Meeting Of The Ways

Background: After 10 years at sea and 2 years working in Sri Lanka / Maldives Islands I decided to settle down with my English wife and family. So in 1964 I took a job with a British company based in the north of England. Went back to college, on a part
time basis, to improve my shoreside qualifications. After a number of lucky breaks career wise and 7 years later I was moved to head up a company in Ireland.

7 years later while still in Ireland I was involved with the design of a new plant in Indonesia. After a couple of visits to Jakarta the Indonesian partner requested my UK company to send me out to West Java to act as a 'consultant'
on the project.

This is where the story really starts.

While in Indonesia in the early 80's my UK company asked me to make contact with and visit a potential partner in Thailand. A trip was arranged and my English wife who had refused to live in Indonesia was on holiday visiting so she accompanied
me to Bangkok.

While in Bangkok a Thai friend Khun A and his wife G elected to show us around the usual tourist sites. On the weekend of our visit we were taken to the large temple in Nakorn Pathom. In the corner of that temple was an old lady sitting on
a blanket surrounded by bunting and coloured paper. I asked my friend Khun A what she was doing. The response was to the effect that she was telling fortunes. So I said is she able to tell the fortune of a foreigner (the word 'farang'
not known to me in those far off days). The lady said can do in Thai but said she could not speak English so Khun A would interpret.

So I sat on the blanket, my English wife standing behind me, Khun A sat on the blanket by me and his wife stood behind him. The fortune lady started….married 3 children, traveled a lot, and lived only short time in country of birth………then
my friend stopped the interpretation. I kept saying what did she say? What did she say? He whispered I will tell you later.

As we walked away down the road ahead of the two ladies I heard my friend’s wife say to my wife "if your husband comes here again on business always come with him".

My friend filled in the gaps………the fortune teller had described my next wife. She was Thai with curly hair (obviously black)!!

We skip forward to 1986, now working in another joint venture in Malaysia (UK / Malaysian). When my UK company contacted me to take over development in Thailand as well as run the project in Malaysia.

During one of my visits my old friend Khun A suggested a visit to another friend (C) of his who told fortunes to the Thai rich and famous, so we did just that. C took a while to analyse my birth chart as I was the first foreigner that had appeared in
front of him.

He told me I was about to get divorced (which was true), career matters and finally told me that my next wife would be a beautiful Thai lady. Khun C put some information on a piece of paper put in an envelope sealed it and we all signed across
the flap.

He then said to Kn. A open this envelope in July 1988, look at the information and see if the contents mean anything to you both.

I set up an office in Bangkok with a group of other new on the market type companies we each had an individual office with access to secretarial services.

I was generally in the office 10 days per month with the balance of the time in Malaysia. The next office also had a person who spent time north of Chiang Mai so we did a deal. I answer your phone when you are not here and you answer my phone
when I am not here. It worked well.

On the 20th of December 87 the next office phone was ringing so I answered. It was a lady from a Government Ministry. I made a note of the details and said the call will be returned the following week.

2 weeks later the same thing happened, same lady……..we talked for half an hour, said the call would be returned and hung up.

On the 20th January 88 with the next office empty the phone was ringing. I answered, same Ministry lady this time talking for over 1 hour. In the end I said what are you doing tonight, would you like to meet for dinner.

To cut a long story short we met fell in love and were married on the 20th June 88.

You have got it …………… she has curly black hair.

We have now been married for 16 happy years, have 2 boys, ages 13 and 11, like everybody else have had some ups and downs.

Oh, the envelope………….we retrieved the envelope from the dust and crumbs at the bottom of my friend’s office safe and on opening found 3 dates on the paper. 20th December 87 20th January 88 20th June 88

Unbelievable but true!

Since then I have not gone to Thai fortune tellers as they frighten me.

Stickman’s thoughts:

This is creepy. When I hear stories like this, fortune tellers scare me too. But for the locals, they can be quite an important part of their lives.