Messages

Today I received this message

sue:

i hope you will have good luck on you trip,and don't forget to keep in touch with me,i think i will do the same thing like you ,and at that time i need to ask you something about the travelling,such as how to save money and how to face to the problem when you are travelling,best wishes to you!

yours:bank

Bank is a young Chinese man I met on the streets in Guangzhou. I had just arrived in the East train station while Ed, my new travel companion was waiting in the Central station. When I arrive somewhere I am mostly unprepared or I miss some details on the small pieces of paper I had put some notes down. This time I had an address of a hostel where I was supposed to meet Ed six hours later. It was hardly readable because of my bad handwriting. I do not like to take buses or metro's. I like to walk and to look around and so I met Bank on a big street. He looked at me with my big backpack and I asked what was the direction for the river. I knew the hostel was near the river. Bank is working in an international hotel and speaks very well English. He took me to the very expensive hotel and helped me with a map, gave me water and many smiles. He said: 'I wanna be like you'. He started to work and I continued my road to meet Ed in the streets around the hostel, four hours before our agreed meeting time. The sun was shining.

I smile when I receive messages like this one from Bank. My address book gets filled with new people. It is great to meet so many good people. With Michiko we talked a lot about what Buddhism calls one of the eight sufferings: saying goodbye. And it is indeed not so easy. My separation from Carina hurts in a way. It is truly sad but we both know that this is what has to happen. From now on we have different visa's in our passports. I wished I could spend another evening at Michiko's place and just talk. But also many people from Belgium, Estonia or elsewhere only pass on my path of thoughts. This is the way it is. Everyday I am just on one small dot on the earth. I can not be everywhere.
And actually many friends are not so far. Some want to join me for a while others are travelling nearby. I feel surrounded with friends.
And I am so lucky! I am so lucky that we have a thing called Internet and sometimes even access to Skype.
Yesterday and today I take time to use it. So many beautiful letters unanswered in my post box, bit by bit I write also and can somehow empty my mind of all the words I would like to share.
Thank you all for the letters! They make me smile, sometimes I drop a tear, and they fill me with gratitude. My father is a great writer. In a way I feel being far away actually brings us closer. Distance is relative I think.
I do feel however that I want to apologise for not writing more. Many of my very good friends deserve a letter. I think of them and sometimes even just talk into the wind to them. I would shout to Carina who is across the sea. I smile to my grandmother or dance together with my sister in the absence of a song.
At times like today I feel like writing. A small break from the road. No backpack to pack, no road to travel. The city of Kunming has the right atmosphere. I am at peace.