I borrowed a copy of "Lone Star China Travel Guide" published in Australia from a foreign teacher at my school, and arranged the journey without leaking: dotted Suzhou gardens, Shanghai Xiaolongbao, stir-fried rice cake with vegetable meat and crab shells on both sides, Huangshan welcoming pine Flying stones, and the sea of clouds that is tumbling and rising.
But in Hangzhou, I didn't expect that my perfect plan was disrupted by a heavy rain and a liar.
When we were going to Lingyin Temple, we were instructed by a kind "passer-by" on the bus and diverted to Qiantang River and got off the bus. Seeing that he took the money for the small motorcycle on the roadside, we had no choice but to be loaded on the travel guide. Skip the "Dragon Road" of Nine Creeks and Eighteen Streams. In the car, I was downcast, even frustrated, but I never thought I saw green eyes! Yellowish verdant green, translucent emerald green, reflected water green, layered dark green, and intermittently dotted with purple, thick kudzu, green ash, set off against the curved and wet gravel path, soaked with smoke, water and mist, along the dense The forest of Zaza hides into the depths of the mountain, except for the occasional sound of cars, only the sound of water, birds and footsteps. At the end of the road, overlooking the low tea plantation on Shifeng Mountain in the misty rain, the smell of grass mixed with the moist atmosphere diffused and dissipated, and the fragrance of tea floated from the faint farmhouse courtyard wall. On the way down the mountain, two peacocks suddenly appeared in a shade of greenery, with their oil-green necks stretched and shrunk, dragging their bright long tails, and pacing slowly, so surprisingly that they could not speak.
American director Wes Anderson also portrayed this unexpected pleasure during the journey in the 2007 movie "Crossing Darjeeling".
The three Whiteman brothers had no contact for a year. The eldest brother Francis had a serious car accident. After he was discharged from the hospital, he decided to summon the three brothers to India and take the Darjeeling train through the town. Francis's arrangements for this important itinerary can be described as meticulously prepared. He hired a personal assistant to print out the attractions and temples that he needed to visit early in the morning, and the plastic stamper was stuffed into the first-class box of the three brothers from the crack of the door. But this meticulous arrangement did not reduce the estrangement between the three brothers. They had to endure each other's stinking problems-the arbitrariness of the eldest brother, the gloom of the second child, and the nervousness of the third child. They even had their own ghosts and decided to flee, until they were accidentally kicked off the train, the assistant resigned, and all the plans were messed up.
But because of this accident, the three brothers rescued two children who fell into the water and participated in a funeral of Indian customs. They have never united like they are now, throwing off their burdens and looking for the lost motherly love, until everyone finally finds themselves.
Look, this is the wonder of travel. No matter how you plan and arrange, there will always be unpredictable encounters, unpredictable risks, and the romance and surprises that come from it in an unknown and unfamiliar world. Of course, it may not all be the romance of Paris "Before Sunrise", it may also be the embarrassment of "Midnight Run", and even the self-exiled kid in "Into the Wild" is as unlucky as the self-exiled kid who died in a foreign land. But no matter what kind of journey, what is finally settled in memory is often not the beautiful scenery in the plan, but the problems, anxiety, contradictions, and the courage and determination to finally embrace the unknown and variables.
Then, more importantly, is the reflection on the return that I finally realized after leaving. Just like the three White brothers finally reunited with their mother in a mountain temple in Nepal, and the family’s silent communication, we once again saw the Darjeeling, carrying fresh life, with loneliness, helplessness, confusion, and loneliness. Anxi, rushed from one station to the next, crowded without stopping.
It turns out that everyone is traveling. Life is a journey. From birth to death, from youth to twilight, from this to the other end. The destination is important, and the scenery along the way is even more indispensable; but the most memorable thing is the repeated accidents, accidents, surprises, and even frustrations, mistakes, and losses. We are always looking, looking for ways to relieve homesickness, looking for the meaning of travel, looking for the outline of the destination. Then, without any surprise, suddenly looking back, the lights dimmed.
In the movie "The Last Week", Ben Taylor, who is terminally ill, traverses Canada westward, looking for the "Grampusch Beast" at the end of his life, and finally realizes that the most cherished thing in life is to turn around and continue to live. ; Christopher in "Into the Wilderness" finally wrote at the end of his life that "happiness must be shared"; and at the end of "Crossing Darjeeling", the three brothers abandoned the LV suitcase left by their father and chased the train back to their lives.
Turn around and go home.
It turns out that the meaning of travel never lies in the journey itself. Thousands of mountains and rivers, all just for the back of the back who turned around, just to let us finally rush to our hometown from afar.
"Open" Magazine Issued in May 2010
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