Shirt Happens!

As I wandered around the streets and through markets in Vientiane, Chiang Mai, and Bangkok, I bought several t-shirts. Not that I need any. I’m still wearing t-shirts from when I joined organized bicycle rides. But on vacation, one tends to buy things one doesn’t have the slightest need for. For example, I stopped somewhere near the old office in Bangkok to look at a street vendor’s wares and it turned out the vendor was deaf. He was a super nice guy, so I negotiated a good price with him on his calculator and walked away with another shirt I don’t need.

I bring up t-shirts because of the Forrest Gump shirt that says something like “Shirt Happens.” The idea, of course, is that bad stuff happens in life and we just have to roll with it. Good philosophy. On my vacation I was offered 2 jobs and 2 business deals in 4 days. How is this related? Stick with me as I ramble.

In Vientiane I stayed in a place called “Villa That Luang,” because it looked nice on the website and it was located very close to the old office on That Luang Road. When I told Frank, my old boss, where I was staying he said, “Oh yeah, that’s a bit up the hill from the old office, and I think Savivanh’s brother owns it.”

Back in the old days, I worked the Pan Am (now defunct) side of the travel business, and Savivanh worked the BOAC (now British Airways) side of the house. Savi was a gorgeous princess, quite literally, by marriage to a prince in the royal family. Her husband was a pilot and had been killed in an airplane crash, and when the communists took over Laos, she went to Washington, D. C. and got a great job with Uncle Sam.

Back in the present, Frank called his secretary and got the name of Savi’s brother who presumably owned the Villa. I wrote it down and when I got back I asked the desk clerk who the owner was. The name matched so I asked if he was around. He was lounging in the next room.

“Sabai dee, Mr. Ch….” says I. “My name is …. and I used to work with your sister down the road 30 years ago.” We exchanged business cards, he brought me up to date on his sister, and in less than 5 minutes (no exaggeration) he offered me quite a business deal. He wants me to get him an airplane to fly an international route between Laos and Viet Nam, with later expansion into Thailand and Cambodia. He has the right connections (confirmed later by Frank) to get the route and get it going. We made an appointment to meet again later in the day so he could give me more details, and I went up to my room, jaw still agape.

Whether anything will come of this offer or not is questionable. But this brings me to my point. My years here before were probably the most exciting and interesting of my life, especially when compared to my present existence in Bakersfield. And only a couple days after returning for a visit, it got real interesting again.

For me the t-shirt has a different meaning. “Wow! In this part of the world, sh*t happens!”