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Memoirs of the Three Kingdoms - Sri Lanka (2)
That girl’s name is Anaya
阝 勹
廴 博
Si
Anaya is definitely one of the most resolute girls I have ever seen. When I met her for the first time, she was wearing a pair of loose trousers and a linen waistcoat. She was holding a cup of tea in her hand and looking at it with a smile. Miss Liu and I.
Meeting interesting people while traveling is one of my goals every time, so naturally I struck up a conversation with Anaya. Anaya is from Australia, and her parents are both doctors. This time she also wanted to come to Sri Lanka to relax and learn about the local culture. Her plan is to use a budget of 500 Australian dollars to spend her two weeks in Sri Lanka and see as much as possible the places she wants to see. After this trip to Sri Lanka, she will go to India to find her yoga teacher and learn Yoga. When Ms. Liu heard that Anaya was going to India alone, she immediately felt a cold sweat for her. Like many girls, Ms. Liu had a certain fear of going to India alone.
She did not bring her mobile phone or computer. She held a map in her hand and talked to us about her travel plans. Staying away from electronic devices and the Internet during travel seems to be a unique way of traveling for her. The day I talked to her, she had decided to leave Mont Lavinia, and her next destination was the holy city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. I didn’t know what kind of place it was at the time, but what she said seemed to be similar to the Buddha’s The story was related, and she was particularly interested in this period of history.
Later I learned that Anuradhapura is the oldest city in Sri Lanka, with a history of 2,500 years. It became the capital of Sri Lanka in 380 BC and was the seat of Sri Lanka's royal power for the next thousand years. The ruins of the ancient imperial city were discovered in the 19th century and are still under renovation. It is a world cultural heritage. The glory of the past can still be clearly felt. There is a very famous Bodhi tree here, which is a spiritual symbol for Buddhists.
Ms. Liu and I had no plans ourselves, and we didn’t want to stay in Mont Lavinia for a long time. We discussed and planned to go to the holy city of Anuradhapura with Anaya. After Anaya heard about our wishes, she was very happy to have someone to go with us. After making the decision, we packed our things and prepared to leave for our new destination on June 23, 2017. Before leaving, Ms. Liu insisted on going to the same restaurant where she ate on the first day to eat the chicken there. She said she was afraid that she would never be able to eat such clean food again. Later it turned out that Ms. Liu's worry was not entirely unreasonable.
Colombo Railway Station
On the morning of June 23, we dragged our suitcases and rented a tuk-tuk with Anaya to the train station. The queue to buy tickets at the train station was extremely long, giving us the illusion that we were in China. I took a closer look and suddenly found that "Uncle Hongtongtong" was also at the train station, and he was asking people for money again. With a strong sense of justice, I quietly walked up to the person who was asking for money and said, "Don't believe him, he is a liar." My actions stopped a new scam in time.
Anaya and I were in line, and Ms. Liu was looking at our bags outside. It was the first time I bought a train ticket in Sri Lanka, and I felt a little nervous. What if I couldn't tell where I was going? I kept reciting Anuradhapura silently in my mind, for fear that I would pronounce it wrong and pronounce it as another place name. After a long wait, I was finally in line. As a result, there were no seat tickets, so I had to buy standing tickets with Ms. Liu. The image of my Indian friends hanging on the train suddenly appeared in my mind, and I didn’t dare to think about it anymore. .
After buying the tickets, we met Anaya and went to the station to wait for the bus. Anaya seemed to have bought a first-class seat with seats. Sometimes Anaya really doesn’t treat herself badly in some details! She asked us to sneak into the upper class seats with her, but we were too timid to do so for fear of being kicked off the train. In fact, for me, standing tickets is a new experience.
The railway station in Colombo is dilapidated, and it has the feel of China in the 1970s and 1980s, but I have an indescribable love for this dilapidation. It seems that this primitive beauty is more likely to inspire people to create.
The car heading to our destination gradually drove towards us. Anaya and we went to different carriages and made an appointment to meet when we got off the car. She didn't have a mobile phone with her, so we could only find each other by feeling.
Things on the train
In the train, we were almost out of breath from the heat. I helped Ms. Liu hold her bag, and then sat on my suitcase with another small bag. After sitting for about a while, she kept asking me She winked, and then lowered her voice and asked me to come to her, without saying why. There were several people between us, and I couldn't move my body at all, so I was really a little angry at her request, but in the end I couldn't stand her winking at me, so I just sent it between a few burly men. .
I said, "Classmate Liu, what do you want to do? It's not over yet." She whispered into my ear, "Someone is trying to eat me." After hearing this, I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I comforted her that she was overthinking. It must be because it is too crowded and others have no choice but to do so. She insisted that she was being screwed and said she wanted to change cars. I couldn't do anything to her, so we dragged our big and small bags to the train door and sat there. A special feature of trains in Sri Lanka is that the doors and windows can be opened. From time to time, you can see people hanging on the doors to take pictures or look from a distance. Of course, most of them are locals. This time I am lucky enough to experience such a way of riding. It is simply amazing. The best reward of traveling on a budget.
The first half of the train is along the coast, which is the part of the legendary seaside train in Spirited Away. Watching the waves lapping at the coast, seagulls circling on the shore, the sunlight making it difficult to open my eyes, the sea breeze accelerated by the train, blowing on my face, giving me a dizzy feeling of being intoxicated with happiness. Ms. Liu was a little afraid to sit over at first, but seeing me enjoying it so much, she couldn’t help but come over and turn on the selfie mode. For a moment, I had the feeling of traveling back in time, strong, courageous, and free. Miss Liu has now become Mrs. Liu and has her own family. I am very fortunate that as a pair of friends for ten years, we can bravely embark on this journey together. I don’t know if she will ever have the opportunity to wear a ponytail and join such an arduous trip in the future. At least we have had such memories, which is enough.
Anuradhapura
After a long journey, with fewer and fewer people on the train, we arrived at our destination Anuradhapura. Fortunately, Anaya and we got off the train at the same time, and it didn’t take long to find each other.
Anuradhapura railway station
In fact, the place we live is not far from the train station. Because the tuk-tuk charges are too high, Anaya feels that they are dishonest, so she decides to walk to the destination. As she said this, Anaya took out her map. Because I didn’t know the specific location, I could only follow her and follow the map. Anaya used her excellent sense of direction to find a big house based on the map, but the owner seemed not to be there. After waiting at the door for a long time, the bored Ms. Liu started taking selfies again. When she became interested in taking selfies, I usually asked her to take a few pictures for me.
Finally, the door slowly opened, and an old lady poked her head out and asked if we were the residents today, and then welcomed us in. In order to save money, we lived in the same room as Anaya. Ms. Liu and Anaya slept in the big bed, and I slept in the small bed. We made do for two nights. After putting away our things, we went to the supermarket in town to buy some daily necessities, and found a restaurant to eat some food. The only things we were used to eating in Sri Lanka were fried noodles and rice bowls.
Waiting for grandma to open the door
"Gold Trading" Interlude
Let me tell you something funny. At that time, I was actually involved in a dodgy gold business. You must be thinking that Davis was actually buying and selling gold behind his back. How awesome!
It makes me cry when I say this. This business was negotiated with a middleman in Uganda, and then this middleman was followed by countless other small middlemen. Due to lack of experience at the time, I was thrown around. The buyer I contacted went there at that time. Uganda has already connected with the seller, and I was really ready to fly to Uganda to do gold trading, complete the transaction and reach the peak of my life. Thinking about it now, I was so naive at the time. I actually thought that since money was so easy to make, being a backpacker would be more in line with my personality.
I said to Miss Liu: "We may go to Uganda. Are you ready?"
Miss Liu said: "We are going to Africa? It's so exciting! What about our next trip?"
I said: "We will come back only after the transaction is completed. When you get there, stay in the hotel and don't come out. I will participate in the negotiations."
Ms. Liu said: "Okay, I really want to go to Africa! The promised trip to the Three Kingdoms is actually going to become "The Bourne Supremacy"!"
I said, "We will probably have to find a hotel close to the airport at any time. The buyer will pay for our air tickets and accommodation."
Ms. Liu was so excited that she couldn't sleep during those two days, as if she was really going to Africa, just like in the movie. Now that I think about it, Ms. Liu was actually willing to go on an adventure with me in Africa. She was really courageous at that time.
Of course, in the end, it turned out that there were a lot of tricks in the deal, and it didn't come to fruition. We didn't need to go to Africa anymore, and my dream of getting rich was shattered in the end. But this deal with the African middlemen delayed us for several days. journey.
However, without the pressure of unrealistic gold dreams, I feel much more relaxed and I can continue to complete my trip with peace of mind. The buyer told me that when he went to meet the seller, a group of them all had guns in their hands. Because the middleman did not truthfully explain all the circumstances when communicating with us, the seller slapped him and made him cry. I was really scared after hearing this, and since then I have never thought about making money in this unrealistic and high-risk way.
When I returned to that inn, I had to complain. Not only did there not be hot water for bathing, but we also had to pay extra for everything. None of us were particularly satisfied and planned to check out the next day after visiting the planned location. The weather was really too hot, so we took turns to take a cold shower. After the shower, Ms. Liu and Anaya slept in the same bed. She was a little excited. This was her first time sleeping with friends from other countries. A bed, she is like this, every time she will be excited for a long time because of something during the trip. That night, we chatted a lot with Anaya and fell asleep slowly while chatting.
The next day we got up early and went to a famous temple in Sri Lanka. There was a pagoda and a Bodhi tree inside. I really can’t name the specific name. I remember that there were many believers wearing white clothes and barefoot entering the temple in an endless stream that day. We were also asked to take off our shoes before entering. I won’t go into details about the specific details in the temple. You can basically find the relevant information by searching online for guides. Here are some pictures left at the temple.
Various things in the temple
After leaving the temple, Anaya wanted to go to another historical site to explore, but because the tickets were relatively expensive, Miss Liu and I planned to leave first and end today's journey. Because we planned to change to a youth hostel to stay first after we returned, so we had to Officially bid farewell to Anaya. We all gave her a big hug. She was the first friend we met on our trip and one of the most enthusiastic people we met. They brought us to this ancient city and promoted our trip. The plan is really a bit reluctant to part with. When she was leaving, she left her email address with us, hoping that we would have some interesting things to share with her in the future. She said that she was almost finished her trip to Sri Lanka and was very grateful for our company. After finishing the trip, She will go to India as scheduled to find her yoga teacher and further practice her heart and mind.
That day, I randomly searched for another youth hostel on my mobile phone, and then we packed up and moved again, saying goodbye to the big house of a weird old lady without hot water. I remember that I didn’t seem to have a Sri Lanka phone card at the time, so I couldn’t use the map as soon as I left the WIFI, so we needed to ask for directions everywhere.
At that time, we found a store owner at a canteen and asked for directions. He described Datong to us, but we didn’t quite understand what it meant. We were about to ask the next person. Unexpectedly, at this time, he took out his tuk-tuk and wanted to take us there. past. Miss Liu pulled my clothes again and said, "Don't go with him, he will definitely ask you for money. Don't you remember the lessons learned a few times before?"
I didn't argue with Ms. Liu, thinking that even if I gave her money, I wouldn't be able to give much. But this time Ms. Liu was slapped in the face. The driver took us to the destination completely obligatedly without charging any money. I still planned to give him some money, but he didn't ask for it.
In the end, Ms. Liu bravely admitted that there are still opportunities to meet good people while traveling. I was secretly happy. After several slaps in the face, I once again gained the upper hand in the debate about human nature.
We just stayed in that youth hostel for one night, and then we left the Holy City the next day and headed to a small Ragama near Colombo, ready to fly to Uganda at any time.
Of course at that time, I didn’t know if the gold business could be successful, haha! So the two days of Raganma were delayed!
To be continued…………