When life brings people back to us

Many years ago in Egypt we heard a story from a Dutch couple about their worst diving holiday ever. It started with losing their luggage, boarding a liveaboard with only the clothes they wore and two quickly bought, too small, pieces of swimsuits. The liveaboard in the south of Egypt was beautiful, except for the fact that there were no fish. Lovely corals, clear waters, but absolutely no fish. When we bumped into them in Marsa Shagra, they had gotten their gear back and went out on an excursion to a famous place for sharks, but had to abort the dive after a short while due to the strong currents. His camera flooded and they just agreed that it was the worst vacation ever. We didn't see them more than during half an hour, right after breakfast, that morning.

This week we have spent on Lembeh, outside Sulawesi in Indonesia. It has been a calm week with just a few divers in the water. On Wednesday we were out diving for the whole day, when a couple starts talking about their worst diving holiday ever, five years ago. They were going to Egypt and somehow I recognized the story. They were very surprised that I could fill the gaps in their shortened version and it felt spooky remembering the exact situation when we met and what we talked about, but not for second remembering their faces. It is a very nice Dutch couple, and for various reasons, this was unfortunately not a better vacation for them than the one five years ago. But I am happy that life brought us back together. And since we cannot count on remembering each others faces, we have now decided on a story that we can tell next time we meet.