WorldRecordChaseBlog.com

Puzzled minds

Here in Brunei, it seems everyone’s got a car. And I mean everyone. I’d been told when I first entered Brunei that nobody would pick me up hitchhiking because they’d be wondering what’s wrong with me. Fortunately for me, that has proven not to be correct and I have been given lifts. But it’s not easy, I will admit.

Drivers of the few vehicles which have stopped have generally had the same question: why don’t I “just” take a bus or a taxi? They say it with such smooth confidence and ease, as if they believe my pockets are jammed with banknotes. Cross-city taxi journeys here can be in the region of USD100 a time. And people expect that I, a wanton hitchhiker, should “just” flag one down – effortlessly, they might think it would be – each time I want to change location.

A lot of drivers are puzzled by me hitch-hiking in Brunei - but then it is all part of my 100th world record attemp journeyTypically, as I stand outside the driver’s window, trying to explain in as few words as possible that I’m hitchhiking (emphasis added), not a taxi- and bus-taker, my mind’s full of memories. One of the most clear of those memories involves a British company called Financial Binary. I invested money there and began to trade on the markets. I did well and my small account balance grew fast. Then an American staff member, Joe Lucas, contacted me to say I was benefitting too much. With an authoritarian attitude, he transferred much of my trading balance to the company coffers to “correct” the accounts! What’s more, Financial Binary then threatened me with legal action (in writing) if I complained publicly.

But the people stopping on Bruneian roadsides to suggest I take buses and taxis don’t know this, of course. And there was no point in explaining such things which have drained money out of my life, as they’d not care. In most cases, the driver has wound up their window and left me behind in the hot sun, thirsty and alone on the road verge, and sometimes running late. A few have even accused me of having lots of money but being too greedy to spend it… As I clutch my pockets, somehow hoping to feel a bundle of cash, my mind drifts back to how Financial Binary and others have stolen from and bullied me.

Yet, I remain positive. More than one person here has spoken to me about karma, in which I believe. So, as for people such as Joe Lucas at Financial Binary, I can’t tell their futures but I know one thing: what comes around also goes around. And so as I continue my 100th world record attempt journey, I think of karma a lot. Perhaps the lovely things which I’m experiencing along my trip are karma at work. Even if not, I’d like to believe they are.

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