Memoirs of the Three Kingdoms - Sri Lanka (1)
Don't touch that monkey
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F
We are in our youth
Embrace freedom and desire
We are only
Love traveling too much
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Beginning of trip
Recently, I often talk to my friends about my previous experience in Sri Lanka. When I think about it, there are indeed many things that make people laugh or cry. After all, the travel partner combination with Ms. Liu is also a rare one in my travel history. I will be sorry if I don’t cause something. " “Epic” trip.
Since I came back from Nepal last time, I have put this experience on hold. In addition, I went to Canada in the middle, and I don’t have the heart to pick it up again. I always want to calm down and recall it, but every time I haven’t started writing. I can't help but let it go. This time, I had some inspiration because of several mountain town memoirs, and found some motivation to write. But when I suddenly thought about it, I couldn’t remember the names of many places, and the order of the routes was also a mess. In the end, I had to I asked Ms. Liu for help on WeChat, and finally managed to string together the various events in Sri Lanka into a complete story. These stories are like a string of pearls, each one connected together and emitting dazzling light.
Everything goes back to June 2017. At that time, I had already planned the itinerary for traveling to Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Nepal. These three countries were carefully selected by us for budget travel, with low prices and low air tickets. It is cheap and all visas are visa on arrival, electronic visa or visa-free, which saves us a lot of visa troubles to a certain extent.
I finally formally submitted my resignation on the morning of June 21 and left my last job in Shanghai. I had packed everything that day, some of which I was going to take with me on my trip, and the rest was left to my good friend "Brother Jian" in Shanghai to help me pack and send it back to Jiujiang. At that time, Ms. Liu had just finished her volunteer trip on Weizhou Island. After packing her things at home, she took the train to Shanghai and met me at the company that afternoon. When we met, we hugged excitedly. We were both looking forward to this trip, especially since I had already arranged everything clearly, and we just needed to be free to play on this basis. I glanced at Miss Liu's suitcase, smiled knowingly and said, "Are the clothes packed?" She glanced sideways at me and smiled without saying a word. In fact, as early as a month ago, Ms. Liu had already started to buy various styles of clothes for travel photography in a certain store, waiting for this day to come. I will not criticize her love for beauty here.
Pudong Airport
Big and small bags for parting
Ms. Liu and I were sitting on the subway to Pudong Airport with uneasiness in our hearts. Although I have taken this line countless times, only this time it led me to the other side of freedom. Since I have known Ms. Liu since junior high school, my travel records with her are limited to "That Well", Jiujiang's Jijihong Hot Pot Restaurant and KTV. We have never had a real trip together, and this time it was like It was a belated arrangement that was destined to happen, and we were finally going abroad together.
I have been looking at the air tickets from Shanghai to Sri Lanka for a long time. The cheapest day is June 21, about 1,400 yuan. This is probably because there were nationwide floods some time ago, so not so many people went there. You can imagine that I had been working for more than a year, and when I left, I only had more than 10,000 yuan in my pocket and planned to travel to other countries for two months on a budget. What a sour experience it was. As for Ms. Liu, although she has been a volunteer on Weizhou Island for a period of time and does not have a real job, she still has some savings in her pocket from teaching dance, so she is a little richer than me.
First time in Ceylon.Mont Lavinia
The plane departed from Shanghai and finally landed in Colombo. I saw a trace of excitement and nervousness in Ms. Liu's eyes. Except for Thailand, which she had been to with Mr. A before, she seemed to have never been to other countries. There are always new things. It can make her happy. We didn't know at first that the hotel we booked was in Mont Lavinia, which was relatively far away from the airport compared to downtown Colombo. We didn't expect that in order to save some money where we were staying, we would be hit by traffic. It was really hard to guard against. After intense haggling with the driver, we were both very tired, and finally settled on an acceptable price, and we headed to Mont Lavinia.
Mont Lavinia is a small town on the seaside not far from Colombo. The town is not unique, but it is far away from the congestion and noise of the urban area. It was close to noon when we arrived at the place where we were staying. After packing up various large and small bags, Ms. Liu officially began to shift into travel photography mode and took out the clothes she had prepared for today from her suitcase. I accidentally saw a dozen packages of turkey noodles in Ms. Liu’s box. I immediately despised her and blamed her for bringing useless things that took up space. Ms. Liu disagreed and said it was just for emergencies. I thought at that time that no matter how unbearable we were, would we eventually fall into the habit of eating turkey noodles? Unexpectedly, this scene paved the way for the subsequent slap in the face. Ms. Liu will definitely be able to grab my pigtails and repeat this joke for several years in the future.
here and now
Mont Lavinia, Sri Lanka
somewhere on earth
After packing up, Ms. Liu and I dressed like rich Chinese tourists. No one thought that the only valuable property and spiritual support of these two people were the dozen packs of turkey noodles in the box. Not far from where we live is the seaside. We planned to go to enjoy the sea breeze and feel the salty feeling of the seaside in summer. When we walked to the seaside, we discovered the gap between reality and ideals. The sea here is not very beautiful, and there are still many people on the beach. There was a lot of trash, so I decided to take a walk and leave.
Probably because we were dressed too much like tourists, a local uncle came over and asked us if we could go to his restaurant to support his business. He said that he was a victim of the previous tsunami. Ms. Liu was a little scared and pulled me and said: " Go away, go away! He may be a liar." I was also a little worried that I would be cheated, so I couldn't bear to reject him. After a while, we walked towards the town, intending to go there to have something to eat.
The town of Mont Lavinia is really not that big. There are supermarkets, restaurants, and fruit stalls not far from us. We first found a decent restaurant and had a relatively clean lunch. In addition to curry chicken for lunch, we also ordered juice. and desserts. Ms. Liu was very satisfied with it and said she would come to this restaurant again in the future. I felt that the price level was a little bit high, so I told Ms. Liu that it would be okay to come here occasionally, and we might not be able to stay here for a few days. I saw a look of disdain on her face, as if she was going to break away from my planned economy and start going her own way.
As a tropical country in Sri Lanka, fruits are really cheap. After we finished our meal, we went to the fruit stall. Each of us bought a few kilograms of rambutans and ate them while walking, enjoying the affordable and affordable food that Sri Lanka brought us. Although it was delicious, But in the end I found that I bought too much!
Halfway through the walk we encountered the second unexpected incident. We met a man who looked like a European, his body was red from the sun, and he came towards us. Let me call him "Uncle Red"! Uncle Hongtongtong said that he was a backpacker and lost his wallet during the trip. Recently, he had to rely on hiking and needed money to buy some food. As he spoke, he showed me the sunburn marks on his body.
Miss Liu pulled my clothes and said, "What is he talking about? Leave quickly and leave it alone."
I said, "He is a backpacker. He lost his wallet and walked all the way here. He needs money to buy something to eat."
Miss Liu said: "That's it. Give him 20 rupees (one dollar) and leave quickly."
So I followed Miss Liu's suggestion and gave the man 20 rupees, but he seemed a little dissatisfied with the small amount I gave him. He looked at the wallet in my hand and said: "20 rupees can't do anything here, 500 rupees is the bottom line." ” I explained to Miss Liu what this person meant.
Miss Liu said angrily: "It's a good deal, but it's still too little. Seriously, go away, go away!"
I said to her: "He is so pitiful, how about we give him more"
At this time, I had a 1,000 rupee note in my hand. Unexpectedly, the red uncle took it and expressed his gratitude, got up and left. I haven't recovered yet.
Miss Liu said angrily: "Why are you so stupid to give him so much money?"
I said, "Maybe they really need it? But he took it directly from me, which really made me a little unhappy."
At this time, two Germans came over and asked me if I had given him money. I said yes. The Germans told me that we had been cheated. The red uncle also told them the same thing. I felt like I was instantly slapped in the face. It turns out that being good at English is sometimes not a good thing. If I had the same English level as Ms. Liu, I might not have talked so much with that person. After the two Germans told us, they chased after the red uncle and wanted to get his money back. Miss Liu and I also followed the Germans to see if we could get our own money back.
Unexpectedly, the red uncle yelled at the two Germans and made moves to beat them. Miss Liu and I saw this scene from across the road, and turned around and started walking back in fear. On the way back, Miss Liu criticized me all the way and said: "Why are you talking to that person so much? He actually thinks that 20 rupees is too short. I shouldn't give him a penny. Don't trust anyone in the future." I said: " There are still many good people in this world, and you can't question human nature just because of this incident." Then I instilled a lot of my values into her. Miss Liu couldn't stand me, so she could only chant sutras as a monk and put it in one ear. One ear out. This is our first day in Sri Lanka. For Ms. Liu, this day is full of sin and deception. It’s really embarrassing when you meet poor people when you travel from poor to poor.
Wandering around the city. Colombo
When I booked the youth hostel, I thought I would live in Colombo, but I didn’t expect that I would have to take an extra tuk-tuk to go to Colombo. In fact, I strongly recommend taking the bus. It would be interesting to take public transportation when visiting the local area. Ms. Liu said that if What should I do if I take the wrong bus? Later we reached an agreement to take a tuk-tuk when we went there and take the bus when we came back.
Sitting on the tuk-tuk, looking at the long coastline of Sri Lanka, we were filled with joy. In fact, we didn’t know what to see when we went to Colombo. We temporarily checked a park in the city center on the map and made it our final destination. . It’s actually funny to think about it. There is no park anywhere, so we have to go to the park in Colombo, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Ms. Liu and I turned on the photo mode.
After leaving the park, we went to a place similar to the government parliament to visit. It was a bit like the White House in Sri Lanka. The most important thing was that no tickets were required, but you couldn't take pictures after entering, so there wasn't much to record. What I want to talk about is what happened next. After Miss Liu and I came out of the "Little White House", I saw a monkey charmer in front of me. The man called me over, and Miss Liu pulled my clothes and said: "Don't go there, don't go there!" I ignored Ms. Liu's objection and walked towards the monkey charmer. The monkey charmer put the monkey on my body and said to me: "You can take pictures with it, it seems to like you very much."
As a monkey, I have an inexplicable affinity for monkeys. I said to Miss Liu: "Please help me take some photos with my mobile phone!" Ms. Liu was a little unhappy that I ignored her objections and took pictures with monkeys. She said: "Do you really like taking photos with boxes?" This joke about taking photos with boxes really made me laugh for a year. Looking back on it now, Ms. Liu probably can't help but laugh too!
After finally taking the photo, I returned the monkey to the uncle. The uncle said in non-standard Chinese: "50 yuan." I was shocked, it was over! I was really cheated! Ms. Liu pretended to be deceived again and looked at me impatiently, expressing her speechlessness. I pretended not to understand, and said, "You mean 50 rupees," and the uncle said, "No, it's 50 RMB, 2,000 rupees." At this time, I started to be embarrassed and said, "Uncle, we are just poor backpackers, I I don’t make much money at work. I’m traveling on a budget this time. I don’t know what to eat next. I only have 20 rupees here, so why don’t you take it?” The uncle said, “Our monkey is also rented. Yes, you have to hand over part of the money you earn every day, please be considerate!" After arguing for a while, the uncle was moved by my persuasion and did not make things difficult for me. He reluctantly took the 20 rupees and said thank you! After leaving, Miss Liu said with great compassion: "I think this person is quite pitiful and should be given more. I feel angry thinking about being defrauded of 2,000 rupees by that red-faced uncle." The monkey incident is probably another incident in my life. The laughter cannot be washed away.
colombo
After leaving the park, we came to a temple again. As for its name, I really can’t remember it. Everything happened randomly. The temple is free to visit, so we walked in. On the one hand, Ms. Liu wanted to take some different photos, and on the other hand, I wanted to pray devoutly and pray for peace.
After leaving the temple, we had something to eat and went to the beach. The sea breeze was strong. Although the sea here is not far from Mont Lavinia, it is much more beautiful than there. Ms. Liu and I couldn't help but stop and take some photos, then sat on the beach and looked at the sea quietly for a while. Because it was almost evening, according to our agreement, we needed to take a bus back. We looked for a reliable bus stop along the seaside road. Fortunately, we finally found the right bus. Based on our impression, we stopped at a bus stop in Mont Lavinia. Got down and found where we were staying without any problems.
Miss Liu couldn't help but buy another bag of rambutans and eat them while walking. When I came back, because I didn't follow Ms. Liu's advice to wear sunscreen, I found that my neck and arms were already red, probably from sunburn. I always thought that my skin was relatively sun-resistant, and wearing sunscreen was a sign of being delicate, so I definitely didn’t use it. It wasn’t until I came back that time that I realized that it seemed to be really necessary in this close to the tropics. Unexpectedly, I have only been here for two days and I, who claim to have rich travel experience, have already been slapped in the face several times by Ms. Liu.
Sound of the waves
car horn sound
After returning to the youth hostel, we planned to take a rest and sit in the living room to watch today's masterpiece. A girl from Australia named Anaya sat across from us and said hello to us. Her appearance provided new ideas for our next stop.
To be continued………