PERHENTIAN BESAR – 8 February 1978

Olympus OM-1 on Kodachrome 25. Roll 2. Frames 22 and 23.

When you travel alone you are inclined to meet more people … and some of those people become your travel mates. I was hanging out during a Chinese New Year holiday at a guesthouse in a small village on the east coast of Malaysia. A tall, sun-tanned Swede and I were the only guests at the place. Christian was sole traveller and on a long-term Asian adventure.

Christian and I decided to try to get to a group of islands off the mainland so we went to the harbour and found a boat to take us to Perhentian Besar, the largest island in the group. There wasn’t any infrastructure on the island for visitors so we went to the market and stocked up with food. We camped on the beach and pretty much had the idyllic tropical island all for ourselves.

While I was scanning my first rolls of Kodachome a few weeks ago I started wondering what had ever happened to Christian. I had written ‘Chris’ on the Kodachrome frame but that was really all I had to go on. I couldn’t remember his last name. After 41 years I really never thought I’d find him … or he’d remember me.

But as I flicked through my notebooks I found he had written his full name and address in Stockholm. I put the name in Google and discovered there was only one ‘Christian Wigardt’ in the world…or on the Internet at least. I pulled up the photos of him on Google. No way! It wasn’t ‘my’ Christian. But then I looked at the photo of me 41 years ago. No one would associate the me of then with the me of today. Time had changed those two young lads sitting on the beach. I Googled more and discovered the Christian of today was a journalist and a Swedish TV personality. I dug more through my notes and found a two-page typed letter from Christian. He said in the letter that he had returned to Sweden and was pursuing a career in journalism. Hmmm … it’s gotta be him, I thought.

I found his Facebook page and left him a message and shared the photos I had scanned. A couple of weeks went by and there was no answer but Messenger hides posts from non-friends so I didn’t give up. Finally, Christian replied and clearly remembered our sojourn of four decades ago. The bonds created by adventure travel never seem to expire.

Christian is transitioning from his long career in journalism so he can focus on his new passion as a yoga instructor. He has established himself as a yoga guru in Sweden and has developed a business which brings yoga with an innovative twist into the workplace. Coincidentally, Padma and I have been wanting to start yoga but we just can’t get off our bums to do it. Christian would have none of that and encouraged us to take our next holiday in Stockholm and he would ensure we learn yoga properly. An offer we are seriously considering.

From a tropical island in Malaysia to a yoga studio in Stockholm … after 41 years it would be great to catch up with my old travel mate.