BoReDWoRKerS @ B@nGKok SepT 05

“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.”
- Confucius -

As the quote suggest, our preparations and planning began way in advance of this trip . To be exact, we begun planning this trip 3 months in advance. Planning a trip for a big group is by no way easy. After all, we did invite up to 20 people from this group. Imagine : Deciding on a location, date, budget and etc, not to mention coordinating everyone’s leave.

Well, the ball started rolling on the 6th of June, and the invitation was sent out. In the end 11 people decided to go for this trip, and the planning for logistics begun. We had to book our flights, our accomodations and of course plan out our internary.

So for the first step, Shannon, Charmaine and I huddled at starbucks, with my trusty laptop , to book the flights. As we were trying to get the cheapest fair, we made multiple bookings at various price levels, and averaged it out, to ensure everyone paid the same amount (at least for those in Malaysia), which was RM 271.00/ pax Well here is a snap shot of our flight confirmation for Air Asia ” Now everyone can Fly”

Next was the accomodation. Charmaine and I did extensive research, comparing various hotels all over the city that would fit our budget. Our initial plan was to take 5 hotel rooms, as it was the most affordable option. However towards our deadline to book the hotel, I stumbled upon a Citibank promotion that offered very attractive rates for Ascot Group of Hotels in Bangkok. Hence we decided to go ahead and get a couple of service apartments i.e. one 3 bedroom and one 2 bedroom apartment at Somerset Lake Point.

And there it was , the flight and accomodation was settled by 27 July , allowing us 1 whole month to plan the itenarary out for the trip. To make things easier, we split up the work between a few of, including shopping areas ( Charmaine) , eating places (Boon Yeow & Wei Li) , and sight seeing places ( Charmaine & Yuin Yuin) . I won’t spoil the story by telling you what we planned to do. Read on later.

Of course I’ve just summarised our entire planning process into a nutshell. We spent nights discussing all these, sending emails back and forth, and finally getting a consensus. It wasn’t easy, but it was fun; that made the 3 months fly by.

“The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.” - Elbert Hubbard