Vacation

On Wednesday it was finally time to meet the people with whom I will be working . All of the staff at our center were rewarded for having the best sales record this quarter by getting a two day vacation at a resort in Hua Hin. Hua Hin is a beach town about two and half hours south of Bangkok. Fortunately for me, I was able to reap the benefits of everyone else's hard work. There are about thirty-five staff members at our center, most of whom are Thai. I found myself to be in the minority as a straight white guy. About half of the staff are male and 90% of them are gay. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm sure it will be a jovial and very fashionable work environment.

During the trip we had a variety of activities that were set up to help the staff get to know each other better. One of the first activities was putting on a skit. For our skit Sam (one of the other two straight white guys) and I were told that we must take off our shirts and dance on stage. This idea was immediately vetoed, not entirely due to the fact that the center director and operations manager for all of Thailand would be present. Fortunately, when it  finally came time to do our skit, everyone was too drunk to remember anything we had planned or to even make it on stage. For the prior to acts all of the guys were dressed in drag and they lip synced Thai pop music that was playing through the loudspeakers behind them. I had imagined a slightly more rigid and professional environment prior to the trip, but once we finished dinner everyone really began to loosen up. This may be because we partook in drinking relay races as part of the team building exercises. The first team to finish a bottle of SangSom was awarded another bottle of SangSom as their prize. A vicious cycle indeed. SangSom is the most popular liquor in Thailand. Most Thais will tell you that it is Thai whiskey, but it is actually rum. Apparently any drink that is not clear and has a high alcohol content is referred to as whiskey here.

After a long night of eating and drinking, and fending off advances from a few gay members of the staff it was time for bed. The next day I woke up to a mean SangSom hangover (apparently one must acclimate themselves to this beverage) and I had also completely lost my voice. Everyone found this rather amusing, but did everything they could to help me in my ailing state.  I have had sore throat the past few days and drinking copious amounts of SangSom did not manage to kill all of the bacteria. I went to the pharmacy last night and they prescribed me a hefty dose of amoxicillin. After twelve hours of sleep last night and a big bowl of ramen this morning I feel considerably better.