Arrived back in Singapore after spending 4 days in Bangkok.
It was the first time I attended a presentation to the top management of a company. It was really an eye opener. The amount of preparation my management put in before the presentation, and the way they go through everything with a fine comb was another new experience. Every single line, every single word in the presentation slides, was discussed, debated. The flow, how questions are going to be handled, etc was discussed at length. We were working for 15 hours the day before the presentation, finally having our dinner at 11pm and continuing to work till 3am.
The presentation went well, and the demonstration that followed, which was conducted by me, went smoothly. We were able to provide a satisfactory, and in some cases, thought provoking, answer to every question they asked. My management thought that the presentation was one of the better ones they have done, and they have done countless of them.
It may seem that I might need to spend even more time this year in Bangkok.
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The best moment for me was when the senior management pat me on my back and said, ‘A job well done’ after spending 4 hours demonstrating and handling every single question they thrown at me. It made all the hard work that I put in, and all those sleepless nights in the hotel because of stress, worthwhile.
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My management broke to me the good news over drinks after the presentation. My reaction was one of relief. It was just way overdue.
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I am getting more and more impressed with the Thais. As the session was a full day event, they provided an executive lunch for us in the executive cafe on the executive floor. As I remarked to my management, in Singapore, the companies expect us to pay for the lunch. Our local partner told us in his broken English that because they are the ones who requested for a full day session, they feel that it is their responsibility to take care of us throughout the session. We really appreciated it.
The traffic jams in Bangkok are notorious, but throughout the times that i was trapped in the traffic, I hardly hear of any cars honking. Hardly any Thais I meet raised their voices, and they always smile. Walking on the crowded roads, I hardly encounter anyone pushing their way through, and they actually queue to get into the trains.
The warmth nature and the kindness of the Thais really make all the traffic conditions, the weather, the polluted environment more tolerable.
As I reflect on all these while on the plane, I realised that for the first time since the numerous journeys to Bangkok, I actually do not mind working in Bangkok for a short period.
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I had to take Cathay Pacific for this trip as Singapore Airlines was fully booked. Both the flight to and from Bangkok were filled with tour groups from China. As usual, they treat any location where they gathered like a village back home. Everyone was sitting everywhere, and raising their voices like it was their home. Luckily, I have my noise cancelling headphones. It helps to filter out the noise, a lot.
And the free upgrade to Business Class on my way back makes it even more tolerable.
