A silver jewelry box is lying on my table. The carved patterns on it seem to tell a story about an unforgettable and special backpacking trip to Tibet and Nepal.
I love traveling, but I hate traveling with the travel agency because of a past awful experience. I prefer to hang out alone or with only few friends, not too many people. In the winter vacation before I graduated from high school, I saw a documentary from the internet. It showed me sights and culture in Nepal, a mysterious country at the foot of Himalaya mountain. Even though Nepal is the neighbor of my mother country, I didn’t know anything about it, so I was attracted by its mysterious atmosphere of religion. I became eager to go to Nepal by myself, but I did not dare to tell my parents, it is really adventure for a girl. As expected, my best friend supported me and she wanted to go with me. We began to make plan in secret. At first, we must get over the problem of money, because we did’t want our parents to know until we set out, so we found a part-time job to save money. Meanwhile, gathering information and making travel line took us a long and hard time. After preparing for half a year, we were ready to go in summer vacation. I never forget the expression when I told my parents what I will do only one week ago before setting out, it was difficult to make sure what they thought. To my surprised, they didn’t go against it and my father gave me his new Digital Single Lens Reflex without words.
We two girls, set out at 6 a.m. in a rainy Monday with big backpacks and no luggages. We took the train to Xi’ning, capital of Qinghai province, which is close to Tibet. Because we would like to spend less money as we can, so we choose a long but cheaper distance to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, via Xi’ning. We have decided to go to Lhasa to get the visa to Nepal by bus before we met an old couple when we were having breakfast. We were discussing our plan when they walked toward us and talked to us. They both were Chinese American but did the business in Lhasa, after they knew we were on the way to Tibet, they invited us to get a ride of their truck. Although they were stangers, I don’t know why we trust them very much. It was really lucky and incredible to met them because they not only took us to Lhasa, but also gave us some advice to get to Nepal. Maybe it was a good beginning.
Good times don’t last long. The first trouble came to us after we setting our foot on the way to the border. As we know, Tibet lie on Tibetan Plateau, called the Roof of the World because of the highest altitude, altitude sickness is very common for a person who come from low altitude area just as me. I felt uncomfortable and dizzy, even can’t walk, and the worst was that Herba Rhodiolae didn’t work on me. At last, we found a really small inn in the wood and decided to have a rest. We didn’t realize that the danger was just around the corner, two strange Tibetans followed us for a long distance until this inn. The landlady whispered to us that two strange men stared at us very suspicious which made us feel frightened and want to escape from there, but we haven’t known their intent and I had no power to walk, so the landlady promise to help us pay attention to them. We locked the door and got to sleep quickly because of altitude sickness despite the danger. Maybe one or two hours later, a knock at the door awakened us. That two men was coming! We were afraid to open the door. Fortunately, the landlady with her husband came soon when they heard the huge sound. To our surprised, that two men ran away quickly when they saw someone coming! I was sure that they had guilty consciences. This accient really scared us but we didn’t have any wish to give up, on the contrary, we perfered to challenge more strom just as in life.
The success appeared to be very close because we were close to Nepal. One day, we lost way and got into a place that be around of many huge stones with Tibetan, prayer flags and Buddha. Local people told us that there was the place for Celestial Burial, a religious, mysterious and scared burial in Tibet which the bodies are exposed to birds of prey. Although I knew this traditionl, it was the first time I saw Celestial Burial. Local Tibetans cut the body and put it on a sacrificial altar, then many vultures came to eat. It was very holy in local Tibetans’ eyes and their religion, only people who has important status could be treat like this. The situation scared me and made me realize that human was really insignificant in front of nature. Maybe we can’t fight against nature, so we must enjoy our life.
It was a beautiful dusk when we arrived at the border, the moment that I set my foot on the land of Nepal I had a sense of achievement. There were still some accidents on our way such as miss the bus from the border to capitai, etc, but the rest of time fulled with happy and excited in our memories. The most precious present in my trip was got a friend in Nepal. She is a Nepali girl who was born and raised up in Kathmandu with her father and had an English name Wennie. We met Wennie in her father’s restaurant. We three girls had so many topics in common to share even nationality and background were different, it was imagine as I think. The most happiest time in our trip was went to many beautiful places with Wennie, she became our excellent tour guide at last. We climbed the snow mountain, went shopping to buy some special local product in the old market, visit some old temples and even went adventuring in forest. My camera couldn’t store all of this happiness.
After staying at Nepal for a month, it was time to set our foot on the way home. Wennie and her father drived a car sending us to the border between Nepal and China. It was really a hard time to say goodbye，we exchanged E-mail address and promised to keep in touch, I’m sure we will meet again in the future.
We came back to Chengdu via Lhasa by coach, just to thank the couple for their help and give them a gift from Nepal. Then, we went straight home with lots of gifts, photos and beautiful memories. I think this journey just like our life, not only have happy time, but also have some trobles, dangers and sadness. In addition, we have known the truth of life and met some people and even got friends just as life. I keep in touch with Wennie up to now I came to the US.
I want to give thanks to all the people gave a hand to us even we didn’t know most of their name. Although this tour not went well all the way, we met many troubles difficult to details, I dreamt of traveling again like this. Maybe someone think it is impetuous, but Follow my heart is my motto.
I look forward to the next traveling far away.
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