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

Easter and Viking Cup

Easter has come upon us and it is time for me to participate in my first Viking Cup in football. The tournament started off with a big buffé dinner at a five star hotel in Bangkok. Almost 300 players from different cities in Asia had come to join this Cup. Most of them Danish as all Viking teams initially has been Danish. The teams in the tournament were, Jakarta, Singapore, Hongkong 1&2, Bangkok 1&2, Shanghai, Beijing, Shingjing and Kuala Lumpur. After this first night of getting to know each other it was time for the first day of playing.

I was playing for Bangkok 1 and in our group we had last year champions Kuala Lumpur, Hongkong 1, Jakarta and Shanghai. After four really tough games we ended up with three wins and one draw against KL. But we were ready for the semifinal the next day versus Singapore from the other group.

After a bad effort by myself the semifinal ended up in a penalty shootout, where we missed three and they were more focused and scored three. We were outL

The tournament ended sadly in a crazy rain on Saturday. The final between Bangkok 2 and Singapore could not be played because of too much water on the field and they decided to have two winners. A decision I will never understand but that’s how it is. We finished the tournament together all 300 in a really crazy partyJ Danish know how to drink that’s for sure!

Now we have the last week in school with a lot of studies and ending with my birthday so I will tell you about this week as soon as I can!

Pilip   

Chiang Mai

After a few hours in a night bus up to Chiang Mai we finally arrived. 0600 was the time and the hotel couldn’t check us in at that time. We decided to go for a walk in the city and found a really nice café where we could sit down and relax. The city was not big at all, you could actually walk to all places around even though we usually took a tuk-tuk because it was warmJ we went to Chiang Mai for one thing, to celebrate Songkran (Thai new year). We heard a lot about it that you are supposed to throw water at each other for good luck. So after we checked in at the hotel me and Daniel went down to the centre and checked this out.

It was crazyJ!! Everyone threw water at each other and never been in a water fight like that. Incredible… We were fighting for a couple of hours and everyone loved itJ First night finished off with dinner together with some friends at an amazing Italian restaurant. It was so good!

We did a lot of activities up there also. Shooting guns, watched a snake show, visited a Thai silk factory and fight of the gibbon. The last event is something that you all need to try if you go to Chiang Mai, it was awesome! You go high up into the mountains in the forest and jump out hanging in a cable that takes you between different platforms. So much fun and the adrenaline it up in the skyJ The longest was 800 meters and I was going really fast!! I definitely recommend all of you to visit Chiang Mai.

Pilip