The key is in your heart.

March 20, 2012. Written in Bangkok, Thailand.

The key is in your heart.

In Vang Vieng, Laos, I met my Spanish friends Josu and Roberto again. I traveled with them for a while in China and had a great time. They are full of humor and creativity, so I was happy to be able to reunite.

It was a short reunion though, because they were already moving on the next day. There was only one day to go out and have some fun together. We rented two motorcycles to go and visit a waterfall nearby. I first sat on the back of Roberto's bike, but the steer of his bike seemed to be unstable, and with me on his back we would keep narrowing to the left, and sometimes almost fell of the road. Because of the narrow bridges with no sidewalls, it was a bit dangerous so I changed to the back of Josu's bike.　
It turned out we had been driving on the wrong road though, and had to go all the way back and cross all those dangerous bridges again.

Wen finally on the right way, Josu got irritated by the bumpy roads and said he could not take it anymore. He suddenly got off the bike and said good bye to us. Too bad!

Together with Roberto, I drove on the bumpy roads with Josu's bike. It was a bike with gears, a first experience for me but after I was driving on the first gear the whole time Roberto noticed and taught me how to switch gears. A great teacher!

The thing is though, that after driving on this road for about 15 minutes, we found out that we had been going the wrong way. We had to turn around, and go on the bumpy roads the whole way back again.

This time, we finally found the road we had been searching for. The nature on the way was beautiful. Green Guilin style mountains, clear water, tropical trees.
While I was enjoying this beautiful scenery, I suddenly heard Roberto screaming something.
"Hey!!" he said.
I looked back at him.
"Your wallet!"
My wallet was lying somewhere on the middle of the road. I had not noticed dropping it at all. Good thing Roberto wasn't driving ahead of me.

After arriving, we parked our bikes and Roberto taught me how to lock the bike. It was a huge nature park with many unstable wooden bridges and cross-ways. While climbing our way through, we found some nice spots to swim. Under the main attraction (the waterfall) it was also possible to swim, and it looked like it was deep enough to jump down from the top.
Before changing into swimming-wears and doing so, though, I suddenly thought about the motorbike's key. Where had I put it? I grabbed into my pockets, but couldn't find it anywhere.
"Have you seen my key, Roberto?"
Roberto looked at me with a scared smile.
"No..." he said. It looked like he already got the point.
Together, we searched the whole park, but no key to be found.
On the way, we found another visitor. He was also a foreigner.
"Hello. Have you seen a key somewhere on your way by any coincidence?" I asked the guy, just in case.
"The key of your motorbike? I have no idea. I came with a motorbike too. Let's see if I still have mine. Yes, here it is!" he said, and showed us the key with pride.
Err, thank you sir.

Roberto left the park to go back to the rental place to ask for another key. In the meanwhile, I kept on searching. I asked the ladies at the entrance if they had seen a key. None of them had, but they started to help me. The ladies were now walking through the park, searching very carefully. They would pick up leaves to see if the key was not under it, and even crouch under bridges to see if it had not fallen down there. Such friendly people! But still, no key. I explained the ladies that it was OK and that I would search for myself. With a dissappointed and sorry face, they went back to the entrance.

While searching, I bumped into the other visitor again. He was not wearing his T-shirt anymore. His white skin and untrained posture somehow didn't seem to fit with the surrounding.
"Did you find your key, young man?" he asked me.
"No not yet"
"Well, listen to me.I'm from Russia..."
"Oh really."
"In life, there are only three things. Time, money and effort. If you have these three, everything you need can be found. For example, if you want new shoes, what do you do? I don't have money, but I do have time. Ok, then I will make an effort and move this stone aside to create a road. Somebody will give me money, and now I can go and buy shoes"
Yeah right, and could you please help me find my key?
"You understand me?" I started to catch his typical Russian accent by now.
"Yes sir, time, money and effort. I got it"
"The key, young man, is in your heart!"
Yeah sure, but right now I would prefer it to be on my motorbike.
"Life is too short to search for keys. Be your own key!"
"Yes, I will do that"
"The key is in your heart!" the man would say once more, looked me closely in the eyes and then left.
Now I was all alone again. I didn't have any hope for searching anymore, but I didn't feel like just sitting around while Roberto was driving around for me.

Roberto finally came back with a new key. He had also bought us some lunch. In front of the waterfall, we enjoyed our lunch and had a good talk. Such a nice guy, Roberto, he wasn't angry at all.
After lunch, we changed into swimming wear and finally had our swim. As the original plan, we also jumped from the top of the waterfall. Too bad though, that the sun was already down and the water was getting a bit cold.

When we got back to the bikes, there was a business card attached to my bike. It was the Russian guy, of course. He was running a bookstore back home. It seemed to be about religious and philosophic books, which was not too surprising. E-mail me! It said, and suddenly, I knew. How could I have not noticed all the time? The way the guy talked, his facial expressions! He was gay!

On the way back, it was already dark, but the beautiful nature on the way now had a different face. I took some pictures on the way. On the top of a certain hill, the moon was so beautiful that I wanted to take a picture of this too, but when I grabbed in my pocket, my camera was gone. I turned the bike, it must have dropped out of my pocket somewhere on the way.
"Where are you going?" asked Roberto.
"I think I dropped my camera somewhere on the way!"
Roberto hit his forehead. "Oh my god!"
About 2 kilometers back, I found my camera lying lonely on the ground. I'm glad I had my camera in my hands again , rather than it being in my heart!