Khao Yai

so we stayed for a 2 days and one night in khao yai and i only got back to bangkok today.  we were in beautiful kiri maya but there wasn't really time to enjoy the view (or pretty much anything about the place).  there was so much work to be done.  we did find time to squeeze in some test drives of our own so we took the cars out for a few spins on the track (and nope, i didn't drive.  i'm not used to the driving on the right side of the car.  besides, i don't have a license to drive here in thailand just yet.  and if i ever so much as scratch those pricey cars we sell, i'd have to work my entire contract for free! hahaha)

all in all, it was a pretty interesting couple of days.  and very very tiring.  i even learned the thai word for foot ache through this experience hahaha. we didn't stay at kiri maya for the night though.  we stayed at a hotel about 10 minutes away called the khao yai cowboy.  pretty nice place. if it were well-maintained, it would have been a lot better but it was ok.

the one weird thing that happened to me here though was that i met this thai policeman (or at least that's what he told me) who was drinking beer at the steakhouse. this was morning by the way cause i went to the steakhouse for the complimentary breakfast.  he somehow took a shine to me and kept trying to talk to me in english and all i could understand from his talk were the words philippine and mountains.  i just kept nodding along.

later, when my officemates went down for their breakfast before we had to leave and head back to kiri maya, i accompanied them to the steak house and there he was again.  and when he saw me, he actually sat with us at the table and kept talking to my officemates about how handsome i was (how creepy is that).  he even asked what room i stayed in.  and since i wasn't staying there anymore (and definitely won't be coming back to that hotel now), i gave him the room number. 

all the service ladies in the steak house were obviously a bit embarassed by his behaviour that they kept calling him away from our table on whatever false pretense they could think of but he keeps coming back anyway. at least he kept his hands to himself the whole time.

oh and another interesting thing about the khao yai cowboy -- there is a cowboy shop in the steakhouse that sells cowboy stuff.  and right across the street, you'd find a makeshift indian/native american store.  i actually bought a dream catcher. pretty cool huh. 

on the way back to bangkok, we stopped by the khao yai golf club and took some pictures.  the ones you see here are the ones i took with my trusty cellphone camera.

Khao Yai

So we travelled about 120 kilometers outside of bangkok earlier today to check out the venue of the event that we will be sponsoring tomorrow.  and can i just say, this place was spectacular.  the service people were also very attentive and the facilities manager was very helpful.  i'm not quite sure how much rates for the resort are but i'm sure it ain't cheap.

tomorrow, i get to sample it for free (well, free cause my company paid for it, and we'll be working there, so it ain't exactly a pleasure trip, but hey, i still don't need to spend anything).  the downside?  i need to wake at 4am cause i have to be at the office by 5am.  tsk tsk.  

New Chapter

I hadn't realized that this blog was still alive until I decided it was time to create a new one.  I had signed up for a wordpress account last but wasn't really keen on continuing that one.  so i thought to myself, what other free bloghosting site do i know?  blogspot! of course!

so i hurriedly typed blogspot.com on my opera browser and then it somehow led me to my dashboard.  i later realized it was because i was also signed into my gmail account so it automatically redirected me to by blog dashboard.

and so i guess it was time to resurrect this blog from the ashes -- like the proverbial phoenix rising.  after all, i do have time to kill now.  the title is befitting my current state in life too.  i truly am starting a new chapter.

after five years of working for a retail company and some of the happiest and the not-too-happy memories of what seems like a lifetime ago now, i'm literally starting over...in bangkok.  i am now on the 3rd week of my new job -- as head of marketing for the lamborghini and lotus dealer here.

this isn't my first time in bangkok.  this, i fact, is my third time to fly here.  i have always loved it.  but i found out soon enough that vacationing and actually working long-term here (and thus, settling), are two very different edges of a pole.  my filipino friends here have warned me before coming that i should bring only my third-grade english to work.  and true enough, i have had to choose only the simplest of words, the shortest of sentences and sometimes, must deliberately use the wrong grammar if i wanted to be understood.  lord, my english teachers must be turning in their grave.

i no sooner understood why a lot of foreigners maintain a blog when they move to bangkok for work reasons too -- cause you need an outlet that still underlines your english words in red when you misspell it and underlines it in green when you use the wrong grammar.  and yes, i am fully aware that i do not capitalize any of my letters here as i should. let's just chalk it up to artistic license.

but seriously, if you do not have an outlet like this, i'm scared about how my english skills are going to turn out.  consider how because of texting, people's spelling skills have not been as sharp.  i dread the day when i come home to the philippines and suddenly find myself ensconced within the confines of what we term carabao-english. 

i also now know that the other reason why people here maintain a blog is because there truly are a lot of things to be said about thai culture, the thai people, and basically trying to fit in.  some sad, some happy, some embarassing, and some downright exasperating.  when you find yourself in an office where the people that surround you speak in a foreign tongue, you kinda become alone with your thoughts and need an outlet lest you go crazy.

and so, in a bid to save my sanity (cause lord knows i'm dangerous enough as it is sane.  who knows how dangerous i will be once i give myself up to the dark side and decide to lose my sanity, teehee), let this blog rise from the ashes in bangkok!