How many passengers have you picked up on your self-driving trip to Tibet?

When I entered Tibet in July 2014, I picked up 11 passengers while driving alone. At that time, the folk customs were relatively simple, but what about these years? unknown! In addition to the epidemic situation, there are also uncertain factors on the road to Tibet, which are complicated and complicated. Bringing one more passenger along with you will naturally bring you more unknown risks. However, it is quite interesting to think back on the travelers I took with me:

"Who is not a passer-by?" The road is the master! 》

Twelve Graces of Tongyun/Lin Xusheng

Reliving a glass of wine is enough to soothe the wind and dust.

Walking through the bumpy road, pursuing the heart of culture and travel.

Enjoy the hard work and relieve the boredom.

Who is not a passerby? The road is the master!

The first passenger was a college student from Zhuji, Xiao Cai. I picked him up when I passed by Chaka Salt Lake. Xiao Cai majored in physical education and has not yet found a job after graduation. He likes the scenery of the west and has been to many places in the northwest provinces. In his words, it is a "budget travel experience." After arriving in Lhasa, he sent me a message saying that I was the best driver he had ever encountered during his ride-along trip.

What I don’t understand is that a young person like Xiao Cai doesn’t go to work, but spends his time on long-term travel, eating his parents’ money to find the feeling of being on the road and encountering cultural landscapes. , but he doesn’t want to go, he is only interested in the natural scenery. What is he traveling to experience?

For young people who are traveling on a budget, "one person has enough to eat, and the whole family is not hungry". They yearn for "poetry and distant places";

For "old people above, people below" For a middle-aged person with a family, "If you don't care about it, how can you come far away?"

The second passenger was someone I took the initiative to stop and pick up. On the climbing section of Tanggula Mountain, a shadow wearing a military coat pulled a small cart filled with supplies, staggering forward in the wind and snow.

When I got off the bus and saw this figure, my first impression was that she was a Tibetan compatriot. When the Beijing dialect came out of her unkempt hair, I realized that the person in front of me was a big girl from Beijing. Although his hair is messy and his face is tanned, he speaks well and looks handsome. In her usual attire before entering Tibet, she must have been a tall and graceful beauty. This girl who is two years older than me (I accidentally glanced at her information when I handed in my ID card at the speed limit station, her surname is Tian, ??I can’t remember her name clearly), has been walking from Xining for more than a month, and today Only then did we reach the foot of Tanggula Mountain.

According to her, at first there was a college student who was traveling with her. She wanted to take advantage of the summer vacation to plan a hiking trip to Lhasa. However, after reaching the Rubber Mountain, the college student could not persist. , the cold night made it difficult for him, who was ill-prepared, to suffer in the tent, and immediately gave up. But the Beijing girl is still moving forward persistently, and her destination is naturally the Buddha's land - Lhasa.

My parking inadvertently disrupted the Beijing girl’s hiking plan, but she still got into my car after hesitation, and then said on the other end of the phone, "Hiking plan" Canceled, I think I found what I needed!"

In Langkazi County, I took along a Tibetan girl who was going to the county town for business and two aunts who delivered highland barley to the temple. The car was almost out of gas at that time. I was gliding from Yanghu Lake and controlled the fuel supply all the way. I was worried that it would stall due to lack of fuel halfway. I went to Langkazi County just to cheer up, so I took these three Tibetan ladies on my way.

After arriving at the gas station, the two aunts got out of the car after knowing that I was no longer going forward. I took out the two large bags of highland barley they were going to give to the temple from the trunk and watched them leave. The young and beautiful girl got off the car last and asked me if I would continue to Gyantse after refueling. When she learned that I was planning to return, she left in dismay (thinking about it now, why not go to Gyantse if I accompany her for a while?!) .

On the return trip, I did not stop in Lhasa and stayed overnight in a small hotel in Damxung County. Early the next morning, before the car left Damxion County, it was stopped by a policeman. It turned out that the car was going to Nagqu County.

The 800-kilometer nightmare road from Nagqu to Golmud has a speed limit of 70 kilometers and no cameras. However, the average speed is calculated by receiving a handwritten speed limit strip, which indirectly limits the speed. There was a policeman sitting in the passenger seat, so naturally my car couldn’t go very fast. When driving in Tibet, slow is fast because of safety.

Leaving Nagqu County, we entered the vast plateau grasslands of northern Tibet. On the way, I was stopped by a motorcycle. It turned out that a herdsman wanted me to give him a ride for more than ten kilometers.

The northern part of Nagqu is basically an uninhabited land. It is the section with the highest average altitude on the Qinghai-Tibet line. On the bumpy road in the middle of nowhere, I carried a herdsman who was very smelly. The inside was filled with mixed gas, and the smell of butter was mixed with an indescribable smell. After arriving at the herdsman's destination, he got out of the car and spoke to me with a grateful expression in Tibetan that Dulu couldn't understand. They were probably some blessing words!

After arriving at Anduo, I was waved and stopped by two young men, a man and a woman.

Among the two, a resigned girl from Wenzhou and a long-haired boy from Hangzhou. They look like a couple, but they don't look like a couple. They both quit their jobs and travel.

Unlike the previous passengers, this boy from Hangzhou can drive a manual transmission car, so I sat in the passenger seat and dozed off for a while. In the end, I was awakened by his unskilled driving and bumpy road conditions.

On the Qinghai-Tibet Line in summer, due to excessive rainfall, many sections of the frozen soil roadbed are soaked and washed away. When the car arrived at the Freezing Spring, the roadbed was washed away by thawing snow, causing a long-distance traffic jam. By the time I moved the car to the ice-free spring, it was already early in the morning. The three of us stayed in a Muslim inn with only one room left. The girl, like the two men, slept fully clothed.

Driving long distances requires a lot of hard work, a dreamless night, and a bright night's sleep. The next morning, the water in the non-freezing spring would still freeze at night. After washing with the ice water outside, the three of them drove to Xidatan in a car.

In Xidatan, there is the Kunlun Mountain Mineral Water Factory, and there is a trail to the distant Yuzhu Peak. Nearby are the towering Kunlun Mountains and the base of the divine soldiers who protect the family and the country. As soon as I got off Xidatan, my car was restricted. To avoid the passage of military vehicles, I had to wait for 30 minutes. During this time, a traffic policeman suggested that we take advantage of our free time to visit the newly opened Wuji Dragon and Phoenix Palace in Kunlun Mountain.

Kunlun Mountain, the ancestor of all mountains in my country, does not have the mysterious "Kunlun Sect" in martial arts novels. This barren land with high cold and low oxygen, where birds do not lay eggs and is deserted, has martial arts masters here Carrying out heavy-duty Kung Fu training will avoid emphysema or dizziness due to altitude sickness. It wasn't until July 15, 2014, the day I passed by Wuji Dragon and Phoenix Palace, that the first Taoist temple was established on this Taoist sacred mountain. The "Towering Kunlun", the source of all mountains in our country's mythology system, more often than not represents a kind of spiritual sustenance in the "distant utopia", while the Kunlun sect, the major martial arts sect in the novel, will appear after you come to Kunlun Mountain. I found that it was just the master's magic pen of "if there is no similarity, it is really different".

After watching the consecration ceremony and seeing Brother Bing’s chariot off, we drove down the Kunlun Pass and rushed to Golmud. At the fork into Golmud City, I parted ways with the Zhejiang man and woman. They planned to go to Delingha, while I wanted to return to my hometown in Henan.

The road is long. Although the altitude has dropped to 4,000 meters, the road is long and it is easy for a single person to get sleepy. At Chaka Salt Lake, I couldn't find a hotel to stay in, so I had to keep going. It was too cold to sleep in the car without a quilt, and it would freeze me to death. At around one o'clock in the morning, my car entered the territory of ***he County, and I vaguely saw a small hotel. After entering, the boss said that there were no rooms left. If you don't mind, you can share a room with a cyclist who has already checked in. sleep.

On my way to Tibet, I overcame difficulties such as sleeping in a room with multiple people, sleeping with men and women in the same room, smelly quilts, rotten bed boards, altitude sickness, etc. Sleeping in the same room with a strange man was not a problem. What to worry about.

When I got up the next day, I found that the cyclist in the same room had not gotten up yet. It was probably because he was too exhausted and the sun was shining on his buttocks. The brother was still sleeping like a piglet and snoring loudly. After glancing at the Merida mountain bike in the room, I took the package and closed the door.

After paying the 50 yuan accommodation fee, I was stopped by the store owner as soon as I started my car. I thought the money was too little, but I didn't expect that the young shopkeeper brought me a beautiful woman. It turned out that the boss's wife wanted to go to the Black Horse River and asked me to give her a ride.

Riyue Mountain, Daotang River, and Qinghai Lake can be seen when you reach Heima River. I am a person who "sees color and forgets justice" (sees beautiful scenery and forgets beautiful women). When I see the magnificent "scenery" of Qinghai Lake under the clear sky and white clouds, I can't even look at the beautiful Hui boss who gave me a ride. I can’t even remember it!

There is also a young beauty whom I met while queuing up to enter the Potala Palace Square. After we visited the Potala Palace together, she said she wanted to rush to catch the train. After knowing that I drove to Tibet by myself, , let me see her train ticket (confirmation time is very tight). In the end, I drove her to her residence to pick up her luggage, and then drove her to the station as fast as lightning.

This little girl came to Tibet a few days before me. Her name seems to be Zhang Yi. She took advantage of the gap between leaving her job and changing her job to travel to Tibet from Beijing. She went to Linzhi first, where When I took the photo, I was asked to pay money (at least 10 yuan per cow) because I took a picture of a herdsman's cow. Later, after bargaining, I lost all my money and eliminated the disaster. When he told me about this experience, I sympathized deeply, because when I went to take pictures of Tibetan mastiffs, stones printed with Yamdrok Yumco and Qinghai Lake characters, I had to pay 10 yuan for taking photos. After all, Tibet in 2014 is somewhat different from the customs and customs of the first generation of Tibetan and Lhasa drifters. This may also be the reason why Da Bing once mentioned in his "Travel Trilogy" that "the Tibetan Labyu era can never be returned to"! Because commercialization and marketization are advancing and evolving. In the same way, what is the difference between the hitchhikers of the past and the hitchhikers of today? It’s hard to answer. It must be reflected in the specific circumstances of each driver when he refuses to take passengers.

My overall feeling is that in 2014, most of the Tibetan compatriots I experienced hitchhiking in Tibetan areas were for short distances. Although the people in the pastoral areas were a bit off-putting, most of them were very polite. Among those who travel by car, those who simply travel by car feel that their speech and behavior are more generous.

The Jing sister from Tanggula Mountain offered to give me money every time she went to refuel her car, but I always refused. However, she often paid for my meals first. The other three hitchhikers usually stay in AA accommodation and sometimes take the initiative to pay for my meals.

After the bus arrived at Qinghai Lake, I refused to pick up all the hitchhikers along the way, because Qinghai Lake and the route beyond were no longer deserted and inhabited, and public transportation was available. This is because the altitude is more than 4,000 meters. The uninhabited land of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a different situation.

After returning to Zhengzhou, I saw the earthquake disaster in Nepal at the end of July, and sent a message to the first two hitchhikers on my bus, worried that they would be in danger in Nepal. Later, one of them He messaged me back to tell me he was safe. After that, the experience of being a passenger on this pilgrimage journey was just like the passers-by A and B we met by chance on the road of life. We passed by at a glance. Only when I saw this question and answer question did I remember that I had also experienced such a period. Memories of past events.

Conclusion: Who is not a passer-by? The road is the master! Do you want to stop and pick up passengers? It’s a question of whether it should or shouldn’t! If you want to be carried, you can carry it, if you don’t want to, you can’t carry it. There is no right or wrong. Cars are like clouds of smoke, people are like locusts, the road is still there, everything depends on fate!

Original text: Lin Xusheng, on the night of December 31, 2014