One, or rather three nights in Bangkok, and the world is your oyster!

Well, as I wrote in the last post, there’s more to the Bangkok trip than just the meeting with all the different companies that offer internship possibilities. The meeting with all the sponsors was the kick-off to the rest of the night which took the majority of the class to different places around Bangkok. One group went to Khao San Road which is the backpacker capital of Thailand and offers really cheap beer and party. Another group went out with a few of the sponsors and actually ended up club hopping until the wee hours of the morning.

The view from our hotel, The Rembrandt on Sukhumvit Soi 18

The next morning when it was time for the breakfast at the Rembrandt hotel there were more than a couple of people who were really hungover, so a really nice hotel buffet breakfast was much appreciated. After having re-stocked the bodies’ supplies of energy, salts and fluids it was off to do some shopping. A big group of people went to one of the more interesting shopping malls in Bangkok, namely the insanely big and maze like MBK. 7 floors so big you can’t see from one end to the other that are bursting with fake goods and souvenirs of all different types at prices that need serious bargaining. Despite the astronomically high asking prices the final price that you actually pay(if bargained correctly) is usually surprisingly low. I bought a bunch of t-shirts at 150 bht each which is equivalent to roughly 30 SEK or USD 5 for the international readers. A pair of Dickies shorts were also bought at the very reasonable price of 50 SEK(USD 8).

A night in Bangkok just doesn’t feel complete without a beer or three so for night two the brave bunch of the class went out for a couple of beers. A much more chilled night than the first night at a much slower pace, seeing how everyone was quite worn out from the night before. During one of the rides in a taxi we had gone past a street that looked like a really nice bar street with lots of neon lights. The neon lights and proximity to where we were staying made it an obvious choice. Little did I know that I was taking everyone to Soi Cowboy, one of the more infamous red-light districts of Bangkok. We rather soon discovered that we had navigated to somewhere where we did not intend to be and thus settled down at one of the two bars on the end of the street that did not offer any shows. The next place we ended up in was probably the most interesting place of them all as it was something that is extremely foreign to us to have temporary bars on the sidewalk next to the biggest street in town. It was a really cool experience and definitely something to recommend! The night ended early as we had planned a much earlier start the following day.

Hotel breakfasts are the best. They serve up the biggest array of food that one could wish for. Everything from eggs any style and bacon to yoghurt to fresh fruit, you know the feeling. Thanks to an early night in people were up much earlier and really enjoyed the breakfast. The plan for the day was sightseeing in the afternoon with no scheduled activities for the morning. I had taken on the mission of ensuring that everyone had the literature needed for the logistics course and therefore I had to go ahead of the group and catch up with them later. I met up with Roy to try to get a good deal on a boat trip for the sightseeing and we reckoned that we could get a good discount on the trip because we were a large group.

Long-tail boat cruising on the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok

The original asking price was 650 bht/person for a trip lasting an hour on the Chao Praya river and the adjacent canals that would drop us at a pier close to Wat Pho(home of the reclining Buddha) and the Grand palace. We were happy with our bargaining skills when we managed to cut the price to 350 bht/person almost half of what the original asking price was. When Håkan arrive to finish off the deal it rather soon became evident to us that we would  have been seriously ripped off if we would have settled for that price. Apparently the going rate for a long-tail boat is roughly 1000 bht/hour and we would have been paying triple that.

Khao San Road - the backpacker mecca of Bangkok

After discovering that the Grand palace had shut half an hour before we arrived we made our way yet again to Khao San Road for a dinner which everyone attended. As per tradition this was not the last stop for the night and after the next stop on Kh San Rd it was off to an English pub to gather everyone together and after the pub there were two different teams, one that went home to the hotel and one that went on to one of the bigger night clubs, Narz which is short for Narcissus.

The Sunday was totally dedicated to shopping and the main attraction was the Chatuchak weekend market which is one of the crazier shopping experiences that Bangkok offers. Almost 5000 small shops are crammed into one enormous shed-looking building that gets really hot on a sunny day. The market offers close to every single commodity that money can buy at very reasonable prices. If you set out to walk down every isles and just look at every shop it would probably still take you a full two days to do so, so to go through the shops to find what you’re looking for is a tremendous task. If you ever go to Bangkok, you need to visit this market, no visit to Bangkok is complete without seeing JJ market(short for Jatujak(another spelling of Chatuchak)).

And on that bomb shell it’s time to end this post.

So until next time, peace out!

// Sebastian

Bangkok weekend getaway

So, after a few days of settling in Hua Hin it was time for an excursion to the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. This was a trip destined to be both for pleasure and business. Let’s do the business part first, shall we??

One of the key persons behind the project of studying in Thailand is Håkan Alm who has his own business here in Thailand and at the same time works at the School for business and informatics at the University of Borås. He also has a position with the Thai-Swedish chamber of commerce here in Bangkok that enables him to interact with Swedish people working in Thailand as well as Thai companies doing business with Sweden. Every first Thursday of the month there’s a group of people that gets together for a relaxed social gathering at a local pub. For the first meeting of the year Håkan had arranged for all of the students to join in.

The meeting began at six o’clock and continued for a few hours where we had a few beers, some really good food, but most importantly made new contacts with people who are either executives or owns a business in Thailand. The time in Thailand aims at developing us as individuals as we are put into a position where many of us has not been before, far away from home where it is hard to communicate because of language barriers, where your best friends and family are far away. The meeting we had on Thursday aimed at trying to get us students in touch with some of the people who might be able to help us out with internships for those who wish to stay a few extra months and gain some invaluable knowledge and experience. To the best of my knowledge the meeting was a great success and some serious networking took place. I know that a few people have already sorted out where they want to do their internships and some have almost sealed the deal! Companies that were represented at the meeting were Nordea, SEB, Oakwood hotels, Oriflame and ScandAsia, just to mention a few.

Stay tuned for an update regarding the rest of the weekend in Bangkok!

For now, peace out!

Back in Sweden

I've been back in Sweden for more than three weeks now and I had a lot of fun. Met many old friends and told them stories I brought back from Bangkok. They also told me what's new here but everything is pretty much the same. Not surprisedJ

Just want to finish off with some words about my trip to Thailand. I had a great time, met so many caring and lovely persons, did things I could never do in Sweden, got to know a fantastic culture and I am so happy that I went to study one semester there. I will for sure go back to friends and more adventureJ!!

Arrivederci

Pilip

Last Week in Bangkok

My last week in Bangkok and Thailand has come upon me. Im having mixed feelings about going home but it is time to go at least for this timeJ

This last week I have been working in the Marketing office, where I have seen how they work with things from pricing to different kinds of promotions. I have been helping with as much as I can but I mostly learnt a lot from watching the people working in the office.

On the schedule for the last couple of days is football, some dinners and finishing off with a farewell party night. Its going to be a lot of fun but I will for sure miss Thailand. This is the next last blog I will write, the last one will be when I landed safely in Sweden. Hope you had use of some of my tips in Bangkok and the beautiful country of Thailand. See you!

Pilip

Planning midsummer in Bangkok

In the Food and Beverage department I got the chance to plan the Swedish midsummer event taking place at our hotel. This was perfect for everyone since I know everything about midsummer and could help people get less work on their shoulders. Together with another Swedish associate we planned everything from scratch, from food to location and settings. We found herring, kaviar and snaps via a Scandinavian restaurant which were very helpful. I also got our engineering department to create a midsummer pole which was highly appreciated during the event. We had Swedish flags, yellow and blue balloons and an overall really nice environment.

In total we had 86 guests and so far all of them have been happy. They loved the food, the setting and the kids had fun dancing around the pole even though it was quite hot outside.

And for me this was a really good experience too. To be able to plan the entire event and see how everything works at the hotel and in Thailand. My time is running out in Thailand now, I have only 11 days left of this amazing experience. The last part of my job will be to help with breakfast in the morning taking care of guests and after that hopefully helping with internal training as much as I can. Will write about it soonJ

Pilip      

End of the season party and more experience from working

This weekend we had an end of the season party with the footballteam. We started off playing some bowling and I think I did my worst performance ever but it was still a lot of fun. After that we chilled out by the pool and enjoyed the sun for a while it was so nice. Continued the day by having a really good Swedish buffe with herring, salmon and knäckebröd. And then finishing off with getting our prize for ending in second place in the league. It was a good day with a lot of laughs.

Everything is good at work I am learning a lot of new stuff. After a couple of weeks in the front office I have been helping in the reservations office and the last week in the accounting department and more specific cost control. I am learning a lot and I really like the experience I get from working here in Thailand. The next week I am going to be in the Food and Beverage department and that will be completely new stuff for me so lets hope they are nice to me. I will tell you all about what I will do there soon.

Pilip  

Peasoup evening

Tonight I have done something I never thought I would do in Thailand. I went to a Swedish peasoup evening where we had a tryout tasting for Swedish peasoup and pancakes for upcoming bigger events for Swedes in Bangkok and Thailand. It was a really nice evening with around 20 Swedish guys eating, chatting and trying the homemade punsch together with the food. It was for me a real success, I loved the soup and everything else.

To finish of the evening we went to the rooftop bar Nest and listened to good live music and just relaxed with a beer. It was still an early night because I had to work the day after.

About the work, everything is going really well. I'm learning a lot about the hotel business and when I try to see things from the perspective of my studies I really feel like the education International Business Engineering is applicable in a lot of different departments and that feels really good.

Pilip

Internship in Bangkok

Last week I finished my studies in AIT university with the final exam in thai political economy which was a really hard exam. But I already got the results back and it turned out fine. I passed the course and it was pretty good grade also, so I am happyJ

Directly after school I decided that I want to have some working experience from Bangkok also so meanwhile Ive been studying I been looking for internships. I met a really good guy which was the manager of Rembrandt hotel in Bangkok. We managed to work a good thing out so that I can learn as much as I want in the hotel business and meanwhile they get some extra staff and also some new eyes watching their everyday work and who knows maybe I can provide some good ideas for changes in this business. I am going to do this for two months and then Im going back to Sweden for some summer partyingJ

My first week I have been standing in the reception, so that I learn about how hotel works with all booking systems, guest registrations and hospitality. So now I just started my second week in the reception and I really like it. Being able to help guests with different questions and meet a lot of different people. I will probably go to other departments next week but that will be decided later. I really fell that the Internationell Business Engineering program that I am in has contained some really good courses to go into business and find things to make more efficient.

I will soon get back with more details in what I will do for the next couple of weeksJ

Pilip