The trailer for the movie "Three Identical Strangers"/UNIVERSAL
A passenger on a flight from the UK to Thailand must have thought he had flown to another dimension after finding his doppelganger at the airport and discovering that they not only share the same name, but look alike and even have a friend in common.
"It's crazy. What are the odds?" 58-year-old Mark Garland told South West News Service while recounting their unbelievable encounter, which took place on March 2 on a flight from London to Bangkok.
According to reports, the bus driver, who hails from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, was checking in for his flight when flight attendants told him he had in fact already checked in and passed through just minutes ago.
Mark claimed that it was a mistake and asked to be let through, but the flight attendants asked him to wait until they realized the mistake.
Only later did the crew realize that there were two "Mark Garland"s on the same flight - and that they also looked quite similar to each other.
The larger Mark, a 62-year-old builder from Wormley, Bristol, does resemble his younger counterpart, with a build and bald head to match.
Young Mark explained that apparently the check-in employee did not cross-check the reservation number with the passenger and put in his duplicate instead.
"I stood at the check-in desk for 40 minutes while they tried to figure out the problem," the flight attendant said, "so we had to go to the boarding gate early to figure out what it was."
After long minutes of waiting, the twins met and could not contain their excitement.
"I was shocked at how strange it was," said the younger Mark when he saw his doppelganger, "People said we could be brothers."
He added: "I told him, 'Look, I'm Mark Garland'. I showed him my passport and he started laughing, opened his passport and showed me his name. It was crazy."
They then proceeded to jokingly blame each other for causing so many problems during the boarding stages.
Mark, 62, said: "It was crazy - I've never heard of anything like it."
"I go to the table and there's a guy who looks just like me, but he's a little bigger than me," said the construction worker, before adding humorously: "But I look better than him."
He added: "He's like me, I have an attitude and I like to annoy people. So does he."
The younger and older Mark happened to decide to fly to Thailand for a vacation, for four and three weeks respectively.
The madness didn't stop there: when the couple boarded the plane, they discovered they were sitting right next to each other.
They talked during the 11 and a half hour flight, during which they realized that they had much more in common than name and baldness.
The two live only 15 minutes apart and unbeknownst to them, their paths crossed in the past: "I drive a bus and Mark said he sometimes rides my bus," said Mark.
In addition, both men have four children (each), although the bus driver has never been married while the construction worker is divorced.
They even have a mutual acquaintance: "One of my colleagues knows him and goes to drink with him at the pub," said young Mark.
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As expected, they both have a passion for Thailand as each of them has visited the Southeast Asian paradise dozens of times already.
"I told him I'd been 13 times and he told me he'd been 83," the elder Mark said.
By the end of the flight it was no longer possible to separate them - so much so that young Mark took "a light nap on my shoulder", he recalled.
Both now believe that this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
"Our chance meeting made me happy," said the bus driver, who plans to keep in touch with his older counterpart and meet him in the capital in Thailand.
"I found a friend for life," added the second Mark.
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