Meet the Characters from the Stories in Before the Kids and Mortgage, Part 1 of 3

My book Before the Kids and Mortgage is an uncommon and inspiring memoir. 

If you like humorous interactions, whirlwind tours, and eye-opening revelations, then you’ll love my extraordinary trek.

As I travelled the world with my wife Odelia, we met all kinds of characters. 

In my blog post, “The Biggest Risks and Rewards of Embarking on a Trip of a Lifetime,” I shared the story of how we met Freddie.

In this series of blog posts, I’ll share more stories of all the interesting people we met.

Here’s the story of Michael the Boss

We met a shady hotel operator in Nepal by the name of Michael, whom we called “Michael the Boss.”  

Michael pretended to be an American.  And he looked and acted like an American mobster. 

He smoked cigars, drank whiskey every night, gambled and walked around his hotel as if he were a mafia don.  

Odelia and I found ourselves in the picturesque town of Pokhara, Nepal. 

Walking in the town looking for a place to stay, we stumbled upon the hotel Michael managed.

We didn’t know then that we’d end up staying at that hotel for weeks!

During our stay, he offered me a job as a hotel consultant. And together we redesigned the entire hotel.  

It was an intoxicating feeling, as everything I wanted happened immediately through his dedicated team of employees.  No matter what idea I said to implement, it was done.

Michael also had grandiose plans of curing cancer. He told high tales of his family wealth and connections.

Here’s the story of Muhammad from India

In Jaipur, India, we met a Rickshaw driver by the name of Muhammad.

He had five daughters that he needed to find suitable husbands for.  

In rural India, the father of the bride needs to provide a dowry to the family of the husband-to-be.

To support this expensive effort, Muhammad left India for Europe, working as a cook, saving money so he could marry all his daughters.

Everything about Europe was in contrast to life back in India. 

Over the years, Muhammad worked hard and was able to impressively save enough money for his daughter’s dowry’s.

As many people have experienced when you visit a place that’s totally different from your own home country, Muhammad experienced reverse culture shock when he returned to Jaipur.

He had to deal with life back home in India that was very different from the countries he lived in Europe.

Read about all the places we visited and the amazing people we met in my book Before the Kids and Mortgage, available here on Amazon.