Thailand - Chapter no.1

hi all,
when i was asked to join the thailand team to handle the guinness event, little did i know that i was walking into a trap that was to reduce me to less than 2 hours of sleep a day - non stop for 5 days!!!....

when we started, we planned the event out meticulously, found out all the possibilities about how we could execute 1000meters, that is 1KM of canvas and even detailed the national award winning artist francis kodankandath from calicut to be on the team...we next found out the an event manager from thailand (and boy o boy..could he talk!!)...and we handed over the entire event to him...all this was done in the recce part itself...also, several sites for the venue were checked and the best of the lot at nong nooch village was shortlisted...

now here i was thinking, this will be one event where i will sleepwalk the entire time as every thing to be handled was handed over to persons concerned...AND I COULD"NT HAVE BEEN WRONGER ....instead of sleepwalking - I WAS SLEEPLESSLY WALKING/RUNNING!!!

I landed in bangkok and francis joined me the next day...on the day i landed we sat for the final negotiation with Bernard our local event manager, i had time in the morning and i did a scouting of shops in bangkok for paint, brushes, palletes & canvas...( and i got all these samples and the local rates also)...now during the negotiation - shabari was also present and we were doing the tango where he was the hard talking guy and i was the soft one...Bernard quote to do the entire event was around 24,00,000 bhats...we started cutting down on items one by one and once it reached around 15,00,000 bhats his frustration started to show and he put his foot down and said no more...he told us about how much paints cost and how much brushes cost...and how difficult it was to source all these in the short period of time!!!...

So we produced all the samples and told him where to source the same and at what rate...thats when he surrendered and asked us what rates should he quote...we told him a rate and it was signed upon...

LEARNING - At any new place, do your recce and ground work before you fix your vendor...Dont be satisfied with the first guy who comes across to you...also ALWAYS check the market rate and bargain for the best rate ...and do it with 2-3 vendors before selecting the Best Guy....

So long - end of chapter 1 - will add on more in the days to come...

Joke for this post -
For working in the night I had bought some bottles of Johnny Walker Mixed soda & Smirnoff Mixed and a crate of water bottles...2 of the JW & Smir, we remember consuming between francis and me...the rest where in mettle's custody...and they were missing the next day!!...after the event francis questioned mettle -
Francis : "Where are those bottles??"
Mettle : "Sir, i was working through the night, U saw that I did'nt take it, and anyway there was water there for me. However, Ranjit Saar was sitting next to the bottles before he went to sleep!!"
Now Ranjit was not present during this conversation. So when he came to our spot ...
Francis : "Ranjit where are those bottles of JW & Smirnoff ?"
Ranjit -"I was very thirsty after all the work i did during the day, so i had some to quench my THIRST!!"

....And Francis was left wondering - what was all the bottles of water doing there!!...
So much so that he later asked me - "In Impresario U have a different Style of Quenching ur THIRST??? "....U tell me hwat should i tell him!!!!