ALEX STOLL PHOTOGRAPHY

I left Doha in the middle of the night after a 32 hour layover. I had arranged my flight as such so as to catch up with a friend I had made in New York three months prior. He was from Egypt but had spent his entire childhood in the Gulf and offered to show me around...a story for another time. 

I boarded my flight and settled in for what I had thought was going to be a silent, say nothing 8 hour ride until we reached Saigon in the morning. That is normally how most red eye's go, but not this time. 

I am typically not the type to spark conversation on a plane, but I enjoy having a back and forth with someone if they initiate. This so happened to be the case, but again it caught me by surprise given the time of night. 

The man sitting next to me who decided to break the ice went by the name of Petar. He was a middle aged bachelor from Bulgaria. His hair was cut short in a flat-top, military like style. Eyes big and inviting. My initial impression after the first few minutes of speaking indicated that he was a very friendly and kind person.

Petar was a pilot who flew for a European budget airline as his day job, but found himself occasionally spending time working in South East Asia. When I inquired why he explained that many of the local airlines in the region had a shortage of licensed commercial pilots at the time. These airlines would then hunt for staff overseas and offer them enticing short term contracts which included living expenses and a home away from home in an exotic part of the world.

Petar had been working under these contracts frequently and therefore knew Vietnam well. This was not his first rodeo. We were speaking at length about our travels and what we had planned to do there. I shared that I was coming for business and was attending an internal conference that our Vietnamese colleagues were hosting for us.

I then began to ask him more about his home in Bulgaria. At the time I was in a period of transition. I was technically still living in New Jersey but had already accepted an offer for a new job that would relocate me to Copenhagen. My move was set for two weeks after this trip.

I was busy with work over the course of the week and the trip was moving along as expected. Mid way into it I received a note from Petar checking in to say hello and asking about my experience. In the midst of that conversation he had looped back to our discussion about my trip to Sofia that we had on the plane.

He had apparently thought about it and offered to give me the keys to his apartment so that my friends and I would have a place to stay cost free for the weekend while we were there. He had agreed to stay in Saigon working for the next several months so his flat was to be vacant anyways, which I presumed was how he justified it and arrived at the decision. 

The offer took me by surprise but I figured why not take it. I wrote back and we arranged to meet up at the Bến Thành Market - one of the most notable attractions in Saigon - at the end of the week to exchange the keys to his place. 

It was a Saturday afternoon and my last day in town. I arrived at the market and awaited Petar for our exchange. The month of October in Vietnam falls within the rainy season, and on that particular afternoon there was a deluge. I had not seen rain come down so hard since the last time I had visited South East Asia...the intensity of rain showers in this part of the world is unlike anywhere else. 

Petar arrived by cab, he pulled up at the front of the market and saw me. He signaled for me to jump into the back of the car as he had not planned to linger at the market and didn't want to get hit by the rain. This was purely a transactional meeting. 

I hopped in and the sequence of events that followed lasted no more than 5 minutes. I entered; we greeted each other; he extend the keys and I took them; he then said something I will never forget...and I quote: "I told some of my friends that I was doing this today and they said that I was crazy...maybe I am but I feel good about it"; I thanked him and reassured that I would take the keys with me and leave them with his friend Momchil who was to meet us when we got there; we said a quick goodbye and then I departed; the cab quickly sped off in the pouring rain and that was the last I saw of Petar. 

I left the moment recalling one distinct feeling, and that was one of self consciousness as I began to think that for any onlooker watching this sequence of events go down could have reasonably assumed that the action actually taking place was an exchange of narcotics not house keys.

Two weeks went by. I moved to Copenhagen and began my new life, that of an expat, the life I had always wanted. The first weekend came quick and I suddenly found myself at the Sofia airport late on a Friday evening. I was actually in Bulgaria with Petar's keys in hand! 

Momchil met my friends and I at the airport and escorted us directly to Petar's flat. He ensured that we were comfortable and then left us for the night. His place was of perfect size for the three of us and satisfied our needs just as he had predicted. There were lots of interesting items laying around, currency and newspaper articles from all over the world. Presumably he had collected them throughout his travels. 

We had a nice visit that weekend. Momchil ended up being a very friendly and interesting character. He was a pantomime by trade who used to travel in a circus around to different cities throughout Eastern Europe. He was also very well versed in Bulgarian history and politics which made for a lot of insightful conversation throughout the weekend. 

I handed the keys to Momchil before we departed. I then wrote Petar and thanked him profusely over text for the random act of kindness and taking the leap of faith on me. 

This experience has not been the first of its kind and will not be the last, but the way in which it happened struck me differently than before. Perhaps it was the way in which things came to be: the Bulgaria coincidence, meeting in the cab, flying the keys from Asia back to the US and then back to Europe before finally reaching their rightful home. 

No matter the circumstances the lesson was clear. Have faith in people, some out there are bad, yes, but most are good and if you show compassion towards them they will reciprocate, often in ways that will blow your mind.