Traveling alone

When I had a family, I couldn’t even think about traveling. When I broke free from the fetters, this idea popped up involuntarily.

I want to travel around the world, like Xu Xiake, without riding a car or riding a horse, just relying on my two feet. Leave your own footprints on every inch of the motherland.

However, I can't.

Today's world is turbid, people's hearts are not as old as they used to be, the rivers are declining, and theft and abduction are pervasive and ubiquitous. How can I, a female prostitute, sail as I please? Even if it is a gust of wind or a leaf, it cannot be blown randomly and drifted by the wind. Not to mention a woman.

Alone, okay! But a woman is not necessarily good.

If you are a man, as long as you are not greedy for petty gains and are more vigilant, there seems to be nothing to worry about. But as a woman, vigilance alone is not enough. Even if you are not greedy for petty gains, women still have a lot to worry about.

Therefore, I can neither use my feet to measure rivers and mountains like Xu Xiake did, nor can I rest wherever the horse travels.

However, once the desire for wandering was ignited, it was impossible to extinguish it, so I just picked up my backpack and set off without having time to think about it.

My destination is Xichang, and I want to go to the annual Torch Festival there. Although the Torch Festival is a festival for the Yi, Naxi and Jinuo people, I yearn for it very much.

My yearning for the Yi Torch Festival originated from "Journey to the South" by contemporary writer Ai Wu. "Journey to the South" is a documentary novel written in the first person using the author's personal experience and some people and things he saw and heard when he was wandering in the south of his motherland and the south of Asia. The book's wonderful descriptions of the customs and habits of ethnic minorities, as well as the Torch Festival and Water Splashing Festival, made me very interested in them.

Therefore, I want to experience the Torch Festival in person.

Before this, I had not traveled much. It was my first time traveling alone, and I had no idea what to prepare for a trip, so I encountered a problem on the train to Xichang.

There is no train from Rongchang passing through Xichang. You can only take a bus to Longchang to get on the train. It seems that there is only one train passing through Xichang that leaves at 1pm, and it happens to be dawn when you arrive in Xichang.

I didn’t buy a seated ticket, so I had to stand.

There were three young passengers in a row. Perhaps seeing that I was older, they squeezed out a seat for me, so I sat down.

After midnight, the weather began to get cooler, and the cool wind came in through the open window, making me feel chilly.

I asked the people near the window to close the windows, but several Yi people seemed not to hear me, so I had to endure it. But it didn't take long before I felt like my stomach was churning, my head was dizzy, and I felt like vomiting.

The feeling soon became reality. After vomiting, my stomach felt better, but the feeling in my body only increased.

By the time I got off the bus, I already had a slight fever.

I didn’t care about buying medicine, so I took a bus to an inn not far from Moon Bay. I saw someone commenting on this inn on a forum that it was good, so I decided to stay here.

Unfortunately, the inn is full. I had no choice but to take the bus back to the city to find another accommodation. After looking at several hotels, I finally chose a relatively cheap one; there was no toilet in the room and the price was 20 yuan a day. After taking the medicine, I slept in the hotel for a day and took a bus to Moon Bay early the next morning.

After Moon Bay, I went to Huanglian Tulin. Huanglian Tulin is located in Huanglian Town, 30 kilometers south of Xichang City. It is still several kilometers away from Huanglian Town and cannot be directly accessed by China and Pakistan. The driver said, you get off the car and call a motorcycle taxi, and they will take you directly to Tulin for 8 yuan, and ask him to leave a phone number and ask him to pick you up after the tour.

I said to the driver, Master, please call a motorcycle taxi for me. I am not familiar with them. The purpose of asking the driver to help call the motorcycles is, firstly, to prevent motorcycle riders from randomly bidding on motorcycles, and secondly, to take precautions. If something happens along the way, the driver will be the one with the clue.

As the motorcycle carried me towards the forest, I couldn’t help but secretly feel grateful for my smart move.

Huanglian Town is at least five or six kilometers away from Tulin. Not to mention not a single pedestrian, not even a car was seen along the way. Although the soil forest is at the foot of Luoji Mountain, the way there is full of twists and turns, going up and down. From the starting point to the ending point, we are traveling through the mountains. If the motorcycle driver has evil intentions, steals money, and throws people off the cliff on the left, it is simply unnoticed.

I have never seen a stone forest before, and this was my first time in an earth forest. When I saw it, I was immediately amazed.

The vast soil forest looks like a huge bonsai. Some resemble ancient castles, some are like vast forests, and some are like long swords leaning against the sky. "The Jade Girl Worships the Birthday" and "The Fairy Looks at the Moon" are lifelike; "Rejuvenate the Aged" and "The Fairy Sends the Peach" are even more lifelike.

What’s even weirder is that there is actually an “Animal World” and a “Golden Forest”.

Look at the earthen forests on the hillside. Some look like galloping horses, and some resemble pandas. There are also various sights such as lions and tigers fighting, monkeys playing, and frightened deer walking through the forest.

The most charming thing is the yellow "golden forest", which is staggered and scattered, with different thicknesses, and the height is as high as 30 meters. Its graceful appearance and majestic and upright momentum are really a rare natural wonder.

The Huanglian Earth Forest covers an area of ??about 1.3 square kilometers. It was originally a crusty surface of loess and sandstone. Due to years of rain erosion and weathering, these cylindrical artworks were formed. Two million square meters of earth sculpture art are presented in this natural open-air exhibition venue.

What a marvelous workmanship! I admired sincerely. While admiring it, I also wondered why there were no tourists for such a beautiful landscape.

After walking around slowly for a long time, I finally saw two male tourists in front of a towering forest. I could tell from the costumes and photography equipment of the two tourists that they were government personnel. The man in his early forties may be an official, and the young man in his twenties may be his secretary.

They saw me as I saw them—surprise! But they seemed more surprised to see me than I was to see them.

They said they didn’t expect that there are women who also like such lumps.

I said, I am an anomaly among women.

It was learned during the conversation that they drove here from Chengdu. So I wondered if I could take their car back to Xichang on my return trip. But before I could say anything, the official said, you can take our car back home.

After visiting Tulin, it was already close to twelve o'clock, so the official said we would go to the farmhouse on Luoji Mountain for lunch before returning.

They invited me to lunch again. They killed a native chicken.

This lunch was the most sumptuous meal of my trip to Xichang, and the boss’s cooking skills were also very good.

After lunch, start the return journey.

Return to the hotel in Xichang City. I saw it was still early, so I walked around the city and took a look at the square.

After I went out the next day, I found that I didn’t have much cash on me, so I went to the bank to withdraw money. As a result, there was something wrong with my bank card and I couldn’t use it. I went to the counter to pick it up, but I still couldn't get it.

I have no idea what to do, the Torch Festival is only two days away. If we continue to stay here and wait for the Torch Festival, the travel expenses back may become a problem. Thinking about it, I might as well bear the pain and let go.

After checking out of the hotel, I took the refunded 100 yuan in cash to the Xichang Specialty Supermarket, where I bought some specialties, and then went directly to the train station.

This trip to Xichang was the beginning of my solo travel. I experienced the difficulties and benefits of traveling alone. In comparison, the benefits outweighed the difficulties.

——No bonds, no worries, you can go as you want, stop as you want, everything is at your own will, which is unmatched by a group trip.

Friday, December 25, 2020