Hectic Weeks

The last few weeks were hectic - tight traveling schedule , report datelines, appointments, presentations, family and Christmas and they are taking their toll on me. I am beginning to experience the inertia, lethargy and cloudiness in my mind - a feeling of engine overheating. Luckily, Christmas holiday is just round the corner and I will have a few days of vacation break.

Bangkok was my first stop and I stayed at Erawan Grand Hyatt. The day started with meeting with the local agent. We had to negotiate the rates and other terms for next year's cooperation. It was followed by a full day of preparation for the Customer Appreciation Night. We tried, in vain, to get press coverage and press release for our event. However, the night went well.

I ended my Bangkok trip with meeting with a customer as well as our other agent. Then, it was the final Bangkok experience - Bangkok's traffic jam! The trip from our agent place (less than 5km from the hotel) to Erawan to the new airport took around 2hrs. Other than the tollway, the rest of the journey were practically commuting at 10 - 15km/hr. It took me around an hour to arrive at the new Suvarnabhumi (pronounced “Su-Wana-Poom”) International Airport for a 3.5 hours trip to Bangalore.

I was in Bangalore for a one day meeting then back to Singapore. Just when you thought Bangkok's traffic was bad, it took me around an hour to travel 2km to get to the airport from Airport Road (opp. Leela Palace) on the Friday night. My flight was 11pm and I arrived at the airport at around 9pm. It would not be a problem at most airport but the queues were already long by this time. First, it was queue to have our check-in baggage scanned. It was followed by another 1/2hr queue to check-in (and I was travelling by Singapore Airline). It was almost 10pm by this time and the next queue was to clear the immigration custom. This was a relative quick one, around 5 - 10mins but it was followed by another 15mins queue for hand baggage scan and airport security. I finally got into the already crowded waiting area and was able to spend a quick 10mins in the "duty-free" bookshop. Then it was back to queuing to board the plane back to Singapore. What an queuing experience!

I was back on a plane to Ho Chi Minh City after the weekend and spend 2 days there. It was a good experience as the place resembled Bangalore or Singapore in the seventies but with better efficiency and higher service level than Bangalore.

I stayed at Duxton Hotel, a Singapore-group managed hotel. The cleanliness, ambient and service level were relatively good and the location within walking distance of Saigon Centre and Saigon River. Price at US$150 per night (excluding tax) seems reasonable with respect to the various international hotel such as Sheraton around the vicinity. However, a power failure during the night had cause the generator to run and, very unfortunately, the generator seem to be located beside my room. The resulting noise and irritation was unbearable. I reported to the front-desk when I checked-out but the lady looked at me with a very innocent look and didn't or "didn't" seem to understand what I was talking about.

I had several meetings with potential agent, US consulate and the Singapore consulate. I also made many phone calls (or cold calls) to existing and potential customers. The trip ended with a meeting with our agent and 2 potential customers.

As I couldn't get a seat on a return SQ flight, I had to transit KLIA making the supposingly 1.5hrs flight to 6hrs. I arrived home at 1am, back to work in the morning and off to Bangalore that evening.

I spent 2 days in Bangalore this time. The first day preparing the presentation and the second participating in the presentation. What captured me during this visit was the number of people within the ranks attended and actively contributing to the meetings. I was impressed by their commitment, understanding of the markets, competitor and business. Most importantly, their willingness to participate, speak-up and contribute which were usually rare in our Asian culture.

Then I also had datelines to complete several reports and have to complete my Christmas shopping. This summed up the year - a hectic but mediocre one!