Earthquake, earthquake! "Eight years ago, I was walking through the streets of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, when I suddenly felt a wave of shaking, and then people on the streets started to panic and shouted and ran around.
I hadn't personally experienced an earthquake since I was born, and I was stunned on the spot, and it took me minutes to remember to rush back to the hotel.
From the outside, the hotel seems to be fine, and there are people coming and going. But when I entered the room, I found that the wall behind me was all cracked, so frightened that I pulled up my suitcase and ran out of the hotel.
However, instead of fleeing Nepal, I found a career here.
(I traveled to Nepal in 2014)
I am Xiaoya, born in Tianjin in an intellectual family, my parents are financial workers, they are not very demanding of me in terms of study, so my grades have been average since I was a child. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to Tianjin Communications Vocational College, majoring in accounting.
In my senior year, I could apply for an internship without going to school, so I opened an online store at home, selling hand-painted shoes, notebooks, pillows, T-shirts and other things, the business was not very hot, but it was no problem to maintain my expenses.
After graduating, I continued to open an online store while looking for a general clerk position. But after working for a few years, I really felt bored. So I wanted to go abroad and broaden my horizons.
Nepal is known as the "Kingdom of Snowy Mountains" in Asia, and the cost of travel is not high compared to other countries, so I took my mother to Nepal in July 2014.
(Nepal's landmark – the world's largest arched stupa)
Because I have always opened an online store, when I traveled in Nepal, I found that there were many local specialties, so I thought of doing daigou. I found a local and formed a partnership with him.
I didn't expect this move to bring me a considerable income. So in April of the following year, I returned to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, alone, to continue to expand the daigou business.
On April 25, my friend and I made an appointment to have lunch together. After 11 p.m. local time, I came out of the hotel and rushed to the rendezvous place. As I was strolling leisurely down the street, I suddenly felt the whole street shake, and with the screams of people, the surrounding buildings began to collapse.
I haven't experienced an earthquake, I just heard about it in my grandparents' generation. I was a little overwhelmed at the time, but it took a few minutes to react and should return to the hotel to see how it was, after all, everything was in the hotel.
(On the way to the village in Nepal in 2015)
Coming to the front of the hotel, seeing that the hotel has not collapsed, the appearance seems to be fine, and people come in and out from time to time, I quickly found my room and began to pack up. Walking into the bedroom, I saw a terrifying scene - the back wall of the bedroom had been broken, and I was scared to simply pack my things and flee the hotel.
I still think about the scene that day, and I am afraid. Fortunately, the hotel I was staying in did not collapse, and I am glad that the earthquake occurred at 11:56 p.m., and I was walking down the street without experiencing a moment of panic.
The earthquake was the second 8.1 magnitude earthquake in Nepal's history, with a focal depth of 20 kilometers and 265 aftershocks of magnitude 4 or higher within a month after the earthquake. The epicenter was in Pokhara, Nepal's second-largest city, less than 200 kilometers from my city, Kathmandu, so the earthquake was felt strongly.
(7.6 magnitude aftershock on May 12, 2015)
Just a week before the earthquake, about 50 seismologists and sociologists from around the world gathered in Kathmandu to discuss Nepal's response to the earthquake, but a week later, misfortune struck.
Later, official statistics showed that the earthquake killed at least 8,786 people and injured 22,303, including in Tibet, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and other places in China.
At that time, the situation in Nepal was particularly bad, and the price of air tickets back home was high and it was impossible to buy. The airport was full of people, all with passports waiting for the plane. In desperation, I had to contact a friend and spend the night at her rented place.
On the first day, take out the mattress in the room and put it on the lawn in the yard and sleep in the open air. The next day I started setting up the tent and I remember living in the tent for 3 months before moving back into the house.
(May 2015, on the Nepal Relief Road)
Slowly met some Chinese friends in Nepal, and everyone huddled to keep warm.
Later, I saw that some villages were seriously affected, the villagers themselves had no money, and the government was not very powerful, so they could not take care of every place. We felt that instead of lying down like this every day, we should do what we could.
At that time, there were many people in China to raise donations, plus some of our own savings, so we spontaneously organized a four-person team to buy some rice, flour, oil and water and other materials locally, and then found trucks to send to the villages that were more seriously affected.
During that special period, being able to do something for others made me feel very present.
(In 2015, I and 3 Chinese friends spontaneously organized a rescue team to deliver supplies to the village)
I remember once cooperating with a local temple to deliver supplies to a village in the mountains, and a 7.6-magnitude aftershock occurred halfway. We were still in the village, and after the aftershock, a child's house collapsed and his mother was buried inside. The child ran out on his own, covered in blood, crying and crying all the time, and I was very sad when I saw it.
Because we had some medicines with us, we quickly gave him emergency treatment, although it was not professional, but we had done our best. After that, the four of us participated in the disaster relief until life gradually returned to normal after six months.
I have loved small animals since I was a child, when I had a Dalmatian dog, who knew that the bigger it grew, the apartment landlord would not let me live there anymore, for fear of causing trouble to other guests, so I went out and rented the house myself.
Houses in Nepal are similar to villas and are all single-family. I didn't need much room to bring a dog alone, so I thought it would be better to be a homestay, so in 2018, my first homestay in Nepal was born.
(2018, my first homestay)
At that time, renting a house was very cheap, a two-and-a-half-story building, a living room and three rooms, and the monthly rent was less than 4,000 yuan. I signed a 5-year contract with my landlord, and the rent was paid quarterly.
After renting a house, I started to decorate, because in a foreign country, I encountered many difficulties in the early stage.
I have to find someone to decorate, get in the decoration materials, and keep an eye on the workers. People here are lazy to work, the procrastination is very serious, just such a small villa took three months to complete, and the labor price was several times higher than in China.
Only when you really work here do you know that Chinese is the most punctual one, and Nepalese people have no concept of time at all. They are very nice and friendly, but they can make appointments with you and are never on time. There is no way, go to the countryside and follow the customs, you can only adapt.
(In 2018, the first homestay was all renovated by myself)
Fortunately, it opened smoothly after the renovation. Because it was the first time I did it, I took the low-price route and posted rental information on the website, and after that, people from all over the world consulted with me.
After communicating with everyone, I suddenly felt that the world is big and should go out and see more. It was also around that time that I customized a small plan for myself to travel to a country every year.
Nepal's economy was very backward in those years, and around 2017, the salary of public officials was only more than 1,000 yuan per month, which is still a relatively high-income group.
Like the cleaning aunt I asked, she had one day off a week and only earned 300 yuan a month. Later, I felt that she didn't clean very carefully, so I asked her to work a little more every day, and then raised her salary to 600 yuan a month, which was already a very high level in her peers at that time.
(2018 to learn diving in Semporna)
In those years, I continued to do purchasing while doing homestays. In 2018, a Chinese female guest came to the homestay. She asked me if I could bring my dog to the house? I said yes because I've had a similar experience before. So she brought the dog over, and later became my long-term visitor.
Once, she offered to invite me to go diving with her, and I learned that she was a diving instructor. After paying the money to sign up, I learned at the moment I went into the water that I was afraid of water. But she was a very patient instructor who helped me through the difficult times at the beginning and laid a good foundation for my later career as a diving instructor.
By chance, in the spring of 2019, a friend I used to know in China saw an advertisement for my homestay on the Internet. He worked here in Nepal, so he rented one of my rooms for a long time, and we became very good friends. At that time, the business of the B&B was much better than before, and he wanted to do it with me.
(2nd homestay in 2019)
So, in April of that year, the two of us and a local Nepalese business friend he knew, and the three of us cooperated to open a second homestay.
The location of the second homestay is not particularly far from my first homestay, but it is larger than the previous one, covering an area of more than 500 square meters. It is 2 buildings with 8 rooms, and the rent is more than 8,000 yuan per month.
Because of the previous experience, the decoration cost of the second homestay is a little higher than before, almost 300,000, and the materials are shipped from China. It took about 5 months from renting to decorating, and after opening, the business was very good, and 1/3 of the cost was recovered in one quarter.
Before the Spring Festival that year, I hurriedly returned to China for the Chinese New Year, thinking that I would return to Nepal in the next year to develop my ambitions, but the sudden arrival of the epidemic caught me off guard. I didn't expect a situation where I couldn't go back, and I was quite confused at that time, so I spent the New Year with my parents in Tianjin, and after staying at home for a few months, I went to Guangzhou.
(Christmas celebration with local friends in Nepal in 2019)
I couldn't go back for several months, but fortunately, the domestic guests did not return to China at that time, and there were people living in both homestays, and there was still income to maintain my expenses in China.
A year later, the landlord of the first homestay broke the contract to repossess the house, and at that time there was no flight out of the country, so it could only be handled remotely. Please a friend over there helped me with some things and returned the house to the landlord.
The second homestay was because there was a local investor in Nepal, he felt that we had spent so much effort in decoration, it was a pity to give up, and he had been running it all the time. Then he asked if we were going back to Nepal?
At that time, the situation of the epidemic was uncertain, there were no tourists, and every month we had to pay rent, so another investor in China and I decided not to go back. So at the end of last year, Nepalese investors sold the homestay as a whole.
Overall, the first homestay has paid back, and the second one is equal to no profit or loss.
(A lot of effort has been put into the decoration of the second homestay)
Although I lived in Nepal for more than 4 years and did not earn much money in the end, I met people from all walks of life and learned about foreign customs and cultures, which greatly changed my world view.
For more than 3 years since returning to China, I have always wanted to visit other countries, but because of the epidemic, I have not been able to do so.
After arriving in Guangzhou in 2020, I saw a lot of beautiful freediving photos on the Internet, and I was very envious, so I made up my mind to learn freediving.
(Diving in Vietnam 2019)
At that time, freediving in Guangzhou was still very popular, and I first signed up to learn AIDA two stars in Guangzhou. After the two-star exam, I felt that this sport was very interesting and a challenge for myself. So I studied three stars again and took the SSI Mermaid Coach.
The more I learned, the more interesting I felt, and later I went to Nanning, Guangxi to complete the four-star study and took the AIDA freediving instructor. Before and after, it took 2 years to learn with play.
I learned scuba diving and then freediving and found that there was a big difference. Scuba diving is going down with a cylinder on your back and focusing on seeing the exterior of marine life, fish, coral, etc. Freediving, on the other hand, is to focus more on one's own inner self, that is, to learn to relax and feel with your heart.
(This year I was by the Bali seaside)
After taking the instructor certificate in 2022, I got a job as a freediving instructor in Nanning and met students from all over the country. They are all very cute and funny, and I love my job as a diving instructor even more.
Later, I often shared some freediving videos on the Internet, which were loved by the majority of fans, and became a model for a famous wet clothing brand in China.
After the pandemic was lifted, I would love to go out and walk again. I had been to Bali once and liked the environment, but I couldn't dive yet, so I decided to go again. In January this year, I came to Bali as a diving instructor.
(Diving in Bali this year)
After coming to Bali this time, I dived every day, and basically did not go to places on land, but I still found the slow-paced life I had in a foreign country before.
In the future, I would like to go diving in Palau, the Maldives, or a little further afield. Take a look and live freely. I also hope to popularize freediving around the world.
The ultimate target is Bohol in the Philippines. If I could, I would like to live there as a coach.
Mr. Yang Di said: "The world is its own, it has nothing to do with others". After years of stumbling, I became more and more determined that what I longed for had always been a simple and peaceful life.