A talk with a stranger

I woke early this morning. Extremely early. It was even earlier than the time I'd wake up to go to school. And what would drive me to wake up at such an insane hour on a cool-sleep-inducing early Saturday morning? A photoshoot.

My cousin Alvin had asked me last week to help him out with a family photoshoot at Tanjung Aru this morning, and never having the experience of such a task, I gladly agreed. So, I got up when everyone else was still in dreamland and got ready and drove to Tanjung Aru. The shoot was at Shangri-la Tanjung Aru Resort and it was a blast. If you're interested you can check it out at my photoblog.

But, the reason I'm posting is that when we arrived, a lady was looking at the swallows which kept flying near the windows of the reception area. Then as we wanted to go to the garden grounds below, out of the blue she talked to me and said how amazing the birds were and how wonderful it was to be in Sabah. Not wanting to be rude, I said it was. Then she asked me if I was a guest and I answered that I was just visiting. I bid her farewell and thought nothing more of it.

After we were done with the shoot, we were leaving on our way up the stairs when we chanced upon the same lady again. Again she asked where we were from, and I guess she remembered because she blurted out the words 'KK'. Then, seeing that we were holding cameras she went on to ask questions about who we were and so on. And after talking about her life in British Columbia, Sandakan and Singapore (all in a span of 10 minutes!), my cousin and I found ourselves being persuaded about the benefits of becoming a yoga practitioner. By this time, all three of us were already sitting down. I guess my cousin and I were just being too polite. We actually wanted to go somewhere to review the pics we had taken, and so we 'endured' and made polite conversation with this lady. Towards the end, she gave me a photocopy of this supposed master, and asked me to read it. She even offered to possibly meet up in Canada if we ever headed over there.

We managed to excuse ourselves soon after and then went to Coffee Bean for some fake cool-air comfort and some ridiculously expensive drinks. That encounter with the woman got me thinking: she was basically hot-calling: strike up a conversation with anyone and introduce them to something that seems worthwhile. And she was doing it with all earnestness, too.

She's got guts.