pokhara 2

带我去徒步的导游今晚就到，明天一早就开始3天两夜的徒步。所以今天还是有一整天的时间留在湖边，一大早到湖边去逛，坐船到湖中的庙看人家拜拜。然后选了一间气氛不错的餐厅吃早餐，吃完早餐沿湖散步去取车，看见有妇女蹲在湖边洗衣服，取水灌溉，人民的生活作息和这湖息息相关，一湖水也养活了这里千千万万的黄土犁民啊～

The tour guide who was supposed to go trekking with me will only arrive tonight and the trekking will start the next morning for the next 3 days 2 nights. I spent my morning scrolling along the lake. Took a boat to the temple nearby and chose a restaurant to have my breakfast. After breakfast, I went to collect the car. On the way, I saw woman squatting at the lake washing clothes, collecting water.. the people’s life here and the lake were closely link together. The water here has supported and brought up many people.

下午去买唱片的时候，遇见那天巴士上的小卷发，好像电影情节一样，我们先愣了一下然后几乎是同时喊着对方，在巴士上我们一句话都聊开，看来我们是注定要相遇的，命运让我们同坐7个小时，可是我们并没有真正的相处，我们在不同的镇下车，却又在另一个地方相遇。看起来好像是爱情电影的桥段，可惜对象是女的。哈哈。。
打开话匣子才发现她是个健谈的女生，叫zena，苏联人。英语虽然不是很流利，不过用词很独特。
她住在我去的唱片铺对面不远的guest house，是另一个朋友邀她来玩的。她邀我到她住哪里的小阳台吃brunch，她说那里有个小厨房是她朋友长期租用的，我爽快的答应了。
阳台很别致，有个吊床，面向湖，因为天气凉凉的所以非常舒服。zena的朋友gret住在pokhara已经有3年了，最近他母亲从苏联来看他所以就带着妈妈和另一个朋友去Kathmandu游玩。zena住Kathmandu，她是个服装设计师，她专设计一些带民族色彩的服饰然后出口到苏联去。她和gret是多年的朋友。原来缘分还不止如此，zena说3天前gret在猴庙见过我，我当时在拍一只屋顶上的小狗，他正好走过。我衝口说：“u are the one who said ‘ good picture!” 他望着我笑然后点点头。我回想这些有趣的景象，gret在猴庙的背影，zena差点赶不上巴士gret在下一站接zena的画面。因为她睡过头，所以没有在总站上车，乘客陆陆续续坐满，Gret妈妈特地给她在我旁边留了个位子，好几次差点给别人坐了。这一幕幕的画面，好像上天把我们的时间表排在一起，然后涂改了一些我们的行程，一步一步铺排我们的友情之路。zena和朋友一直在巴士上猜我到底是韩国还是日本，没想到我是马来西亚华侨。
zena要去找那190的男生，叫我陪她一起去顺便在回来的时候给gret买一些菜做午餐，我反正今天也没事，就陪她去串门子。。
190和另外一个我没见过的苏联男子住在湖的最东区，我们骑脚踏车上坡下坡来到田中央，他们的guest house就在那里！二楼有超大的阳台看出去就是绿油油的田和牛。190哥儿们把中国茶拿出来招待我们，他们说苏联年轻一代都流行喝中国茶。我一看原来是铁观音，我说你们真识货。
190哥哥的朋友把他的长萧拿出来吹，外面下着毛毛雨，下面有牛在叫，有一瞬间我真还以为回到的古代，我笑着给他们说对牛弹琴的典故。
zena说他们都是fire performer，去到哪儿就表演到哪儿以赚旅费。190已经在亚洲流浪3年了，他有一台大型机车，他骑着它跨过很多国家。我说真羡慕你可以这样，大家是同时瞪大眼睛看着我，zena说；”你也可以啊，马上回去辞职，住我家，你不嫌弃可以来帮我，visa到期你就到印度去，然后去帕吉斯坦。。“我说不行，我有工作要履行，不能就这样走掉。大家几乎是用怜悯的眼神看着我。好像工作是个巨大寄生虫盘踞在我身上。
在回去的路上碰见gret，他等不及先去买菜了。回去他的大阳台等他做nan给我们吃，他女朋友也回来了，他女朋友叫yana是个漂亮得可以当模特儿的女生，我们在阳台上继续聊天，吃gret给我们做的nan，他忙进忙出的的招待我们看我们吃得开心，他也乐得很。
yana说明天是尼泊尔的holi。（洒红节）洒红节来临时，人们不管相识与否，都可以向对方泼红水，或是用各种颜色的粉泼撒对方，用各色颜料把对方涂成大花脸和大花袍。除了人之外，汽车也不能幸免。那架势很像泰国的泼水节。因此，zena洒红节出门一定要穿上一件不打算要了的衣服。人们还会播放音乐，载歌载舞。 非常热闹。不过zena就有非常恐怖的holi回忆，她说每次都会被洒得乱七八糟的，颜色留在头发上几天都洗不掉，所以她们邀我明天陪她们待在阳台上，zena说在高处比较占优势，她们可以往下泼并不会被发现。我虽然还蛮想参与可是明天就出发去徒步了。
傍晚我们我跟他们告别，回去酒店见我从Kathmandu来的导游。他叫Chris，会讲一些简单的华语。他简介的讲解接下来徒步的行程，我也提问了一些问题，然后问他：“你听的懂中文‘救命’吗？“我说救命就是help，这很重要，我喊救命的时候就是你就要警觉啦！他仰头笑。。

I met the short curl lady again when I went out to buy albums in the afternoon. Like what we always saw in the movie, we gawked at each other and shouted at each other simultaneously. I guess we are destined to meet again.. we took the same bus ride for 7 hours without exchanging a word, we alighted at the different district and now we bumped into each other again. It seems like some climax of a romance movie.. but too bad the other party is a female. Haha.

Through our conversation, I found out that zena is a bubbly girl. Though her English is not fluent but her word structures seem unique. She lived at the guesthouse opposite the CD shop I wanted to go. She invited me over for brunch at the small balcony at her guesthouse. She said that the chef is her friend and I agreed readily.  The balcony is very unique, has a hammock, and is facing the lake. The weather is cold so that makes it feel more comfortable. Zena’s friend, gret has been staying in pokhara for the past 3 years. His mother came over to visit him and so he brought his mom and another friend to Kathmandu for a tour. Zena lives in Kathmandu. She is a fashion designer, she designs clothes and export to Soviet Union. Gret and Zena are friends for many years.  Zena mentioned that 3 days ago, gret actually met me at the monkey temple and he was the one who walked past me and said “good picture” when I was snapped the picture of the dog at the roof top. I recollected the interesting scenes where  I saw gret backview at the monkey temple, zena overslept and missed the bus and gret alighted at the next station to pick zena, more and more passengers filled up the seat on the bus, gret’s mother specially reserved a seat for her next to me but many times the seat was nearly taken away by other passenger. Zena and her friend was on the bus guessing if I’m from japan or korea but they never expect that I’m a Malaysian Chinese. Zena wanted to find her 190cm tall guy friend and asked if I wanted to accompany her and buy some groceries back for gret to make lunch while we were on our way back. Since I have nothing on today, I decided to tag along…

The 190cm tall guy and another of his friend (whom I never met before) lived in the most eastern area of the lake. We cycled up and down slope to the field where their guesthouse is. The 2^ndlevel of their guesthouse is a huge balcony with green fields and cow. 190cm tall brother took out their chinese tea to entertain us. They said the younger generation of soviet love to drink Chinese tea. From one look I can tell that it’s Oolong tea.

190’s friend took out his instrument to blow, it’s drizzling outside and cows moo-ing from downstairs.. for a moment, I thought I went back to the ancient times.. zena said that 190 and his friend are fire performer, which means they perform wherever they go to earn a living. 190 has been loitering around Asia for 3 years. He has a big machine vehicle which accompanied him to many countries. I told them that I am envious that they are able to do such things and they stared at me and said that I can do the same. All I need to do is to quit and stay at their place if I don’t mind and if my visa is due , I can just go to India and etc etc. I told them that I can’t do that, I have a job and I can’t live everything behind and leave for good. Everybody gave me a pity look and they don’t seem to understand why work seems to be such a big burden on me.

On our way back, we met gret, he couldn’t wait for us so he bought the stuffs himself. He went back to the balcony and make nan for us to eat. His girlfriend, yana came along. She is a beautiful lady (suitable to be a model). We chatted at the balcony and enjoyed the nan made by gret. He was busy entertaining us, we were eating happily and he is happy too. Yana said that the next day is nepal’s holiday , red festival. Before the festival, we can sprinkle red water on each other or any other different colour powder. Other than human, cars are inevitable too. This stance seems like Thailand water sprinkling festival. During this festival, zena will usually wear a top that she doesn’t intend to keep anymore. People will play music, dance along with the music and it is very crowded. She has  horrible memories of being sprinkled and splashed from head to toe and those colours stayed on her hair for a few days. She invited me to join her tomorrow at the balcony, as it is safer at the higher floor and won’t be noticed. I feel like joining them badly but I couldn’t as I have trekking the next day.

I bid farewell to them in the evening. I went back to the guesthouse to meet my tour guide from Kathmandu, chris. He can speak simple mandarin. He gave me a brief introduction about trekking and I asked him a few questions and one of them is “do you understand the Chinese word, “jiu ming”? I told him that “jiu ming” is help, this is the most important word he must know and if I shouted for help, he will be alerted. He nodded his head and laughed.