My project manager has been in Thailand for the past 5 years. He helped me get settled in a new place and introduced me to all the employees in the office, a majority of which are Thai nationals. I have learnt to greet people with a "Sawat-Dee-Khrap", thank them by "Kop-Khun-Khrap" and addressing colleagues by saying "Khun" followed by their name. After I learnt about the business, I started working on the first of my projects. During this time, we had a long weekend of 4 days, because of Songkran (Thai New Year) and I went to Krabi with my fellow summer interns. Krabi is a beautiful place, similar to Phuket (which is more famous), but less crowded. I really liked Rai Lay Beach and the boat trip to Phi Phi Islands, where I swam in the Andaman Sea (with the help of a life jacket, of course).
The movie buff and history geek in me could not resist a trip to Kanchanaburi, the site of the real 'Bridge on the River Kwai' and a museum dedicated to the Thai Burma Death Railway, built by Allied POWs during the 1940s, to help the Japanese send supplies to Burma.My office also organised a picnic to Pattaya for all the employees and I stayed at a hotel overlooking Jomtien Beach.
Currently, I am working on my second project, where I have to travel frequently to the head office in Bangkok, right in the heart of the city, in Ploen Chit. Bangkok is a very happening city to live in and I'm enjoying every moment of my stay here. It's a world city in the true sense, and during long walks on its streets, I was able to spot people from different nationalities, many of them tourists, but quite a few of them working in Thailand. It has been amazing interacting with people from different countries throughout, something that excites me right from my childhood when I used to live abroad. Apart from the locals, I have had conversations with Spaniards at Krabi, Mexicans and Tunisians at Phi Phi Islands, Englishmen and the Dutch at Ban Chang (where I stay), Japanese and Australians at Bangkok and Americans and Sri Lankans who gave me company in my guided tour to Kanchanaburi, all in the space of a month.
I would like to thank Aditya Birla Group for giving me this wonderful opportunity of an international stint during my summer internship and I hope that I am able to do justice to the projects that I have been allotted.
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About the Author:
Tanay is a PGP student at IIM Indore and is currently interning with ABG. He likes to watch Hollywood classics and read non-fiction, mostly on history.
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