For my graduation trip I wanted to visit an exotic place, a place that no one I knew had ever had seen. I chose Mount Everest in Tibet.

There was a law in Tibet – tourists had to have a tour guide in every vehicle, so my friends and I found one for our SUV. His name was Duojie, a true-blue Tibetan who could also speak English. Duojie explained his culture to us. “Tibetans practice arranged marriages,” he said. “If one family has more than one son, only one wife is needed. All brothers can share the same wife.”

Duojie was from such a village, but he was still unmarried and unattached at twenty-five because he was convinced that marriage was meaningless without love. The modernized Tibetans who do not practice these arranged marriages marry their first girlfriends.

We spent two whole days traveling in the SUV, across and up the mountain range. Throughout the trip, we listened to endless Tibetan songs, our favorite being the new pop song “Meeting You Is My Fate.” It was a tough song, and we screamed our lungs out, trying to reach the singer’s unbelievably high pitch. There were only three words we could understand in the song: “Oh my beloved, my beloved, my beloveeeed!”

Besides singing along with Tibetan pop songs, we found ways to entertain ourselves in the SUV. Duojie and I got along exceptionally well, and I found myself teasing him just like close friends would. We drew cartoons of one another in the dust collected on the SUV’s windscreen; we took photos together at every toilet break; we talked about our respective cultures; we played peek-a-boo while the others were catching a nap in their seats. As we reached Mount Everest base camp at an altitude of 5,200 meters, Duojie noticed my pale face and became worried for my health. High altitude sickness is common for tourists, and he kept me in his sight so he could make sure I was all right.

That first evening we decided to take a casual walk further up the mountain. Of course, we were all excited about being on Mount Everest. I started walking very fast and was soon ahead of the whole group, alone with Duojie. He had absolutely no problem walking at that altitude. When we were apart from the rest of the group, we had a long chat. He discovered that I was only three years his junior. Thinking of him as a close friend (and not just a tour guide), I didn’t mind letting him know about my personal life. He was surprised that I was still single, saying he couldn’t believe such a demure and cute little girl would be unattached. I smiled, but dismissed it as a polite comment.

As nighttime approached everyone tucked into bed. My friends and I shared one tent, while Duojie and the driver shared the neighboring tent. Despite my down jacket and three thick sheepskin blankets, I was too cold to sleep. There was no heat in the tent and I lay awake, miserable, waiting for the sun to rise.

Around six in the morning I decided to get up for a walk, hoping to get warmer. I got out of the tent and was greeted by a vast constellation of stars. The beauty was awesome, so I sat out there, staring at the wondrous sky spotted with stars that somehow seemed bigger from Mount Everest. Moments later, someone walked out of the neighboring tent. “Good morning.” I

t was Duojie. “Did you have a good night’s sleep?” he asked.

I pouted and shook my head, replying that it was too freezing cold to sleep at all. Before my half-frozen brain could react, I found Duojie hugging me as tightly as he could. “It’s okay, with me hugging you, you’ll feel much warmer.” I don’t know how long he hugged me. I was too startled and too cold to react. Not knowing what else to do, I decided to grab some breakfast before the rest of the group woke up. I thought, I traveled so long just to come here! Why am I hiding in a tent? I should be out there absorbing in the scenery and, yes, the cold air of Mount Everest!

So I took my breakfast bun and walked out alone to enjoy more of the early morning. I found a place to sit and took in deep breaths of the cold air that was so severely low on oxygen. Then Duojie was sitting beside me. I didn’t dare look at him, and continued eating my bun. “I want to tell you something, but you must promise me not to be angry,” he said.

I shook my head, eyes not leaving my bun.

“I suddenly realized that I really like you.” Duojie’s proclamation could have made me scream in shock, but since I had missed a night’s sleep and my brain was still too frozen to function, I simply continued to eat my bun.

For the rest of the day I pretended nothing had happened. I didn’t tell any of my friends about it – I didn’t want to make things awkward. Over the next two days, Duojie was exceptionally nice to me, and kept turning to wink. Whenever he had the chance he’d hold my hand or pat my head. It was always so sudden that by the time I recovered from the surprise he was already gone. No one else ever noticed.

I didn’t know what to do. Each time he touched me, my heart raced and my face flushed. But we had only known each other for a few days, and I was heading home the next day. To protect myself, I started avoiding eye contact and sat as far away from him as possible. On our last night in Tibet we invited Duojie to have a farewell dinner with us, to thank him for his hospitality. But he disappeared before the dinner. We didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.

As our train left Tibet, tears rolled down my cheeks. I realized I did like Duojie. I had pulled away because I found it too impossible to let go of my bright future back home, and couldn’t imagine leaving a big city to marry into a village that’s almost totally cut off from the outside world.

“My dream is packed into my luggage / on the highest mountains / there is no more waiting / I have chosen you / Meeting you is my fate.”

It’s too painful to listen to that song now. The CD I brought back from Tibet remains locked in my drawer. Ours was a short-lasting love between two people from two different worlds. A fairytale meeting, that was all it could be.