The Time I Met a Guy Named Mohammed

Of course this story starts with me being out with Caitlin and Emma, having a quiet-ish night in TST.  Emma had to leave first to catch a ferry back to Lamma, and Caitlin and I never know when to quit, so we took this as a sign to have a couple more bottles of wine.  Everyone at the bar had left except us and the table next to us.

Turns out it was some guys in town for a Geo-electrical engineering conference, once i'd exhausted the industry buzzwords I could think of, those being "cable" and "wire" we did the usual exchange of who are you and where are you from.  One of the guys was named Mohammed and he was from Iran, but had been living in Belgium for a while, working on his doctorate, his girlfriend was there too, she was an artist tagging along for holiday purposes, then some Spanish guy and a Belgium dude also here for the conference.  We told them we were from the States and Caitlin was getting ready to move back.  So he told us how is mom was always asking when he would come back to Iran, but he really didn't want to.  He enjoyed living in Belgium and what was he supposed to do back in Iran...do the nightly prayer and then shout "Down with America," one arm held high, with the rest of the Iranians....Caitlin and I were both speechless and then started laughing insanely. I double checked and asked him if that was true, and he confirmed.  Unbelievable!! This is one of the best stories I've ever heard

After this I got his business card we made lose plans to meet up the next day for Caitlin's going away party

The next day at work, Emma asked if we had stayed out late.  I relayed the story of our new friend, and said I didn't think we had stayed out much after she left...then I sat for a minute and had a memory, and had to amend that statement because I recalled the engineers leaving and Caitlin and I still sitting there with half a bottle of wine.  The bar staff gave us two plastic cups and poured the wine into them and sent us on our way so they could close up.  Most bars in Asia are just always open, so I can't be sure how long we were there, but I would like to extend my apologize to the bar staff, for being those two lame-os that don't know when to leave.