Festival of nine travelers in eight years

Eight years ago in late February, we traveled to Nepal for 13 days, which was an unforgettable experience of passing by with death.

On the morning of March 7th, 2065438 1 1 shook hands with Chen Yun, Yang Xiaoming, Hou Aiqin, Ding Ying, Tang, Yang Qingyuan, Yang Yiling and Song Chunling at the gate of a hotel in Kathmandu, and boarded the Malaysia Airlines plane. 10 hours later, their flight MH370 lost contact with the ground forever. Nine of them and 2 18 passengers on board from all over the world, including 145 China citizens and 12 crew members, are isolated from the world forever!

The motion of this trip was initiated in the winter of 20 13. We have been traveling with Mr. and Mrs. Jiro Wang and Shufang Ling for ten years. I met another group of travelers through Wang Wenjing, whom I met while traveling in Cambodia. So the two groups met and traveled to Nepal at their own expense at the end of February. In order to buy low-priced discounted air tickets as soon as possible, experienced passengers decided to buy their own air 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. They agreed to meet in Kathmandu on the same day and then 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 passengers who came by Malaysia Airlines at noon the day before, formed a tour group, took the same bus and was led by the same tour guide, and started the journey in Nepal.

Before departure, 23 of us stood in two rows at the entrance of the hotel, wearing garlands made of flowers presented by Nepalese tour guides, leaving a group photo with a bright smile.

After that, 23 people had several group photos and sent them to each other to share after meeting in Beijing, but unfortunately there was no way.

During the 12 days of traveling together, we visited the Himalayan Snow Mountain, walked into Hindu temples and palaces, rode elephants through virgin forests, rowed canoes on strange and quiet rivers, enjoyed the unique dances of local ethnic groups, experienced the grand occasion of Shiva Festival and ascetic monks everywhere, followed the footsteps of Sakyamuni in Lumbini, experienced the hardships of Tang Priest and tasted the joy given by nature.

Among the nine passengers of Malaysia Airlines, only Zhang Xuewen is an old friend. He is in his sixties. We swam through Changbai Mountain together a few years ago. He is a soldier, likes collecting, and has a loud and generous voice. When swimming in Fava Lake, four people took a boat. Each boat is equipped with 1 rowers, and tourists can row together. This lake is the second largest in Nepal. It is several kilometers long and its water is clear. There is a Hindu temple in the middle of the lake. If Boccara is called the Swiss of the East, this lake can be associated with Lake Lucerne. Zhang Xuewen took many photos of us on another ship.

One morning, we took photos in the courtyard of a beautiful hotel. Xing pointed to the outside of the hotel and said to Lao Zhang, look, that woman is carrying a basket of things up the slope. It's really a wall separated by two days. We went to India once a few years ago, and the environment was amazing. I didn't expect the situation in Kathmandu to be worse than that in India. Buildings and public facilities are more backward, there is no centralized control cable, and the wires in the street are hanging in the air in piles. Without viaducts, overpasses and subways, the streets are always blocked in a mess; Except for the central area, garbage is piled up everywhere, and it seems that it has never been cleaned. Because of the dry climate, the streets are always dusty. In Nepal, wearing a mask on weekdays has become a scene. So are their locals. On the afternoon of March 6, Lao Zhang bought a silver pot at 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 bags at the speed of a soldier. Ding Dong took his suitcase and put him on the bus all the time, and made an appointment to meet him in Beijing. Along the way, Wen Xue and Zhao Cheng shared a guest room, and talked for several hours every night, covering everything from family affairs to current China to world events. They exchanged views wholeheartedly and became good friends. Regarding Wen Xue's death, Zhao Cheng said sadly: "I am happy with it, new friends, sad and sad, leaving."

The other eight are all new friends. Among them, Yang Qingyuan and Tang are a couple. They behave gracefully and don't talk much. The other six are ladies, mostly enthusiastic photographers, wearing a tripod and other full set of photographic equipment, welcoming the sunrise and sending the sunset every day, 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.

Several people in the team used the names of flowers to send WeChat messages, such as wisteria and lilacs, and we followed suit. I can feel from the sound that they are living 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 right away. Lilac's real name is Ding Ying, 62 years old. On a driving trip, Chen Yun played a joke on us with his mobile phone. The voice is as good as the announcer. Only after the whole car laughed did he know that the recorder was lilac. Along the way, they talked and laughed, 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 want to ride an elephant into the forest, I am afraid that Ding Dong will be bitten by mosquitoes without a hat. Laila immediately took off her hat and gave it to Ding Dong, saying, "I still have it." Ding Dong celebrated his birthday on this trip. The flowers sang "Happy Birthday to you" to congratulate him. Everyone shared the cake presented by the travel agency at the hotel on the top of the mountain.

Ms. Chen Yun, born in 1957, is a teacher of Institute of Fashion Technology. She just retired. This time, she took the initiative to play the role of the leader, responsible for the whole process of communication with the tour guide. She has more travel experience. Nepal has rugged roads and bumpy cars. She is afraid that someone will get carsick. She took out the ointment prepared in advance and cut it into small pieces, suggesting that friends who are prone to carsickness stick it on their navel. We sat in the row behind her. Xing has an old habit of carsickness. She put on the plaster she gave, and it really worked. During the trip, everyone wanted to sing to relieve fatigue. She took the lead in singing Beauty of Grassland, and Xing 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 turns out that she is still a member of the amateur choir.

We climbed on foot to peace tower, the world of Pokhara. The mountain there is so steep that only two women in the group can climb it 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 talked. It turns out that we are all the first batch of college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination in 77. She graduated from Beijing Institute of Chemical Technology. I talked about Wang and he cut in line. She said that she was her college classmate, so she shook hands with each other. 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, 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 irreparable regret!

The last scenic spot we went to together was the Great Buddha Pagoda in Kathmandu. Finally, the sun has not set. When boarding the bus to the restaurant, Chen Yun called for regret. She said, what a wonderful picture it would be if you could photograph the golden stupa at sunset! I wish I could jump out of the car and take some photos. We travelers who don't do photography can hardly achieve her obsession with chasing light and shadow!

Chen Yun, Ding Ying, Yang Xiaoming, Jiro Wang, Shufang Ling and Zhao Cheng didn't enjoy themselves enough when they went to Boccara, where they could watch the snow peaks in the Himalayas at close range. They took part in another project in Kathmandu: flying directly to Mount Everest in a small plane made in Switzerland, overlooking the magnificent scenery of the roof of the world, hovering back and forth for an hour, and when they came back, they lamented that they were glad you came!

Ms. Hou Aiqin is the youngest in the group, 45 years old. She comes from Shouyang, Shanxi, and she founded a liquefied gas company in partnership with a friend, and also owns an invention patent. Sudden food poisoning hit her hardest, and vomiting and diarrhea have been dehydrated. She wants to give up her trip and buy another plane ticket to return to China. A fellow doctor enthusiastically arranged to send Hou Aiqin to Kathmandu International Hospital for infusion, which quickly freed her from her illness and restored her strength and fun. When she learned that Xing was a university teacher, she discussed with us: Her daughter works 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's better not to go to graduate school. She likes to work in the media, and what is important is the accumulation of work experience. For example, the media requires a wide range of knowledge and needs to supplement relevant knowledge through self-study; The media needs to cultivate its own team of authors, and it depends on long-term communication and exchange, 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. She planned to go back and discuss it with her daughter. She heard that we like Shanxi cuisine and warmly invited us to visit her home after returning home. Who had expected that gastroenteritis was only a small disaster for her, and a bigger disaster was yet to come. If I had known this, I would have let her go home early!

When we were discussing how to take China Southern Airlines and Malaysia Airlines respectively to reduce the cost of air tickets, Jiro Wang, Shufang Ling and I were on our way to Tianjin TEDA Art Museum. We said that when we take China Southern Airlines or Malaysia Airlines, we should obey the arrangement and not embarrass our 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 has a different fate. Many friends know our whereabouts and call to say hello. Death is too close to us! For us, nine travelers are not nine common names, but living people, walking together vividly with each other!