Thailand and Australia: Part I - Bangkok

I was abroad the first two weeks in February to attend CAUTHE10 in Hobart, Tasmania, with a stop in Bangkok on the way there to participate in international recruitment activities for Bournemouth University.

Bournemouth University is actively pursuing an internationalisation strategy with a view to attract more international students to study in our post-graduate programmes. The university has identified a range of countries where there is a tradition of studying abroad, one of which is Thailand. In the current academic year, there are around 90 Thai students at BU. The School of Services Management is one of the schools who contributes the most to this number. In the MSc Events Management alone, we have 7 students, around 18% of the total number of students.

I arrived in BKK on Tuesday (2^nd Feb) afternoon. After checking in, I met my friend Pim, who completed her PhD at BU a few years ago, and she took me to dinner on a boat along the Chao Phraya. The boat decoration was quite traditional which created an interesting atmosphere. The food wasn’t too bad and there was a dancing show which was entertaining to watch. Needless to say that at the end of the show all guests were invited to join the dance floor. The choreographies look easy, but they aren’t, especially when you have to bend your fingers backwards! Apparently, girls practice bending their fingers backwards from a young age and when at school girls, so that they can perform the traditional dance.

The next day was ‘acclimatisation’ day. There are 7 hours difference between London and Bangkok and it is a quite long flight (around 11 hours), thus it is wise to have a day to rest so that you deal with the jet leg and tiredness before you start doing any work. I used this day to visit some of the sights, notably the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace. Both are a work of art (the pictures talk for themselves – see below). The trip from the hotel to the Palace was made by Tuc Tuc, the motor tricycle that can carry two people. Thais are very business savvy and needless to say that the driver wanted me to buy half the city – first he wanted to take me to a tailor to buy suits and then he ‘advised’ me on the best boat trip (I am sure he would earn a good commission, the price was expensive for Thailand standards...). You just have to be prepared to say ‘no’ and stick to it when they insist.

The palace is located not far from the river and after leaving the palace I started walking along the river through food markets located in (very) old warehouses. These (very run down looking) markets were an amazing experience nonetheless: the smells, the textures, the people are so different from what we have in the UK (or in Portugal). I think I walked through them for nearly 2 hours. Half way through I came through a Peer from where you could cross the river by boat. I did it at the cost of...5p (or 6 cents of the Euro)... That’s what you can call a ‘symbolic’ price for western standards. On the other side there was another very interesting attraction: ‘Wat Arun’. The temple is a quite interesting work of art and boasts good views over the city. The stairs are so steep that you must be very careful when going up and (especially) coming down! After Wat Arun, I returned to the hotel to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the SPA.

Wat Arun Temple

Wat Arun Temple - Steep stairs

Wat Arun Temple - View from the Top

Dry-Smoked Fish Market

Thursday was the first day of work. The whole day was spent at Mahidol University. I was not alone, Pieter Funnekotter from BU’s International Office was there too. Pieter is the International Relations Office in charge of some of the Asian Markets, including Thailand. The morning started with a one hour guest lecture to students and staff of the tourism and hospitality courses @ MUIC (Mahidol University International College). The title of my presentation was “From Service to Experience: Event Managers as Emotion Engineers”. The audience was very engaged throughout and willing to participate in the discussion that ensued. After this session, we opened our stand in the ‘study abroad’ fair that the International College was staging on the day. The fair was quite busy with several dozens of students enquiring about BU (the fair was not restricted to tourism, it was for any area of study). The day ended with a meeting with the Vice-President International Relations of the University, to explore ways in which both universities can cooperate closer, including student and staff exchanges.The next day was spent visiting agents and doing some interviews to prospective students. This was an opportunity to understand in more detail how the recruitment process unfolds.

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Finally, on Saturday I spend the whole day attending British Council’s Annual Study Abroad Fair at the Plaza Athenee Bangkok Hotel. This is single most important recruitment event in Thailand and not surprisingly BU has its own stand there. While a bit tiring (what would you expect if you had to stand for nearly 8 hours!), I really enjoyed attending the fair and provide information about BU. The number of enquiries was high, with many of them about the School of Services Management, whether tourism, hospitality or events.

Me, Pieter and Pam at BU's stand

I was flying to Australia at around midnight on Saturday and could not stay for the second day of the fair. Before going to the airport, I still had time for a 1 hour foot and back massage. As you can imagine, after standing all day this was just very welcome!

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I really enjoyed my time in Bangkok and I am looking foward to return.