There's no place like home!!

Today I finally learned the lesson on "the world really is a small place."

For most of today Sab and I spent it talking to some guy we had never met but I'm sure I'd seen him before. I did see this guy before actually...It was last night as Sab and I were walking down a laneway he was eating at a restaurant by himself. I observe these things where as my traveling partner doesn't.

But that wasn't it.

It all started this morning as Sab and I wandered down the street from our guest house for a late brekky. We decided to take the day off today after our horrendous speedboat adventure the day before. The weather today was divine as we found ourselves sitting at a restaurant on the bank of the mighty Mekong River. After a hearty omlette and fresh as fresh can be baguette Sab and I were thinking what we were going to do with the rest of the day.

Suggestions were thrown about of riding a bike around town, walking around or just do what we do pretty well...nothing. This thought process was interrupted by a guy who suggested that we see one of the waterfalls just outside of town. "Gorgeous" and "divine" were some of the words that he used to describe this waterfall he just came back from earlier in the morning.

After a little while after deciding that his accent was perfectly Australian the age old question was asked. "So where in Australia are you from?" Sab and I can answer in perfect unison these days in a manner that would make Torvill and Dean jealous.
"Melbourne" we said that was short and succint.

After finding out that this guy was from Coburg I thought "Yeah that's pretty close to East Keilor. About 15-20 mins away." Sab grew up in East Keilor for a while too so she has deep affection for places such as the Centerway, JB-Hi Fi and Milleara Road. For me anyone who is in a 20 minute radius of Norwood Drive gets a tip of my hat and even more of my attention as I can talk about things like Buckley Street, Highpoint Shopping Centre and Footscray and not be on the receiving end of a look which screams out "Mate..what the hell are you talking about?"

Then the bombshell came as this bald headed but bearded man said "but I grew up in East Keilor."

Now the odds of meeting a fellow Aussie from the mean streets of EK are pretty thin but what I learned next made that pretty thin turn into a needle in a haystack. "Where did you live in East Keilor?" I asked thinking he would answer something like Noga Ave. Brees Road or the top end of Milleara Road near the Centreway. East Keilor...Respect!

"I grew up in Sterling Drive" Baldman said
"I GREW UP IN NORWOOD DRIVE!" I exclaimed.



On the above map the distance between the places we grew up would roughly be 800-900 meters. My house that served as my life for 24 years is located just under the N in Norwood Drive. This guys place where he grew up is at the top end of Norwood Drive on Sterling Drive. Imagine the scene: Three people sitting in a little town on the Mekong River 10000 kilometers from home just discovering that they all lived within 2 kilometers with each other growing up.

So more memories of home kept flooding back. I was just amazed that here we were talking about waterfalls one minute then we find ourselves sitting talking to this guy (his name was Peter by the way) for 5 hours. Peter, Sab and I talked about holidays and how much we all love Chiang Mai in Thailand and anything and everything in between. He was traveling the world with no plans and was just falling head over heels for Asia and with all the time we have spent here we gave him plenty of ideas to travel around this part of the world. I found out also that he was friends in primary school with my neighbour across the road from my house and he remembers visiting my neighbours house and smelling that combination of Italian furniture and Italian cooking. I was stoked to say the least! (To everyone back in East Keilor, he's talking about Danny and the house was Pina's.)

It was 4 pm when we decided to actually do something with our day. We swapped email addresses to keep in touch and went our separate ways. Sab and I did a little bike ride around the town which was lovely and then we can straight here because i had to tell you all (the three people that actually visit this blog) that the world really is a small place.

Sometimes it's so small it's freaky!