their voices were loud, which brought infinite joy to our trip and reduced a lot of fatigue and hardship. When we were going to ride an elephant into the forest, I was worried that Ding Dong had no hat and was bitten by mosquitoes. Lilac immediately took off her hat and gave it to Ding Dong, saying, "I still have it." Ding Dong celebrated his birthday on this trip, and these flowers sang "Happy Birthday to you" to congratulate him. Everyone shared the cake presented by the travel agency in the hostel at the top of the mountain.
Ms. Chen Yun, born in 1957, is a teacher of the Institute of Fashion Technology. She just retired. This time, she took the initiative to take the role of the tour leader and was responsible for communicating with the tour guide all the way. She has more travel experience. Nepal's roads are rugged and the cars are bumpy. She is afraid that someone will get carsick. She takes out the ointment prepared in advance and cuts it into small pieces, suggesting that friends who are prone to carsick stick it on their navel. We sat in the row behind her. Xing Xiaoqun has an old problem of carsickness. She put on the plaster she gave, and it really worked. During the journey, everyone wants to relieve fatigue with singing. She took the lead in singing "The Beauty of the Grassland at Night" and Xing Xiaoqun sang "Hulunbeier". Chen Yun also said that we have the same taste, and I also like grassland songs. She went on to sing a prairie song, which was quite standard. It turned out that she was still a member of the amateur choir.
We climbed the world of peace tower in Pokhara on foot. The mountains there are steep, and there are only two women in the group who can climb on foot. Chen Yun, 57, is one of them. Carrying heavy photographic equipment, she has been full of energy. At the top of the mountain, we chatted. It turned out that we were both the first college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination in 77. She graduated from the College of Beijing Institute of Chemical Technology. I talked about Wang Guoquan, who jumped the queue. She said that she was her college classmate and shook hands with each other for this. In the afterglow of the sunset, she took a picture of me with the snow-capped mountains as the background, and the composition was exquisite. At that time, I thought that when I returned to Beijing, I would ask her to send me the photos and keep them for a long time. Unexpectedly, her beloved camera disappeared with her in heaven, leaving an irreparable regret!
The last scenic spot that everyone visited together was the Great Buddha Pagoda in Kathmandu, and the sun had not set at the end. When boarding the bus to the restaurant, Chen Yun called for regret. She said, if you can photograph the golden stupa at sunset, what a wonderful picture! I wish I could jump out of the car and go back to take some pictures. We travelers who don't do photography can hardly achieve her obsession with chasing light and shadow!
After going to Boccara, where you can get a close look at the snow peaks in the Himalayas, Chen Yun, Ding Ying, Yang Xiaoming, Wang Dongcheng, Shufang Ling and Zhao Cheng felt that they were not enjoying themselves enough. They took part in another project in Kathmandu: flying directly over Mount Everest in a small plane made in Switzerland, overlooking the magnificent scenery of roof of the world in the world, circling back and forth for an hour, and sighing about glad you came after returning!
Ms. Hou Aiqin is the youngest in the group, at the age of 45. She comes from Shouyang, Shanxi, co-founded a liquefied gas company with her friends, and also owns an invention patent. Sudden food poisoning hit her hardest, and vomiting and diarrhea have been dehydrated. She wanted to give up her trip and buy another plane ticket to return to China. A fellow traveler who worked as a doctor enthusiastically arranged for Hou Aiqin to be sent to Kathmandu International Hospital for infusion, which quickly freed her from illness and restored her physical strength and fun. When she learned that Xing Xiaoqun was a university teacher, she discussed with us: Her daughter has worked in a media, should she go to graduate school? We said: Now the postgraduate education in China has been flooded. If your daughter is not really interested in academics, it is better not to study for postgraduate students. She likes working in the media, and what is important is the accumulation of work experience. For example, the media requires a wide range of knowledge, and it is necessary to supplement relevant knowledge by self-reading; The media needs to cultivate its own team of authors, and it depends on the credit of long-term communication and communication, all of which can't be learned in school. We have friends who are the backbone of a newspaper, have never been to college, and are experts in their own fields. Hou Aiqin listened carefully and seemed to understand, and planned to go back and discuss with her daughter. She heard that we like Shanxi food and warmly invited us to visit her home after returning home. Who had expected that gastroenteritis was only a minor disaster for her, and a bigger disaster was yet to come. If I had known this, I would have let her return home early!
When we were discussing how to share flights between China Southern Airlines and Malaysia Airlines to reduce the air fare, Wang Dongcheng and Shufang Ling and I were on our way to Tianjin TEDA Art Museum. We said, let's take China Southern Airlines or Malaysia Airlines, and we will obey the arrangement and not embarrass the leading friends. Finally, we obeyed the decision and took China Southern Airlines. They chose Malaysia Airlines. It can be said that at this moment, our group had different fates. Many friends know our whereabouts and call to say hello. Death is too close to us! For us, nine travelers are not nine ordinary names, but living people who walk with each other vividly!