Bangkok, Thailand

My second time to Bangkok and I am still trying to figure out the allure. I mean, yeah there are definitely cool parts to the city, but it gets old after like, a day. I will say the heat that I expected held off until our last day. We actually weren't there for very long and had quite a bit of free time although most of it seemed to be spent in traffic. UGH, Bangkok traffic!

The flight from Hanoi was a nightmare, just like last year. I just think the Hanoi airport cannot handle the volume of people that come through there. On top of the normal airport nightmares, we also had several issues with names not matching passports which was a huge mistake on the part of our travel agency. She'll definitely hear about it when we do a trip follow up!


Sunday
Anyway, we arrived pretty early and had the rest of the day free. A group of us decided to grab lunch and then hit the Chatuchak weekend market, the largest in Bangkok. Holy cow! The words cannot even begin to describe the enormity of this place. It is actually frightening the number of people, vendors, stalls, aisles and aisles of goods from underwear to pots and pans to little puppies. Yep, pups.

That night we got a recommendation from the hotel for a Thai restaurant called Naj. It was delicious once we actually got there. What a nightmare, having to give someone the slip so we wouldn't have to entertain him at dinner, and then getting lost on our way. Oh well, it ended up being a great time.

Monday
Yay, my birthday!!! Although it had some bumps in the road, it ended up being a fantastic birthday. First off we had a free morning in which most people were hungover. But a few of us headed over to the tailor and got fitted for suits. That took a big chunk out of our morning and then J & I went and grabbed lunch. M&B ended up meeting us as they were giving someone else the slip for lunch.

We were meeting with the Commercial Service Office in the afternoon and that meeting was very interesting. Even more interesting in that it was our first meeting led completely by females. At any rate, we had arranged for a visit to the MBOX manufacturing facility but somehow Chuckie, the tour guide got the directions completely screwed up and we ended up lost on a narrow dirt road in the Thai countryside for what seemed like hours. In the end, we had to cancel the meeting which was embarrassing and annoying but the company understood.

The other thing about that little snafu was that some real personalities came out in times of panic. I had to laugh at how many sissies we had. There was literally screaming coming from the back of the bus...and not a single one from a female. It was definitely a moment for eye rolling and comments like, "come on guys, man up".

With all of the drama behind us, we came up with an elaborate birthday plan so that it wasn't a complete mess of 30 people trying to make decisions. I had selected 10 people that I wanted to be at the dinner and then opened up drinks to the group at the State Tower. In the meantime, we went back to the tailor for a 2nd fitting and then headed straight to dinner after.


Dinner was at the Blue Elephant and it was very very nice. Probably too nice for my birthday but we had a lovely time. They even ordered a "birthday gelato" with 3 candles. Lovely. After dinner we walked to the State Tower and took the elevator to the 63rd floor. I warned everyone about the pricey drinks, but the view is totally worth it. So we had one round of celebratory drinks before heading back to the hotel wine bar. Ugh, so much wine that night which made for a tough Tuesday morning, but we had so much fun.

Tuesday
It finally got unbearably hot on Tuesday...of course the day we had scheduled a city tour that was mostly outdoor and requiring "proper dress" meaning long pants and sleeves. Oh boy. I have never heard so many complaints in my life but I guaranteed them that they would regret having come all this way and missed out on all the highlights of the city.


So on we trudged with long, red faces to the Reclining Buddha, Grand Palace & Emerald Buddha before breaking for an air-conditioned lunch. We also took a lovely boat tour around some of the canals in Bangkok which definitely gives a different perspective of the city. In the end, we had to cut things short or speed them up to keep the kids at bay. After lunch we finished up and headed back to the hotel for a quick refresher before dinner.

I had my final fitting in the hotel room before dinner so I felt rushed all afternoon. Our closing alumni dinner was at Cabbages and Condoms, a unique "restaurant with a message", but with Bangkok traffic we ended up being 30 minutes late for a very important Thai dignitary that had agreed to come speak to our group before dinner. MAJOR FAUX PAS. Plus everyone was so cranky from the bus ride that once we did meet with this gentleman everyone was so disengaged. Frankly, it was embarrassing for our group.

We did have a fantastic turnout of alums which made me happy. I think we may have had the most of any of the other Global trips so that is always nice. Afterward, some of the alums took our students out, but a group of us headed back to the hotel. BO & I headed out to find me some passport photos but to no avail and we were both exhausted so we gave up. I wasn't too worried about it and mostly just felt relieved that my duties as GRA were officially over and in general, everyone got along and survived and hopefully even had a good time.

Tomorrow, Laos!