Traveling Pod: Episode 6 – From Hell To Heaven!

Double check-ins, as mentioned before (at Don Meung International in Bangkok, Thailand), had some stereotypical treatment to them.  Yeah, already mentioned.  Then there was the delay turned almost mid-air collision with not one, but two other aircrafts.  I saw it with my own eyes.  We were ascending and we flew directly under a Singapore Airlines jumbo with another private passerby zooming the opposite direction, coming maybe 2km from both planes.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Such a vast sky but Air Traffic Control failed miserably at this.  Terrifying experience and none of the passengers knew what was happening.

Anywho, landed and immigration presented me with a 45-minute wait, pushing back an anticipated meeting with my content writer.  After the nice officer cleared me, I ran to the Express train that connects the airports with the city center.  After that, I went to 7-11 (due to starvation) before making a six-station trek to my hotel which I was abruptly greeted by loud ass music at the base of a 100$ USD a night hotel?! Checked in, and of course, card was denied.  I said, “man, this is going to get worse.”  During the “denial” process, my content writer called and said she couldn’t wait for me any longer.  Great!

In the end, it was approached, finally, and I went upstairs, sleepily, not wanting to go anywhere and that was day 1.  Definitely one of the worst travel days in history, but then, I knew what was going to follow.

Just one more snippet, and then heaven.

After waking up and feeling like complete ass, I knew I needed to head to the train station to meet my friend, Hakeem Khan, who’s a fitness entrepreneur in Kuala Lumpur.  I didn’t forget, but I failed to go out and get a sim card in the night, resulting in me waiting and using wifi at the Sentral Station.  I plead to Hakeem and told him, “meet me there at 10:45!” So then there it went…I got to the station about 45 minutes later and he wasn’t there.  I was scratching my head, and then put a stop-loss on worry: “he has 10 minutes or I’m going back home.” I gave him five…I bought a ticket and went to the opposite side of the tracks, waiting patiently with my palm on my forehead, for the train.

I glanced over the railway for some odd reason and I saw someone waving their helmet.  IT WAS HIM! I began to fun up the stairs, and at the same time, I was telling myself, “ummm, what excuse can I come up with at that moment to tell him what I was doing.”  We laughed it off in the end, and then heaven broke through.

Heaven, come to me, baby!

I took a taxi to his gym, and boy, was I blown away! A 22-year-old with a gym like that? Loads of equipment inside, nice set up, a place where he does all of his videos, and in a nice, university section of Sham Alah.

I was on 4 hours of sleep from the night before, basically because a terrible hotel, but that didn’t stop him from getting the best out of me or me getting the best out of him.  The podcast was sensational, followed by Nandos (Portuguese chicken restaurant) and lots of funny stories.  After that was all done, I went back to my hotel in the evening and was greeted with some extraordinary news.

What I’ve been envisioning is teaching at a bank Mon-Fri in the morning.  I got a message with the other person stating they have another project from the same bank they want to give me.

I’m just so grateful for everything. I find myself in gratitude a heck of a lot more than before because everything I’ve been through was because of this moment.  This moment right here.

And so, here I am at the airport getting ready to take a flight back to Thailand….and I’ll be back in 17 days, too.

Stay tuned!