Back from a relatively hectic trip to Bangkok. Well, it was my first time ever to Bangkok and Thailand, so I was kinda disappointed that I didn't quite get to explore the city as I didn't have much time.
We reached Bangkok relatively late at around 7pm. Our flight was re-timed and earlier in the day, my boss actually packed me off for a meeting with some guy for pro-bono work which wasted alot of my time.
And then there was a rather bad jam getting from the airport to our hotel. I'm surprised that Bangkok has bad jams too, I thought only Jakarta was famous for this.
I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the airport at Bangkok. Having traveled around ASEAN the past months, it seems that many parts of Asia have really good and quite possibly world class airports these days! (with the exception of Jakarta)
Anyways, my boss joined us for the trip and flew on a budget air at a later timing, and we ended up meeting him when we were about to check in. That's how bad it was.
Oh well. We got to the hotel really late like at 8pm, and I must say, I had royalty treatment. We were staying at the Conrad hotel this time, and the moment the recept staff checked me in, they called their duty manager who came to meet me personally and offered to take me to the function room that I had booked for the event.
This was really service a whole lot better than the Renaissance Hotel I got when I was in KL. The recept there was rude and didn't even know I was the event organizer. Anyways.
There was a dinner and dance event that took place at the room the night before, which ended like close to 1am, so we could not prepare our set up any earlier than that. We went for dinner at the restaurant in the hotel with our boss and the food was nothing to shout about.
The dinner in my opinion was a BIG MISTAKE because first, we didn't go ANYWHERE exciting. We didn't even step out of the hotel, just had our dinner at the restaurant. Food wasn't good, and needless to say, price wasn't cheap.
Second, we spent so much time at the dinner, which we could have used to prepare other stuff like nametags, packing of goodie bags and stuff which would have saved us alot of time and not end up working till 2am in the morning. Sigh. Anyways.
The banquet staff really impressed me I must say. They were so proactive and very smart and helpful too! We were trying to set up the backdrop at 2am when both my colleague and I were so sleepy and not thinking straight.
The guys just came and automatically helped us to set it up, WITHOUT US TELLING THEM TO DO IT OR HOW TO DO IT EVEN. They took like a few seconds, looked at the thing and then "oh, I know" and proceeded to set it up as if my colleague had given them a full briefing.
They were also very prompt with their service, when my colleague asked a guy to bring us something we left at the concierge, IT CAME IMMEDIATELY.
They even paid attention to the minor details which I am anal about without me having to say or word or even stand up from where I was sitting. (I was really too tired and sleepy, not trying to act like an empress dowager I swear!) But I really did felt like an empress dowager, ask for water, it came to me, ask for table, it came immediately.
There is something about this hotel that just agrees with me man. All the attention to minor details is mind boggling.
Well, needless to say, we were totally zombiefied the next morning for the event. Particularly me, as the night before, I had only 4 hours of sleep rushing a proposal for another client. So the following night because of the late setup and all, I also slept for only another 4 hours. Totally smashed.
The hotel rooms was a delight though I was too tired to enjoy it fully. I thought that the Park Hyatt Saigon was awesome, but this just tops it.
The vanity area. Oh, and yes, this hotel does have a weighing scale too. All good hotels should come with a weighing scale! =)
What I feel the hotel have over many of the other good hotels that I have stayed in is the effort they put into the minor details. From they way they wrapped their hairdryer to the welcome tea on the table to the mini elephant plush they placed on the bed.
I actually brought back the elephant, but its in my office now, so I can't take a picture of it. It's the minor little things that made the whole experience special I would say.
Well anyway, the event went alright. No major hiccups, or surprises, turnout was not as good as expected, but it was alright, and the meeting was on track most of the time, so it was good as that meant that I didn't not have to stay later.
Pictures from the summit:
Oh, back to what I was talking about royalty treatment earlier. During my event, the Assistant Director of Sales, and the Events Management, and the Director of Events Manager came down to meet me just to check if everything was going well.
I've honestly never felt that important in my life. I was told later tho, that HP was their biggest client, who was, also having another product launch event at another one of their function rooms. Ha! I guess that's why they are feeling a little stressed!
And very filling. In fact, I didn't eat much of the main dishes, I ate mostly the salads (which was awesome) and desserts, and of course ALOT of tea to keep me awake.
On the topic of tea, I must say that their tea is super fragrant. Nothing too strong, and just right. I think I easily had like more than 20 cups of tea, or maybe even gallon.
Anyways. I met Eleen and had dinner with her and Humi while at Bangkok. She was also in Bangkok for a business cum shopping trip with her boss Humi.
I initially thought I might scrap the dinner idea since it was not confirmed yet at that time and also since Bryan and I was so smashed after the event. It would have been good to just sleep in and maybe I'll get enough rest to hit the gym the next morning before checking out.
But Humi actually smsed me to invite me for dinner with her and Eleen so must give face la! Haha! Anyways, it was a good dinner, not too ex, and at least we did manage to do abit of travelling around.
We joked alot and also talked alot about religion which was good, cos I always liked to listen to others perception and views on how they deal with issues that question our faith, and also issues on.. gulp.. the paranormal.
Map of the sky train stations.
Peak period crowd is as bad as Singapore's I must say. I was literally smelling the hair of the fella standing in front of me. I don't even know if the person was a guy or gal cos we were too close to each other to see properly. -_-
The single trip card. Which cost like less than a dollar if I remember correctly. But then we were only going to somewhere 2 stations away.
I got so used to Singapore's MRT with the LCD screen telling us how many mins more to the next train arrival that I actually caught myself looking around for that screen or billboard of some sort to tell me the ETA of the next train. -_-
I'm actually a tad amused that their trains are so much shorter than the length of the station unlike Singapore's.
I did not do any shopping during my stay and Bangkok. I know, that sounds so retarded. But I did get myself some stuff from their local brand, Oriental Princess which I must say, I'm pretty impressed by it! Plus their stuff is not expensive at all!
There was actually an outlet located at the mall which was linked to the annexe building of my hotel, so I literally spent less than 30 mins to shop for my stuff. I was so in a rush during the whole of this trip that it was not funny.
Anyways. I was initially going on a "mission" to help Susan buy her stock of body lotion and perfumed talc but ended up buying myself a body lotion and a banana shampoo for myself. Both of them cost me less than $20.
The lotion was light and moisturizing and did not leave a sticky feel and the scent was great too! As for the shampoo, I actually prefer the scent of the body shop's one, but this one seem less drying than TBS one.
Dang. Now I'm hooked to the Oriental Princess products.
Oh well. I'm definitely going to plan a trip down to Bangkok someday soon.
Oh, I forgot to add, when I left the hotel for the airport, I had the Events Manager and the Assistant Director of Sales send me and my colleague off at the hotel's entrance. Did I say awesome service??
I don't know if it was because I was staying at the Conrad or if it was because I was in Thailand, or both. But it does seem that the Thais were really very hospitable and polite people.
Bangkok! I will be bacckk!!
