Kit's space

Well, after my first weekend in Bangkok, I've got good things to report.  This city is really something else!  Start with just getting around, you can get a taxi ride from a legitimate Toyota Limo (a camry) that most the drivers put ghetto mufflers on and drive like their stolen, take a tuk tuk, these funny little tricycle deals, pretty well a motorcycle with a bench seat in the back, take a motorcycle ride which I'm not gutsy enough to try ( or maybe just not foolish enough to try).  Add in the MRT and BTS skytrain, it's a pretty fun place to travel across.  So for the weekend, I decided to stay here in the city and tour the sights within city limits, leaving the beaches and old city for weekends to come.

To start out, after finishing work Friday I went down to a sweet restaurant in the mall next door called the Garage and treated myself to some good food to celebrate the 4th of July.  They had a special Independence Day deal going on, so after ordering my Buffalo Wings and Heart Stoppin' Burger, I'm not lying that is the name which it earned, being a 1/2 pound beef pattie, fried egg, bacon, and ham jumbo burger (with fries), I found out happily that with purchase of a meal came a free rootbeer float and slice of apple pie.  What a way to celebrate freedom!

Saturday started early, and after grabbing some breakfast hopped a taxi down by the river to Wat Pho, an ancient temple home to the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand.  I for one didn't know they kept track of that kind of thing, but it begs the question, who certifies that kind of claim?  Whether or not they actually measure or not, this was still a very big reclining Buddha, and probably the coolest thing was the feet.  On the bottom there were all these scenes pictured in beautiful mother of pearl artistry.  The rest of the huge compound was covered with more small temples housing golden Buddhas and also huge ( I don't remember what they're called) pagodas?  These are 40 or more feet tall, often golden, and house the ashes of people who have passed away.  Very very pretty.  Then as exiting Wat Pho, the classic Thailand hustle started with a guy telling me that the Wat I had just come out of was closed but lucky for me, his friend with a tuk tuk could take me to see the Lucky Buddha Temple, the Royal Palace, and the Golden Mountain... all for only 20 Baht! (about 75 cents)  Naturally he was full of it, but I told the driver I'd just pay him more, he could take me to one tourist trap souvenir store, and we'd call it even.  Good enough he said, so off we went and did indeed end up at a nice looking tailor shop.  It actually reminded me a lot of the tourist stores we we sent to on our China trip.  Lot's of mediocre stuff for twice the price.  Well the Indian salesman guy was really excited about "talking business" and took me to see the mid-range fabrics, which I told him were not the quality I wanted.  Then we went upstairs to see "the best fabrics in the world" which turned out to be mildly disappointing as well. They weren't terrible, which I told him, but they weren't as good as the ones I got in Hong Kong, so I wasn't willing to pay the same price.  Unfortunately, he wanted more money than for my HK shirts, but when I told him I wasn't going to get any, he acted all hurt and tried to guilt me into buying something because I had wasted all his time.  I stopped feeling bad about not buying overpriced low-quality goods a long time ago.  However, because the guy in the shop was mad, he didn't give my tuk tuk driver a gas card, so off we went to a jewelry store where i spent my obligatory 20 minutes, got the gas card, and off we went to the rest of the sights.

The Royal Palace was definitely the hightlight of the day... loads of amazing gold and mirror covered buildings and beautiful paintings covering the outside walls.  Very very cool.  Afterwards it was down to the river to get some lunch which came from a lady cooking down at the docks who made me the best fried rice I've had since leaving Nanjing last fall.  There is just something special about getting a huge bowl of rice, vegis and meat for about a dollar.  Can't beat it, I just wish I could get away with having a fried rice cart on the BYU campus.  People would go nuts for it.  After lunch it was off to Jatujak weekend market, the largest outdoor bazaar I've ever seen, and on a hot day like yesterday, also a huge mass of sweaty humanity milling around in tightly packed corridors between hawker stands.  Jatujak is cool though because it's divided up into sections, so you've got your clothing, fake antiques, etc, but also your small and large pets and my personal favorite the used book section.  These shops all had stacks and stacks of every kind of book imaginable.  Really a fun spot.

Today after getting on Mormon.org, I headed off in a taxi with an address in hand, planning on attending the 9 AM english speaking service.  Well the taxi driver couldn't find it, so he dropped me off and said to just look around which I did for 10 minutes until noticing that several cars and driven by with people dressed up nice inside.  So I flagged one down, asked if they were going to the meeting, and they opened the door to give me a ride.  It was a really nice couple from Ghana who gave me the ride, but when we got there and were walking in, I was greeted by a big poster welcoming me to the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses.  I had to thank my kind ride givers, explain that I was always impressed with how nice JW's were, but that I had to find my church.  Off I went again, finally tracking down the chapel only to be greeted by an empty building and renovation going on.  The guard there did point me in the direction of another chapel though, so 1/2 an hour later I arrived at a really nice Stake Center about 45 min into the sacrament meeting.  I listened to the last few testimonies, in Thai, but afterwards got the Elders to give me a phone number for the English ward bishop, who finally gave me good directions to the meeting starting at 11.  That ward was great, I actually ended up knowing 2 people there!  One was En-en, a Filipina from my Island 1st in Hong Kong, now working here in Bangkok, and Stephen, a kid from my BYU chinese class who's family just got transfered here with the Foreign service.  Very nice deal, especially because his mom invited a few of us over for dinner.  I have sure come to love the great families around that take in young people on Sundays.  Anyway, it's been a great weekend, I'll be back to work tomorrow until Thursday when I'll fly back to S'pore again.  All in all, it's been a weekend well spent in Bangkok!

Today

Ok, its been 2 weeks since I got here to SE Asia, and it's been gone by quick.  Last Monday till Wednesday was training at the Bain offices which was pretty well 12 hours a day crash course in how to be a consultant.  We got the run down on how to run all the Bain research tools, act and talk like a Bainee meaning that every 3rd word must be an acronym, and the all important consultant skill of.... making powerpoint slides!  I never thought there could be so much to making these things, but now I have learned and get to keep learning on most the slides I make.  Training was really good though because along with all the techincal stuff, we also got to have significant time with the managers and a couple partners from Bain SEA.  One impression of the company so far is that it is incredibly flat, especially in a smaller office like this one.  Our access to senior people is pretty awesome, especially as new intern recruits. 

 

Thursday I got the assignment to my case for the summer, and I think that out of all the cases starting up, I got about the best one.  I'm working with a team doing some really exciting work with a bank in Bangkok.  Yeah, I never thought I would call a bank exciting either, and being in Bangkok everyweek for the rest of the foreseeable summer helps, but it is a pretty awesome case.  The scope of our project is quite wide, and it allows me to get a really good look at how banks work in this corner of the world.  Did I think 3 months ago that I'd be spending this summer working from the 25th floor in downtown Bangkok?  Nope, but I'm not complaining about it either!

 

So since getting here Sunday night, we've spent most our time in the offices, doing the good work we do, but I have gotten a few chances to wander out and about.  A few of the stops have included the Bangkok night markets, 2 amazing Italian restaurants (more on this later), and then last night some time at a club with a pretty good band playing Thai pop.  Now about the restaurants... on Monday night we were pretty tired after work, so Billy and I decided just to grab some food at the Hotel restaurant.  It looked like a nice place, and it was in our budget.  so we went in to the fairly full dining room and asked for a table for 2.  The waitress then took us around the corner into our own private part of the restaurant, complete with a big couch, only about 10 tables, and candlelight to boot.  The place was completely empty except for us.  We sat down, and promptly recognized the situation for the awkward deal that it was, but apparently the people outside were having a private party, so that meant we were stuck in there.  The setting would have been perfectly fitting for a wedding proposal or something along those lines, but here I was sharing it with Billy.  Yeah, we gota good laugh out of it. 

 

Now the work for the day is done, and I'm in the airport with the rest of the team on our way back to Spore for work tomorrow then the weekend at home before coming up here again next week.  I don't have my card reader here, so the pictures are gonna have to wait for later, but look for those in a day or so.  Sawateekrub and see you in a few!

 

Kit