Possible is anything

Thanks for your dreams I just said to Phil after we shared coffee and bread for breakfast. It is again one of those nice mornings, the sun shines and I feel very free. China indeed has its own brands which do look a lot like the ones we know and call the 'real ones'. One of the slogans exposed in flashy colours on brand new shops is 'Possible is Anything', we know this one as 'Impossible is Nothing'. But does it really matter? I just told to Phil that it takes me someone or something to show me that it is possible to believe and to dream. Phil just shared his dreams with me though to him they were already plans or I prefer to say he is just going to do it. He is not talking or dreaming. Phil is from Norway and has lived for a few months in Estonia. We shared some memories of Olde Hansa and the cold and hot weather out there in that beautiful kind country which remains very dear to me. Phil travels a step more extreme then me. He climbs high mountains and takes more challenges by going of the roads that are passed by cars. Phil hikes from village to village and sleeps on rocks. He is soon going to Birma. Yesterday I told Ed how this kind of mountain-hiking-travelling is another future dream of me ... something I always wanted to do but I am not ready yet. People like Phil just bring me closer to feel 'I can do it'. Thank you for your dreams I said this morning. I wonder if I am stealing dreams. Is my dream of life a puzzle of little pieces I receive from others? Does it matter? I feel so free . Visa's are the only border to my freedom I often said but also this limit actually diminishes day by day. Possible is anything. I get advice how to extend or renew visa's and yesterday I just walked into the office of the consulate of Laos and tomorrow I probably have a visa in my passport. But it feels sometimes like 'others' are unfolding my road. A feeling I now realise Carina tried to tell me about ... how the road just comes to her. A feeling I only got since I was in Japan on my own. In Ukraine in the beginning of our trip I wrote in my diary that I felt like travelling Carina's road as a shadow. Our very different level of Russian language was not the only reason. Sharing experiences is a great joy but deep inside I feel my life is about going my way, Sue's way, a path where many others are my travel companions, teachers or guides but I walk it alone.
More and more I realise that actually even sharing experiences remains at a very low level or something hard to do. Even when travelling together 24 hours and sitting in the same car does not make a difference. Ed and I travelled truly beautiful roads across the Chinese countryside and mountains but he saw other things. One motivation for my trip was to find out how to share experiences about other places and lifestyles. Especially with people who haven't been in those other places like Asia for example. It was something we in non governmental organisations related to development cooperation and raising awareness on global problems or 'issues' talked a lot about. We would try all kind of things to increase tolerance and stimulate behaviour that would make our planet a better place. So far however I feel less and less able to transfer my experiences into words. My pictures are almost worth nothing because the 'great' moments, stories or views I can not catch on a snapshot. But I don't give up on this topic. The answer is blowing in the wind. It is about being. I am more and more tolerant. I inspire some people I meet just by showing that it is possible for example to travel without spending a lot of money just like Phil inspired me this morning. I feel a true value in contact between people, meeting face to face even if you only share a few words in common languages. And it is about time with people. With Carina, Brent or Ed now there was/is time to talk and to be silent. Or I spend one month on the farm in Japan. Wongsan, a great wwoofer from Hong Kong, and I reflected a lot about the process of entering a home, a daily life of a young family that starts with amazement, excitement about superficial visible, eye opening things and moves towards a deeper understanding and a feeling of being part of 'something'. Everyday we would do our work 'better', and caring more about this family. When you experience how your 'boss' lives, how he uses the money of his cash crops and you put on top the value of what you receive in terms of warmth, teachings, great food (I have to say it) and a roof then it just feels like 'making sense' to work on his fields.
My travel feels sometimes like I am observing daily lives without having one myself. I mean in the sense that it is very hard to call my days a routine or serving an aim like feeding others, raising money or building a house. But in every observation there are examples or lessons for my own life today, tomorrow or in the future. The last days I was looking at the lives of many Chinese.
China looks like a game to me. I remember one of my first impression in August when I saw all those people living on the streets and playing games on small low tables. I saw so many games being played. Sometimes for money, sometimes the table was only occupied by either men or women. Chinese also have something childish (which I do not mean in a bad sense). Their reactions are in a way childish -compared to 'Western behaviour'- their surprise is clearly visible and when they look at you like you are from Mars for 10 minutes it is a genuine behaviour unlimited by possible scruples or any code of conduct. Just like they just spit when they feel like. I am amazed by the 'time' people have here. In the big cities there is a fast wave, a rhythm. You can recognize things like a rush hour. The continuous sound of the horns might also give you the impression that people are in a hurry but I guess the reason for doing so it to prevent accidents from happening. It is their order in the chaos on the streets. Street life in China is also very slow. So may people are just sitting. Young mothers, grandmothers, fathers sit on small low chairs with children on their laps. They observe the little 'activity' happening in front of them. Cars, bikes and motorcycles, of which China is full of, are being repaired. People are doing laundry or cooking. But many people just sit or stand along the road, one group of them are the motorcycle guys ... I guess they are waiting to give somebody a lift to earn just enough to buy one small bottle of water. I can not understand how this country lives. You might expect people would be busy with work on the fields, cleaning or repairing their houses (a few brick walls and a metal gate) but people just sit. Except from the hyper-modern city centers I hardly have seen any 'finished' or clean living places. Beds are placed next to the oil, the woodcutting place or the dusty bags filled with rice or sand. Houses are small, often build without any 'architectural' logic and often even put together with some wood and fabric only. I don't know how 'statistically correct' this observation is but I must say that those I see working are mostly women. Their backs aren't straight from the heavy bamboo baskets, children and their labour on the fields. In the countryside I saw many children walking and smiling on their long ways home from school for example. Some still wearing the red scarfs. Did they forget that this kind of communism is over? Or is it not over? We at least experienced one crazy lunch with some eight members of the communist party in a place called the autonomous region of Bama. Also the women dressed in either colourful or Mao-like grey, dark blue outfits smile beautifully.
I am happy for our road. We saw many great scenery. Nature changes very often. I saw many 'traditional' houses which other 'tourists' go and see on 'expensive-artificially-traditional-tourist attractions' and also the many minorities in their 'traditional' clothes. I thought a lot about tradition on the road. Though China has in my opinion not many real sightseeing spots, like for example European cities have, I mean if you look at the spots they try to 'sell' to tourists. China has many genuine things I see along the roads less travelled. For example the beautiful old roofs. I feel that what is often stamped as being traditional has stopped being a normal everyday part of life. For those 'minorities' on the mountains their clothing style is not traditional I think. I believe they don't consciously think about it that they are preserving their unique culture.
I am a traveller who likes everyday lives, I like landscapes and basic things. I do not visit all the temples I pass and when i do I often leave with a feeling of confusion because I can not catch the stories it tells. I enjoy the company of the many different Chinese drivers that pick me up. The communication in words is limited but I prefer to meet those Chinese who do not see a foreigner as a person carrying a big wallet. Hitchhiking in China is not so easy as in Japan where people at least know the concept from the movies. Chinese don't know what it is but nevertheless we moved quite smoothly to Kunming from where I am writing now. Ed and I made a bet one morning how many cars it would take us to Kunming. He won! He is also quite good in estimating the waiting time for a car to take us. Though in general I am the most optimistic he is always right with the little time he guesses. Other times he said 'what do you feel?' I would answer for example that I really like yellow. The yellow car that approached us indeed stopped. We also met a few 'toll-gate' or road police people. They helped us a lot and we even got a 30 km ride from two young police men who drove us to the right highway entrance after we missed one turn. The blue light was blinking in the darkness and they even stopped some cars on the highway to ask if they were going our direction. I wonder what impression the Chinese have about their police? That night we slept under the surveillance of the nice toll gate people. It was cold and humid but a good sleeping bag and the morning sun solved everything.