Well, here I am in Bangkok, Thailand working on a business analysis for a local polymers company. At Siam Polyolefins, Ltd. (the company we are working with), the standard business dress for men is dark trousers, white shirt and a tie. There is an official company neck-tie, so everyone wears the same tie each day. (My jet-lag was so bad, that I didn't notice this until the third day!) On Friday, they have casual dress day, just like the U.S. Well, not exactly like the U.S... Here it means you can wear a colored shirt, it doesn't have to be white! Tie still required.
SPO has supplied a driver that picks us up at the hotel in the morning, and drives us back in the evening. There was also a driver at the airport to pick me up, and a driver will deposit me back at the airport at 5:30 a.m. next Thursday for the trip back. I could get used to this driver thing.
Last Thursday, we traveled to Rayong, a town 180 km to the south, where SPO has their manufacturing facilities. (We had a driver for this, too). The countryside is dotted with farms and plantations, but I didn't see any corn or soybeans. Instead, there are groves of trees: banana, orange and coconut are the ones I recognized. It was something to see hundreds (thousands) of coconut palms, each with 20 or so coconuts. This over-abundance must be why they have something called "i-team kati" which is ice cream (i-team) made from coconut milk and coconut meat... it's pretty good, too. During this trip to the south I also got a taste of the Queen of Fruits, the Durian. It is a large fruit that looks like a hedge hog; it's about the same size, too. I am told that in Singapore it sells for $100 per Kilo. In Rayong, it was selling for 25 baht (62 cents US) per Kilo. It has a distinctive fragrance. One writer has described is as smelling like "rotten onions and stale cheese". I wouldn't go that far, but it wasn't anything I had smelled before. The flesh is white and a bit mushy, but the taste is superb: sweet, creamy, and with a very long aftertaste.
The plant at Rayong was beautiful. The Managing Director of the company wanted to build an office that reminded the employees of home so they would be happy at work. This office must be like the fabled hanging gardens of Babylon. There are waterfalls, and reflecting pools. There are courtyards planted with tropical splendor. There are vines and hanging plants draped from the open walkways which connect the different parts of the building. It would be an incredible place to work.
When we went out to lunch in Rayong, we went to a seafood place right on the beach. It was overcast (so it wasn't too hot), and a gentle 75-degree breeze was blowing in off of the South China Sea. It was so perfect that I was convinced I had found life in paradise. The restaurant was an open area covered by a big thatched roof, with an open cooking area surrounded by tables. Although my Thai hosts, said the meal was just plain Thai food, it was one of the best meals I have ever had.
American companies are everywhere. In the rest-stop along the expressway to the south of the country, there is an "am/pm" and a MacDonald's. In Pattaya, a Thai "beach town" there is a "7 Eleven". The hotel am staying at in Bangkok is attached to a five-level shopping mall through a four-level parking structure. This mall has a Baskin Robbins, a Hagen Daaz, a GNC vitamin store, a North Face store, a Burger King, and a Pizza Hut.
Between the jet-lag (which is pretty severe: +14/-10 hours from San Francisco), and working Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I haven't had too much chance to poke around on my own. I did go to the weekend market at Chatuchak Park this morning (Sunday). It was quite an experience. The market covers 30 acres and has over 8,500 stalls. Estimates are that 200,000 people visit on a Sunday, which is 2% of the city population! It is hot and stuffy and VERY crowded... prices are good, though. I got some Thai silk for gifts and some chop sticks for a Japanese cuisine dinner party (should I ever have one). I really should have bought more stuff.
I was worried about Thai food because of the ever-present peanut sauce and peanut garnishes you find on this cuisine in the States (and my peanut allergy). While there are some peanuts sprinkled on things, the peanut sauce is nowhere to be found. Seafood is big here. It is common to have a whole fish served as part of the meal. It can either be boiled or fried. There can be chilies in anything. The hottest is a small green chili, prik kii noo, or "rat droppings chilies" which will singe the hair on the inside of your nostrils. A very common soup is tom yam goong, which is a lemon-and-chili broth (which can be VERY hot) with shrimp, straw mushrooms, lemon grass and other herbs. A dish which confounded my notion of food is one made by scraping the flesh off a fish into a sort of fish-hamburger. This is then deep-fried and served with fresh herbs and seasoned with chili sauce. The dining experience here, like in most Asian cultures, is communal. The dishes are brought to the table and everyone shares. I think this is a much better way of having dinner. It's much more social, you can have what you like, and avoid what you dread. It reminds me of a family meal, but at a meal here everyone is your family. This seems to me to be much more comfortable, and I think more civilized.
Monday evening we are taking the client out to dinner. We will be going to the most expensive and exclusive Thai restaurant in town. It is in the Dusit Thani hotel very near the Royal Compound. Expense accounts are very nice at times like this. I think I have finally figured out how salesmen can stand their job. All of those cold calls, rejections, and grueling price negotiations are offset by the opportunity to dine for free at the nicest places on earth. And, as we sign off from one of those places, we say "Sawasdee khrup", which is goodbye for now.
