The Kuala Lumpur Connection

In 2003 I was asked by my friend Luke to 'best man' at his wedding later that year. I duly accepted, and also agreed to organise his 'stag party' (which I had decided should be a surprise, and involve a few days abroad). This obviously meant I needed to plan things several months in advance (to give people chance to arrange flights and book time off work etc). This was going to be a little trickier than normal to organise given that I was going to be taking an eight month trip 'back packing' my way around the world. Fortunately I was able to obtain E-mail addresses for all invitees and took a contact list with me (with a view to organising the party during my travels). </p> <p>Meanwhile, another friend of mine (a Malaysian, now living in London) told me I should visit Kuala Lumpur (her home city) during my trip. She was due to be visiting family there around the same time as me (a coincidence in itself) and suggested that if the dates matched, that we might be able to meet up. We kept in touch via E-mail, and closer to the time agreed a date. This meant me changing my itinerary slightly (spending a few days longer in Malaysia than I had originally planned) but it would be worthwhile to see my friend, meet her family, and see parts of the city off the beaten track. </p> <p>For the first few weeks of my trip in Asia, I had been staying in some very basic (grotty) accommodation and when I mentioned this to my friend, she said "I can probably get you 4 or 5 star hotel in Kuala Lumpur for around £25 a night as my family does business there". I thought this would make a nice change from some of the places I had been staying in and she agreed to organise the booking for me. </p> <p>A few days later, I checked into the hotel, and in the middle of a horrendous rain storm decided that this would be a good time to spend a few of hours at an internet cafe planning Luke's stag party. I sent an E-mail out to the list of invitees and surprisingly (given the 8 hour time difference) I quickly received a reply from one of them (Amit) accepting the invite and saying he was 'looking forward to the party and meeting me again' (we had only met a couple of times before, but we had got on well). </p> <p>Later that day, I was leaving the hotel lounge area and thought 'that guy over there in the lounge looks just like Amit'. I quickly dismissed this thought as completely irrational, and continued on my way out of the hotel. I got outside the front door and thought to myself 'you know what, if it was Amit, I would feel daft for not approaching him'... so I headed back into the lobby. By this time the man was heading into the lift... I quickly followed, thinking 'well if it is Amit, this is an ideal time to find out!'. As he entered the lift, the man turned around and said 'John, what the heck are you doing here?... your E-mail said you were backpacking around the World... not staying in a five star hotel!!!'. </p> <p>It turns out Amit was in Malaysia for just a few days (on business) and had just finished a meeting with a client. He was staying in the same hotel as me and had actually written his E-mail reply to me from just a few rooms away from where I was staying. Suffice to say, later that night we went out for a few drinks, still both amazed that we should meet in such a way, especially after only just communicating with each other by E-mail! </p> <p>What's weird to me is the chain of events that led up to the coincidence... not originally planning to be in Malaysia (or indeed Kuala Lumpur) at that time, the choice of hotel (only because of my friend's family connection), the weather that prompted me to spend time at the internet cafe, being in the lobby at the same time as Amit, and making the spontaneous decision to walk back into the hotel after I had already walked out. </p> <p>Amit and I later became good friends and have dined out on this story many times! </p> <p>