It's been far too long since our last post, this I recognize. However, we have been having an absolute blast on the European leg of our travels, which hasn't allowed for much downtime to pen our next story. Suffice it to say, we've been having too much fun to stop and document the whole process :)
That being said, I was particularly touched by a recent interaction with a restaurant owner in Leuven, Belgium that I wanted to share with you as this, to me, encapsulates the best part of our travels - making personal connections and learning about how people live and exist within a city/country/culture.
We were dining recently at a fantastic Indian restaurant in Leuven called Masalatop and had the good fortune of meeting and being served by one of the proprietors, Bal.
Bal was particularly engaging, always with a huge smile and had a sincerity and curiosity about him that made for great conversation. It was also later in the night and with few tables left to attend to, he had time to engage us in discussion.
Like most people we've encountered in Europe, he politely asked where we're from, and we shared that we are from Seattle, Washington in the USA. That is typically as far as the conversation goes with most people. However our inquisitive host Bal wanted to know more, asking how long we've been in Europe, where we've been, where we're going and how long we would be in Europe, why are we in Europe, etc. At this point, we typically consider the conversational door to be open to talk about our story and our travels, so we took the cue.
We shared with Bal that we've been on the road since February, traveled across most of South America, some of the U.S. and we had been in Europe about one month. We also shared that we'd sold our house, our cars, most all of our stuff, quit our jobs and wanted to fulfill our desire to travel.
At this point Bal was enthralled. You could sense that he had a genuine interest in our story and our motivations and told us how excited he was to know people like us that would take a look at the conventional thinking of risking all that we had worked for and cast it aside to fulfill our personal desires.
He then shared his brave story of leaving his family and moving from Nepal to Leuven in search of a better life. He had found work in Indian/Pakistani restaurants in Belgium, learning the business and recipes as he went along and finally decided that he wanted something more for himself.
He loved and was inspired by some of America's business leaders like Elon Musk and Tony Robbins and wanted nothing more than to bet on himself and open his own restaurant. Granted Elon Musk was born in South Africa and is a citizen of South Africa/Canada/U.S. and Tony Robbins is a motivational speaker, but his heart was in the right place and these were the first two that came to his mind.
He gathered a group of friends and opened Masalatop, only one year ago. At the time we went, it was the 2nd highest rated restaurant of 297 in Leuven with 4.5 stars and 187 reviews on TripAdvisor. Clearly he had made the right bet.
Throughout the night he would drop by our table, always sharing that huge smile on his face, and we would chat about his travels back to Nepal to see family or his aspirations to do more in the entrepreneur space as he mentioned that Masalatop was only "the beginning of an empire" for him. He was a truly interesting guy with big motivations and a child-like curiosity that will undoubtedly take him far. You got the feeling that in good times and bad, he always tackled every day with a big smile. It was inspirational and heart warming.
After our meal, Bal gave us his card with his email and said he would love to hear from us, as he was inspired by our story and our courage to do what was right by us and not by what other people say that we should be doing.
We left the meal both physically and mentally fulfilled and talked a bit about it on the walk back to our place.
A few days passed and I still had his card in my pocket. I found a free moment in the day and sent Bal an email saying how pleased we were with our evening at Masalatop and how much we enjoyed meeting him. His response was simple, yet so touching that we felt the need to share it with you (the Dr. may or may not have been chopping onions when she read this):
Dear Adam and Andrea,
Thanks a lot for you kind mail. It was pleasure to meet you guys. There is something to learn you two. We all try to make our life as we want but not all the can get. Me as wel as you are trying to follow my heart not only follow the obligations.
Anyway have a good time forther and wish you from my deeply heart a nice life as you two guys want.
I like telling motivational stories you will some time a heros of my stories.
Thanks
Bal
We have certainly had many fulfilling times on our travels and made new friends and personal connections along the way. This brief interaction however, may have been the most touching. It's not often that you get to be someone's hero, but that night we made history in one man's life, as he did to us.
