Who would have thought that I’d be able to meet a new acquaintance in the plane? This post is written for my new friend that I just met recently.

Last January 14, 2007 was my scheduled flight back from Manila to KL via Cebu Pacific flight 5J501. As I normally do, I requested to assign me any seat on exit row so I can sit comfortably. I was seated at 11A exit row; beside me was a young foreigner guy and after him was another Filipino guy.

His name is Liam, a 24 yr-old Irish-Australian guy born and raised in Melbourne. While in transit, we talked about his stay in the Philippines, about his experiences; his travels and trips; and even a little about his life in general. He’s a backpacker guy and been traveling around Asia for 6 months now. Visiting one country to another, chasing flights after the other is what he’s mostly doing right now. He’s been in Laos, Vietnam, China, Thailand, and a lot more. It’s really inspiring to hear his story and to meet someone as young as his age doing what he really likes to do to his life. How I wish I can have the guts to do that too.

This time, he’s planning to visit Malaysia and stay in KL for a couple of days. Since I knew the lodge where he’ll be staying, I warmly accompany him from the airport up to his place: 1 hr bus ride from airport to KL Sentral and taxi ride from KL Sentral to our respective places. We even shared 1 taxi… but dude we’ve been fooled! According to my housemates, 40RM was way expensive for a short distance like that! They said that we should have ridden a budget taxi parked somewhere upstairs! Sorry for that. Oh well, lessons learned. Next time we know where to find one. =)

Honestly, for a short period of time that we’ve been together, I felt sincerity and genuine person in him. I don’t easily trust strangers before… but nowadays, I find it cool to meet someone you’ve met unexpectedly or just someone you bump-in somewhere along the way because there’s no pretension and no airs. Weird as it may sound, but I feel delighted every time I meet new acquaintances along my way because more and more these days, I feel like we're all connected... and it's beautiful... and it's funny... and good.

Though we haven’t seen again after that incident, we were able to get each other’s contact info. And although he’s been on the road most of the time, we still do contact and chat once in a while. We supposed to meet to grab something to eat or drink the night before he left KL but our time didn’t meet halfway.

Anyway, when you feel coming back to KL, just hit me dude. I will welcome you whole-heartedly. Take care and God bless you on your trips! Hope to see you soon! Cheers!

P.S.

I bet you’ll get mad if I’ll post your pictures here… so better not! Haha

Date Scribed: January 23, 2007