Journeys of a Girl with Two Itchy Feet

One thing that never fails to impress or inspire me are the random acts of kindness I seem to encounter whilst travelling to new places. Whether that’s the passer by who stops to offer advice on my inability to read a map properly, or a lady that stops to tell me I have dropped my hat, or merely the local that smiles at me on the train and asks me where I’m from and where I’m going. To me, these gestures are really what adds to the experience of a trip.

I can think of one particular time where I was truly touched by a gesture of this type. I take myself back two years now to when I was hiking in the mountains just outside Hangzhou in Eastern China. Myself and two other girls had set off relatively early in the morning with bottles of water and a flimsy piece of paper as a map with the vague, disconcerting words of “NOT TO SCALE” printed at the bottom. We were in good spirits and ready for a day of walking, despite our lack of preparedness.

The mountains were stunningly beautiful. As we climbed higher, we became more aware of the rich, lush green of the surrounding forests with small gleaming temples resting majestically among the trees, the sounds of the wind gushing through the valleys and the faint ringing of bells from the surrounding temples.

The experience really was magical and we walked through the mountains in awe of their beauty, visiting various temples and marvelling at the views. We were sure that continuing along the track would lead us to West Lake eventually. However, we could not have been more wrong; we were totally lost.

After hours of panicking in the forest, a Chinese man came to our rescue. An amazing, cheery Chinese saviour appeared when we hadn’t seen a single person for a good few hours. He stopped his walk and led us completely off the track to the safety of a temple near where we were staying.
Before our parting, we rummaged deep into our bags and presented him with fruit and cakes; the only things we had to say thank you. After much deliberation, he accepted them humbly and bowed his head to us before proceeding on his walk with his walking sticks marching steadily in front of him.

The three of us stood for a while, watching him walk away without saying anything. I was filled with the warm, glowing feeling of kindness I had experienced and my face was softened by an appreciative smile.