National Day

As a colleague in US is visiting Asia Pacific for a business exposure trip, my boss had recommended I join her for a couple of days for the same exposure in Thailand. Due to the agenda set by my Thailand colleague, I will need to be in bangkok next Thurs & Fri, which means I'll have to fly in on Wednesday. That happens to be our national day. As the date coincides with IMF or International Marketing Funds day, there will be an influx of trade and business people during those dates. I felt like I'm the only one flying OUT of the country for business exposure when everyone's flying in.

I got a nice surprise yesterday evening when I found out one of my friends from our church small group would be in Thailand during the same week. We both set up a date to enajoy a traditional Thai massage on (our) national day's eve. Another surprise was learning that another one of my colleagues would possibly be flying to bangkok as well. Apparently, he has a meeting with our bangkok colleagues on the Monday after next for a regional program that is catching quite a bit of global attention. I can't help feeling sympathy for our Thailand colleagues as they would have to take the time out to introduce myself and my US colleague to their business one week, then be involved in a full day meeting with other colleagues for a regional program the next...

As they say, that's life. Whatever that means, I DO know that for that short period of my life while I'm there in bangkok, it will definitely be filled with Tom Yam soup, traditional Thai massage, lots of shopping and maybe even the martini or two. Or make that a Mai Tai...