Patrick's Trip to Bangkok, Thailand

March 24-27, 2010

Patrick and I have often argued that his job, though he loves it, has a lot of downsides.  For one, the pay sucks and if you have a family it really can't sustain you.  Sometimes, the work also spills over during family time when on the weekends we have to troop to car events and such because he has to cover them for the magazine or for the website.

However, he loves it and I mean really loves it so what are we to do?  With it's downsides, it does have a lot of perks.  He gets a lot of freebies from the events that he attends, like free gasoline, free motor oil, lots of T-shirts, discounts on car services and he gets to test drive cars that normally he wouldn't able to drive let alone, touch LOL  Also, we can't deny he gets free out of town trips like his stay in Cebu (which we would've loved to be with him) and this time, his trip to Bangkok, Thailand.

At first, we thought he wouldn't be able to make it because he only just applied for his passport and it was taking a long time to process.  It turned out that the DFA (Dept. of Foreign Affairs) was moving it's passport processing department to a new and more modern building.  But in the end, he was able to go :)

When he told me what his first impression of Bangkok was, I laughed, because he said it's very much like Manila except that it has more fly-overs hahaha  Oh and before I forget, the reason why he's in Bangkok was because of the 2010 Bangkok International Motor Show which he had to cover.  He really was astounded by the sheer number of cars and people at the event.  It was like nothing he has ever seen before and he was just amazed at the effort the organizers put in.

Though he didn't really have a chance to go around the city, he did see some interesting sites :) Like, this Porsche "service" station by the side of the road.  And, the great monuments that are easily seen from the many highways in the city.  I was a bit scared for him though when I heard that people were rallying on the street.  Having lived near the Malacanang Palace here in Manila, I was exposed to a lot of coup d'etats and I know how dangerous things like rallies and protests can be.  Oh and he said these pink taxis would do MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando proud! LOL

Anyway, nothing bad happened and he really liked where he was billeted during his stay there.  He was given accommodations at the Jasmine Executive Suites Hotel and he marveled at how big the room was :) He also enjoyed the buffet breakfasts every morning  :)

Though we really missed him during the time he was working, I'm really happy that he got to go on his first out of the country trip.  :)

Here are his pictures at The Bangkok Motor Show.