Friday, March 24, 2006
Chiang Mai Escapade! - 24 Mar 1st Night
Just returned from a 4D4N trip from Chaing Mai. The trip was good, unfortunately there were bad parts too! Here's Day 1:
24 Mar (Fri) - Leaving on a Jet plane
The day began with me not even sleeping. Was working till late to finish up work before I went for vacation. By the time I went home and plonked myself on the bed after bathing and packing, it was already close to 4am. Didn't make sense to sleep since I had to rush off to work at daybreak to do more work. And to think that I had initially wanted to ask my boss if it was ok to work from home! Yeah right...
The work I had to do on Fri morning was completely lame ass and could've been avoided in the first place!! Higher authority had to do a presentation in USA and wanted pictures from SG office. But the thing is he wanted out of the box pictures.. funny pictures.. let loose pictures. More specifically, he wanted us, to bring posters to places of interest in SG and take pictures. WTF? My manager and I did it drugingly. We took some ezypull posters, wore our yellow polos and went down to the Esplanade, Merlion and Sir Stamford Raffles Statue to take pics. Worst part? We had to open the Ezypull and take pictures. That certainly drew stares from the tourists (who were probably wondering what we were selling... great opportunity to sell more of our product... check). Even our dressing got attention (especially from the Mediacorp crew who was filming at the cavenagh bridge... with Terence Cao no less). Dressed in yellow polo, blue jeans and white NB shoes, it became sort of a uniform... and carrying the ezypulls made us look even more like production crew. After a while, my manager and I just let loose and monkeyed around.
After a quick lunch, I had to rush to LP to stick up posters. More picture taking was in order. By the time I finished, went back to office and edited and uploaded the pictures, it was already 2.30pm. DC was already in the airport and waiting. Flight was at 1625! Had my goodbye milkshake from my manager and rushed off in a taxi.
While having a nice conversation with the Taxi driver (he kinda reminds me of Joe Augustine), DC called and said that the flight was delayed till 2045!!! OMG! I was already so prepped up to just zone out on the plane. But like I had a choice? Reached the airport and checked in. Then DC and I spent 3 hours touring the inside of the airport. Was a good opportunity though. Of all the times that I have travelled, it was always a rushed affair and I never shopped in the airport. We even went to Harry's and it was a nice place to chill. Open air, you can hear the roar of the planes taking off and see the beautiful sunset amid the cactus garden. Talk about Wild Wild West. But the place was infested with Ang mohs! The only asian ppl around was DC, myself and the service staff! Overall a nice place to chill out. Unfortunately located past immigration.
We had dinner at the food court inside since we had "apology" coupons from tiger airways. The only reason we were eating there was because the meal was subsidized (up to S$7.50/person). But we couldn't help wondering if it was more of a ploy to bring more people to the food court. It was understaffed and the food overpriced and unappetizing! When it was close to boarding time, we went towards the gate. Many others were already there.. and boy.. you really see the Kiasu and kiasee spirit well and alive here. A queue had already started (and this was only to get into the gate that wasn't opened yet). It was even more funny when people started rushing for the doors. The staff had to announce that the plane wasn't ready yet. Even then no one backed down. And when the doors open, it was like the flood gates opened. Lesson learnt, dun fly tiger unless u have children. Children here are finally an asset becos family with children get priority.
We finally touched down in Chiangmai at 11pm local time (Chiang Mai is 1 hr behind SG) with a fairly smooth flight. And the place was quiet as a... pod! There were no taxis and it was pitch dark. Dad had recommended using a metered taxi and after asking around we finally found some. But since it was late, they had started their black market rate. They demanded 180 baht. I just walked away. The mercenaries! The City Limo was only 120 baht! In the end I called the hotel and they sent down their van after waiting 20 mins. FOC! I gladly gave the driver a 60 baht tip.
Took a hot shower and just crashed into bed. Must have been really tired becos I slept soundly throughout. i usually don't becos it is an unfamiliar environment.
24 Mar (Fri) - Leaving on a Jet plane
The day began with me not even sleeping. Was working till late to finish up work before I went for vacation. By the time I went home and plonked myself on the bed after bathing and packing, it was already close to 4am. Didn't make sense to sleep since I had to rush off to work at daybreak to do more work. And to think that I had initially wanted to ask my boss if it was ok to work from home! Yeah right...
The work I had to do on Fri morning was completely lame ass and could've been avoided in the first place!! Higher authority had to do a presentation in USA and wanted pictures from SG office. But the thing is he wanted out of the box pictures.. funny pictures.. let loose pictures. More specifically, he wanted us, to bring posters to places of interest in SG and take pictures. WTF? My manager and I did it drugingly. We took some ezypull posters, wore our yellow polos and went down to the Esplanade, Merlion and Sir Stamford Raffles Statue to take pics. Worst part? We had to open the Ezypull and take pictures. That certainly drew stares from the tourists (who were probably wondering what we were selling... great opportunity to sell more of our product... check). Even our dressing got attention (especially from the Mediacorp crew who was filming at the cavenagh bridge... with Terence Cao no less). Dressed in yellow polo, blue jeans and white NB shoes, it became sort of a uniform... and carrying the ezypulls made us look even more like production crew. After a while, my manager and I just let loose and monkeyed around.
After a quick lunch, I had to rush to LP to stick up posters. More picture taking was in order. By the time I finished, went back to office and edited and uploaded the pictures, it was already 2.30pm. DC was already in the airport and waiting. Flight was at 1625! Had my goodbye milkshake from my manager and rushed off in a taxi.
While having a nice conversation with the Taxi driver (he kinda reminds me of Joe Augustine), DC called and said that the flight was delayed till 2045!!! OMG! I was already so prepped up to just zone out on the plane. But like I had a choice? Reached the airport and checked in. Then DC and I spent 3 hours touring the inside of the airport. Was a good opportunity though. Of all the times that I have travelled, it was always a rushed affair and I never shopped in the airport. We even went to Harry's and it was a nice place to chill. Open air, you can hear the roar of the planes taking off and see the beautiful sunset amid the cactus garden. Talk about Wild Wild West. But the place was infested with Ang mohs! The only asian ppl around was DC, myself and the service staff! Overall a nice place to chill out. Unfortunately located past immigration.
We had dinner at the food court inside since we had "apology" coupons from tiger airways. The only reason we were eating there was because the meal was subsidized (up to S$7.50/person). But we couldn't help wondering if it was more of a ploy to bring more people to the food court. It was understaffed and the food overpriced and unappetizing! When it was close to boarding time, we went towards the gate. Many others were already there.. and boy.. you really see the Kiasu and kiasee spirit well and alive here. A queue had already started (and this was only to get into the gate that wasn't opened yet). It was even more funny when people started rushing for the doors. The staff had to announce that the plane wasn't ready yet. Even then no one backed down. And when the doors open, it was like the flood gates opened. Lesson learnt, dun fly tiger unless u have children. Children here are finally an asset becos family with children get priority.
We finally touched down in Chiangmai at 11pm local time (Chiang Mai is 1 hr behind SG) with a fairly smooth flight. And the place was quiet as a... pod! There were no taxis and it was pitch dark. Dad had recommended using a metered taxi and after asking around we finally found some. But since it was late, they had started their black market rate. They demanded 180 baht. I just walked away. The mercenaries! The City Limo was only 120 baht! In the end I called the hotel and they sent down their van after waiting 20 mins. FOC! I gladly gave the driver a 60 baht tip.
Took a hot shower and just crashed into bed. Must have been really tired becos I slept soundly throughout. i usually don't becos it is an unfamiliar environment.
# posted by Xallista @ 12:25 PM 
