We are heading to Lan Zhou today, which is 1400km away, so we wake up very early today. Annike is ready to depart in the early morning as well, but soon we found out that our luggage are actually quite big! However, we still manage to squeeze in everything inside the car and drove off.
早餐时间，我一面吃着美味的清真菜包，一面解释给Annike听我们的行程。
I am eating the delicious vegetable buns while explaining to Annike where are we heading to the next few days.
出发到嘉峪关前，我们到昨天那家清真餐馆吃早餐，也乘机跟Annike多聊天。原来她刚从大学毕业后工作了两年，存了一些钱打算出来旅行一年。中国是首站，接着是越南、寮国、泰国和印度。她的旅行计划让我们惊讶不已，一个年轻的女生到语言不同的国度旅行，实在是不容易！我们也乘机交换了一些旅游资讯，我也建议了一些旅游路线让她参考。她听说我们都不知道马蹄寺在哪里后，担心这个地方游客也应该不多，会说英语的更加少，就重新考虑该不该改变行程了。
We had our breakfast at the same Muslim restaurant before starting our journey, and take the opportunity to talk with Annike as well. She graduate from University 2 years ago, and work part time for 2 years to save money for travelling. She plan to travel for 1 year, China is the first stop, then Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and India. We are amazed by her travel plan, it must me hard for a lady to travel alone in places where English is not very common. She is brave! I try to explain to her what I know about the places that we are going to visit, and give her some suggestions what she can do for her trip planning. I guess she is a bit worry when we told her that we never heard about Ma Ti Si, which is the place she is going to visit soon. At this moment, there might not be many westerners in China, so it will be quite hard for her to communicate with other people.
路上看到的风力发电站 We see wind turbine on the way to Jia Yu Pass
到嘉峪关的路上，我们谈了很多旅途上所见闻的事。Annike长相清秀，脸上总是挂着微笑，也蛮健谈。她告诉了我们在北京旅行的经历，以及在西安当孤儿院义工的经验。我想我们之前万万想不到会有其他人加入一起旅行，更想不到会是个西方人，哈哈。富师傅不会说英语，所以一路上我都充当翻译员，感觉蛮过瘾的。Annike应该在路上考虑了很久，终于还是决定跟我们到兰州去。到了兰州，或许能够遇到一些西方游客吧。
On the way to Jia Yu Pass, we exchange our interesting experiences during the trip. Annike is a lovely girl who like to smile, she share with us her experience while travelling to Bei Jing and her experience while working as volunteer in an orphange in Xi An. We never expect that we can travel with other people one day, and the new friend is a westerner! However, Fu do not know how to speak English, so I become the translator between Annike and Fu, it is a good practice for me. After thinking twice, Annike decided to follow us to Lan Zhou, and hopefully she can meet some westerners or people that can speak English in Lan Zhou.
到了嘉峪关，我们终于可以下车舒展身体了，Annike看来坐的很辛苦。嘉峪关是长城最西的一段，建于明朝，是中国当时西北面的一大屏障。我一边解释嘉峪关上的文物和文字，一边和Annike聊起彼此家庭背景、兴趣、各国国情等等。她还对我细细描述了家乡的广阔草原，蜿蜒在草原上的小溪，可爱的鸡群和恬静的田园生活。这个在郊外草原长大的女生，对大自然该是有着一份特别钟爱吧！
Finally, we can spread our legs and hands after reaching Jia Yu Pass, Annike looks like she is suffering during the journey, haha. Jia Yu Pass is built in Ming Dynasty, situated at west of Great Wall, which is very important for the defense of China at the North West. I tried to expalin all the historical relics and Chinese words we see to Annike. We also chat on our family, interests, our countries, etc. She try to describe to me her homeland near countryside with wast grassland, small streams flowing across the grassland, cute chickens and the calm life in countryside. I bet she must be a person that loves the nature a lot!
我们站在这座历史悠久的长城关隘，谈论着彼此的生活观点。Annike会说几句简单的华语，如谢谢、不客气、吃饱了等。她还央求我叫她数一到十，我们就这样一二三四五地参观了整座嘉峪关。途中不少人投以好奇的眼光，该是我们讲得太大声了，或者他们没见过西方游客？
We are standing on this historical building, talking about our views towards life. Annike speaks some Mandarin sentences like thank you, you are welcome, I am full, etc. She beg me to teach her how to count from 1 to 10, so we keep on saying "yi, er, san, si, wu..." throughout the journey in Jia Yu Pass. Many people are looking at us, maybe we speak to loud, or they never see westerners before?
参观过嘉峪关，考量到上兰州还有很长的路，我们决定放弃参观悬臂长城，直接上兰州了。在路上，富师傅变得比平时更健谈了，可能是因为这是旅途的最后一天了，他感到比较轻松了吧。他跟我们谈起了他的家庭，他的女儿，当年他如何最求他的太太及年轻时的一些趣事。他跟我们分享了当地的一些风俗习惯如婚礼、丧礼的仪式。Annike也跟我们交流一些英国人普遍上对婚姻和爱情的观念，原来英国的离婚率高达50%，这让我们感到很惊讶。但是有很多的英国情侣选择同居而不结婚，因为法律上已经赋予双方一定程度的保障了，结不结婚显得不是那么重要了。
We do not visit the Hanging Great Wall, because we are simply running out of time. Today, Fu is very talkative, maybe because this is the last day of the journey, so he feels less pressured. He tell us a lot of stories about his family, his daughter, and how the romantic stories of how he tackle his wife. He also told us some local customs in marriage and funeral. Then, Annike tell us how English people normally look at marriage and love. We are very surprised when she tell us that England has divorce rate of nearly 50%. But many couples choose not to marry, because the English Law provide certain protections to both parties, hence it seems like marry or not is no longer a critical issue.
接着富师傅又跟我们大谈他的“夫妻相处之道”，说人们的第一印象往往是之后交往的关键；第一印象好的话，往往能够在日后容忍对方更多的缺点。拍拖的时候大家都尽量展示的自己的优点，所以冲突不会很大；一旦结婚后，一起生活的双方都会陆续展露自己的缺点，这时候若没有互相包容的话，肯定很难相处。
Fu then told us his "phylosophy for husbands and wives". He says that the first impression is very crucial, when we have good first impression on someone, we tend to forgive most of his/her weaknesses. When the couple is still dating, they tend to show the good sides of themselves, so normally there won't be much conflicts. But once they marry, they will try to show their weaknesses as well. Hence, if both parties are not prepare to understand each other and forgive the weakenesses of the loved one, they will face a lot of problems living together.
富师傅还语带玄机地说：“被爱比爱别人幸福，找对象还是找个爱自己的人比较好。”
Fu also said abstrusely,"To choose a life partner, it is always better to find a person that love you. A person being loved is always happier than a person that love other."
说着说着，富师傅又乘机“数落”我们没有注意到驾长途车的禁忌。原来我们很多时候都顾着看风景或者睡觉，没有跟他聊天来维持他的警觉，这是非常危险的。呵呵，看来我们真的有点懒惰。
Fu also told us that we (Sam, David and me) are actually not very careful while travelling for long journey, we are supposed to talk with the driver to make sure he is alert! However, most of the time we are either looking at the scenery, sleeping or keep quiet, which is very dangerous if the driver is not experienced enough. Haha, we are simply too lazy~~
这就是两位女生每次吃饭都要点的番茄炒蛋，我和志鹏都在想，有那么特别好吃吗？
This is "eggs with tomatoes" that the 2 gals like to order in almost every meal.
这5天的旅程中，我察觉到中国政府在征收过路费方面和大马政府不遑多让！除了高速公路外，普通长途公路也要收过路费，美其名叫作“贷款建路，收费还贷”。听富师傅说，政府从来没公布到底借了多少钱修路，收了多少过路费。我想，共产国家，还需要跟人民斤斤计较吗？这不是人民应有的福利吗？这跟资本主义国家有啥分别？
From the past 5 days, I observed that the Chinese government likes to collect toll fares, which is exactly the same as Malaysia! Besides highway, they also collect money for normal long distance road, which sounds ridiculous to me. The excuse to collect money from the people is that government is borrowing money from bank to build the road, so they collect money to pay back the bank. However, the government never announce how much is borrowed and how much money they had collected. Aren't this the welfare that a government should provide for their people, since China is a communist country? If the people have to pay for their welfare, what is the different between communist and capitalist?
凌成两点半，我们终于到达了兰州！想到明天（其实是今天）就要跟富师傅离别了，心里还真的有点不舍。车子驶入兰州市中心，我在焦切地寻找着可以入住的旅舍，若找不到我们就要睡在街边了。我敲了第一家旅舍的门，许久没有人回应，心里凉了半截，不会真的要睡街吧~~还好附近有一家旅舍灯还亮着，我赶紧吵醒了柜台小姐办理入住手续。终于，我们可以安心睡觉了。
It is almost 2:30am when we reached Lan Zhou! I feel a bit sad because we have to leave Fu tomorrow to continue our journey. At the same time, I am searching for a suitable hostel anxiously, it seems like not many hostel still open at this hour. Finally, we found one, but too bad nobody answer. "Are we going to sleep at the roadside tonight?"I am wondering. Luckily, there is another hostel nearby, I quickly wake up the sleeping ladies, and pay for 2 rooms. Finally, we can have good sleep~~
No comments:
Post a Comment