A man was stunned recently to discover his doppelganger seated next to him on an airline flight-and not only do they look alike, they found out they had the same names, hobbies, and even a mutual friend.

Mark Garland arrived at the check-in desk at Heathrow airport for a flight to Bangkok, Thailand, when staff informed him that he had "already checked in".

After 40 minutes, staff finally figured out that there were two Mark Garlands on the flight.

"I said, 'Look I'm Mark Garland', showing him my passport, and he started laughing and opened his passport and showed me his name."

But having identical names was just the beginning.

When they came face to face, they realized they looked remarkably similar, both wearing black and donning shaved heads.

"I go to the desk and there's a bloke who looks just like me."

Then, the 58-year-old arrived at his seat to find the other Mark Garland seated right next to him.

The bus driver from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, spent 11 hours chatting with his new pal, a 62-year-old builder who lives just 34 miles away from Mark in Bristol-so close that sometimes Mark gets on the other Mark's bus route.

Both of the men have four kids, but are currently single, and they even has a friend in common, a colleague of the younger Mark drinks with Mark the elder at his local pub.

Perhaps most bizarre, both men absolutely love Thailand, having visited more than a dozen times each.

"We were so shocked by how strange it was," said the younger man. "We both kept laughing and smiling about it, it made me happy."

The other man agreed. "It was crazy. I have never known anything like it.

"I was thinking ‘what is going on!' I thought someone was winding me up.

Their personalities matched up well, too. After getting through the line for boarding, they both burst out laughing when they see they were seated next to each other.

"He's like me, I've got a character, and I love winding people up. We're the same."

The pair were both going on 3-4 week vacations to Thailand on March 2, when they discovered the lucky coincidence on the EVA Air flight.

"I just found it astonishing that he lived so near-right up the road. I told him I'd been to Thailand 13 times and he told me he'd been there 83 times."

"It's crazy. What are the odds on that?

By the end of the flight, the two Mark Garlands were solid friends and the bus driver even "had a little nap" on his new friend's shoulder.

They've vowed to stay in contact and are due to meet up for a beer in Thailand.

"I've made a friend for life."

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