Tales from the Road - the World's Cup!
Last weekend, we spent a lazy weekend in Khao Lak, a town one hour north of Phuket which is described as what Phuket was 15 years ago. The town definitely lived up to the billing – beautiful beaches, laid-back resorts, great Thai Food and no parasails/banana boats spoiling the beautiful horizon.
One evening, Disha went to get a massage and I headed off in search of a television so I could see the World Cup. As it turns out, they take the “Phuket 15 years back” tagline so seriously that they don’t have televisions in the resort.
I eventually found a roadside grocery store where they were showing the game. Unsurprisingly, there was a group of about 10 huddled around the TV. I bought some water and biscuits to alleviate the guilt and then settled down among the crowd. The guy sitting next to me spoke English and so I started chatting with him. He told me that he was a Nepali born in Thailand. However, his family moved to Burma and he studied there, which was why he knew such good English. He then moved back to Thailand to get a job because of the political unrest in Burma. I had recently spent a few days in Myanmar and so we exchanged commiserations on the sorry state of that beautiful country.
He was a tailor in one of Khao Lak’s ubiquitous tailor shops. I asked him why Khao Lak had so many tailor shops. He told me that the German and Scandinavian tourists who frequented Khao Lak got a year’s supply of clothes stitched when they came on their vacations. Hence, every resort had its very own in-house tailor. Globalization at its very best! :)
He then started telling me about his Sikh entrepreneur boss who was born and brought up in Thailand. He was a tailor who had developed an international reputation for quality and had used that to build up a chain of tailor shops across Phuket and Khao Lak. It was now going on 12 shops and counting. As he proudly proclaimed, “everyone knows King’s fashion”.
The way his boss managed his employees was by having video cameras in each store so that he could do surprise check-ins. Since my Nepali friend did not have football in his store, he came to this nearby grocery store to see his football. If he got a call from the boss, he would go running back to the store and tell the boss that he was outside trying to herd in customers.
Since it was now low season in Khao Lak, my friend had a lot of time on his hands. Being a football fan, he was seeing every game of the World Cup, supporting Holland and Argentina. He caught me up on every detail of the games I had missed, and we exchanged sporting stories back and forth. The game (Netherlands vs Japan) wrapped up with a 1-0 victory for the Dutch (go orange!), and it was time to bid each other goodbye. We wished each other good luck in all our respective endeavours. An Indian and a Nepali-Thai–Burmese – citizens of 4 countries that aren’t close to being in the World Cup can still spend an hour watching the beautiful game and getting to know each other’s lives. That is why I love the World Cup. :)
One evening, Disha went to get a massage and I headed off in search of a television so I could see the World Cup. As it turns out, they take the “Phuket 15 years back” tagline so seriously that they don’t have televisions in the resort.
I eventually found a roadside grocery store where they were showing the game. Unsurprisingly, there was a group of about 10 huddled around the TV. I bought some water and biscuits to alleviate the guilt and then settled down among the crowd. The guy sitting next to me spoke English and so I started chatting with him. He told me that he was a Nepali born in Thailand. However, his family moved to Burma and he studied there, which was why he knew such good English. He then moved back to Thailand to get a job because of the political unrest in Burma. I had recently spent a few days in Myanmar and so we exchanged commiserations on the sorry state of that beautiful country.
He was a tailor in one of Khao Lak’s ubiquitous tailor shops. I asked him why Khao Lak had so many tailor shops. He told me that the German and Scandinavian tourists who frequented Khao Lak got a year’s supply of clothes stitched when they came on their vacations. Hence, every resort had its very own in-house tailor. Globalization at its very best! :)
He then started telling me about his Sikh entrepreneur boss who was born and brought up in Thailand. He was a tailor who had developed an international reputation for quality and had used that to build up a chain of tailor shops across Phuket and Khao Lak. It was now going on 12 shops and counting. As he proudly proclaimed, “everyone knows King’s fashion”.
The way his boss managed his employees was by having video cameras in each store so that he could do surprise check-ins. Since my Nepali friend did not have football in his store, he came to this nearby grocery store to see his football. If he got a call from the boss, he would go running back to the store and tell the boss that he was outside trying to herd in customers.
Since it was now low season in Khao Lak, my friend had a lot of time on his hands. Being a football fan, he was seeing every game of the World Cup, supporting Holland and Argentina. He caught me up on every detail of the games I had missed, and we exchanged sporting stories back and forth. The game (Netherlands vs Japan) wrapped up with a 1-0 victory for the Dutch (go orange!), and it was time to bid each other goodbye. We wished each other good luck in all our respective endeavours. An Indian and a Nepali-Thai–Burmese – citizens of 4 countries that aren’t close to being in the World Cup can still spend an hour watching the beautiful game and getting to know each other’s lives. That is why I love the World Cup. :)
posted by Karthik at 8:53 PM
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