Student trip to Bangkok & Singapore

Finally in Bangkok

Travelling to Asia was an idea I was waiting to plan some years later once I had finished my master and had worked for some years. However, sometimes an opportunity just appears and the plans you had, change. My first reaction after I read the information given by IMEC and CBS was “I can´t pay it, I won´t go” But for some reason the idea of visiting Bangkok and Singapore was jumping around my mind for several days.

Then I remembered my mom´s words “money is something you will always somehow get” She was right, you can always get money but you might not always get the opportunities. So, I decided to join to the study/business trip. I travelled already a lot by myself, but travelling for a study trip with a group of people I did not know (except for one person) to a complete new continent was definitely something new for me. I had no idea what to expect from this experience.

The study trip group

I got a little bit afraid when I realized that everybody in the group were Germans, because of the fact that I still did not feel 100% sure speaking in German all the time. Sometimes language can really be a barrier when you feel you have troubles expressing yourself. Being at the airport before we departed, I took the decision that I would speak German as much as I could so this was a good opportunity to practice.

Views from the city

Leaving the airport in Bangkok, I felt that known warm and humid weather I had only felt in Florida in summer days. I could not believe it was “winter” in Bangkok. On our way to the hotel I saw a big city in the middle of green and tropic areas.  It was curious to see the canals and elevated roads because that was not how I pictured the city.

The day we arrived we had free time to relax and enjoy the pool for a few hours which we needed after the long trip. That day we received our first introduction to the culture of the country. The majority of us never visited an Asian country before, so we were asked to write in pieces of paper three words that represented our perception of Thailand. My three words were Thai Food, Beach and Tradition. Back in Peru I tried Thai Food a few times and I loved it, I wrote Beach because usually is what travel agencies sell about that country and Tradition because of some images I’ve seen on TV about the temples, typical food and dances. During the presentation we also learned things like the Thai greeting and in general how the people behave.

Visiting BMW

The purpose of the trip was not only to learn about the culture, but visit some companies and a university. We went to ThaiGerTec, a provider for automotive embedded system development; to the manufacturing plant of BMW, where we could see the manufacturing process of the cars and motorcycles; and Liebherr, a company that mostly manufactures construction machinery. The work in those companies are not related to my master in International Tourism but still I found very interesting to know the history, the processes and to perceive the working environment that was completely different in each one. It was also interesting to see how European companies “behave” in a different culture. It won’t matter how successful the company is worldwide, if the relation between the company and local employees is not adequate, there will be difficulties in reaching the local results the company expects.

During the boat ride

The university we visited in Bangkok was Mahidol University which is the number one in Thailand. It is international oriented, meaning they receive students from around the world and offer lectures in English. There we learned about the programs the university offers in different fields like medicine, engineer, business among others and also we received a small lecture from a Culture Consultant about the cultural differences between Germany and Thailand in working environments. I realized that in general terms Peruvian people are very similar to Thai but in a personal level I identified myself with some german aspects. I realized that I will be able to work in a German company because for example I like to plan and manage my times, being structured and methodical with my tasks, but I will miss some aspects like the family environment I had while I was working in Peru.

Chinatown

One of the things I enjoyed in this trip was the City tour in Bangkok. I was so happy when they told us it was not a regular city tour by van, but an alternative option in which we had to walk and use the public transport. We were guided by a group of the company Bangkok Vanguards and they took us to Wat Pho Temple, a boat ride through the canals of the city, a walking tour through China Town and we ended up in a Sky Bar for dinner with a beautiful view of the city. My favorite part of the day was the boat ride through the canals. There you can really see the other aspect of Bangkok, instead of seeing the huge, modern buildings you see the homes and way of living of the humble people. Somehow I felt the essence of the city during that ride.

View from the Marina Bay Sands Hotel

The program also included a day trip to Singapore, we took a flight early in the morning and we were back in Bangkok the same day aprox at 11pm. At some moments, being in Singapore was like being in New York but with modern buildings. Looking up to the sky and being surrounded by lots of buildings and the fact that the signs were in English and everybody spoke that language made me feel that I was not in Asia anymore. To be honest I did not expected much about Singapore, all that came into my mind when I thought about the city was the big port terminal, because I worked for many years for a Container Shipping Line. The plan for the day was to go to China Town and visit a Buddhist temple, go to the Arabic neighborhood and enter the Malay Heritage Center. We had free time to walk in the Marina Bay and visit the Marina Bay Sands Hotel which was really impressive. We also had the opportunity to visit a company at the Samsung Tower where between other things we learned about private equity, a model of business I did not heard before.

Excursion in the nature :)

My favorite day of the trip was the excursion outside Bangkok. The people of Bangkok Vanguards took us to Mae Klong where we walked around a big market. People were mostly selling fish and seafood. Walking through the market reminded me my country because we have the same style of markets and some products are very similar. During our walk, our guides bought some typical snacks we could try like green mango, fried sweet egg yolk, coconut pudding and other things that personally I enjoyed trying. Afterwards they took us in boats into the sea to have lunch in kind of a “fisherman station” in the middle of the sea. They gave us fish, rice, seafood, salad, I tried almost everything and it tasted very good. 

Monkeys saying Hi!

After lunch we went into a little adventure in the nature. They took us with the boats to an area in the coast with lots of vegetation. The idea was to get off at some point to plant some trees, watch the monkeys that live in the area and then swim on the sea. Before planting the trees we had to deal with a “monkey situation” because by a misunderstanding, people from my group showed them food and one of them jumped into our boat. It was very difficult to get it out in the middle of our screams and fear that it would bite us. 

Ready to swim!

When we were ready to leave the boat I noticed that some people already in land were kind of freaking out. Once I put a foot on land I understood, it was deep slippery mud and it was too hard to move the legs. That was OK until I saw the little crabs walking around my feet. It was a funny and scary situation at the same time. While we were trying to plant the trees some people started a mud ball battle. I never thought I could have the opportunity to do that. After the trees were planted we returned some meters back away from the monkeys to swim on the sea. The temperature of the water was template so it was perfect for me because I hate cold water. Some people made wakeboarding and we continued our mud battle for a while.  

Mae Klong

On our way back to Germany I was remembering the things I learned after visiting the companies and Mahidol University, the smiley faces of Thai people, the incredible group of Bangkok Vanguards and also finding out that Bangkok had some similarities with my city Lima: lots of people, traffic, noise, big family buildings, big office buildings, richness and poorness, kindness, family environment and also a lot of differences like tropical vegetation, strange language, left hand traffic, elevated roads, tuk tuks, temples, etc. This is one of the things I love about travelling, discover places where you find a little bit of yourself and still see a lot of differences you can learn from.

I remembered the 3 words I chose to describe Thailand the first day we arrived and after a week I would still choose Thai Food, but then I would choose Contrast and Smiles. For me Bangkok is a city that somehow tries to keep the past in the present, with the kindest people I have ever seen and with much more to discover.

Pad Thai <3

This was a positive experience that exceeded my expectations. I am glad that in the end I did not let this opportunity pass. For sure I will travel back to Thailand someday. Perhaps our visits to the companies were not directly related to my master but our experience in the nature and in the local environments gave me an idea of what I could do for my master thesis because this experience fits to my Sustainable Tourism specialization.

I want to give special thanks to Professors Florian Hummel and Torsten Weber from CBS, to Marike Potthof from EMS, Rene Rüth and Torsten Netzer from IMEC for this business/student trip. Everything was well organized, we all had a great time and at least from my side I can say I learned and enjoyed more than I expected. Thanks a lot!

Photo taken by Bangkok Vanguards. Thanks for an incredible experience!