Mike Preis in Thailand: Final Week in Chonburi and Bangkok

At LCP with IBM Thailand Country Manager, K. Parnsiree

We were very busy preparing final presentation to deliver in our final week. We did manage to visit the local floating market in Pattaya. It is not nearly as big as the famous Bangkok Floating Market but our local team suggested this would be a good alternative since travel time to the Bangkok market is considerable. It was especially constructed for tourists so it was a bit Disney-esque but we enjoyed nonetheless. We tried Mexican food that evening at Tequila Reef owned by an American. It was not the best but after experimenting with Italian and Brazilian on other evenings, we’ve decided to stick with Thai cuisine for the remainder of the visit.

The schedule for delivering final presentations was hectic with multiple locations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday including a press conference at Pattaya City Hall. All sponsors including the Chonburi Governor, Pattaya Mayor and Laem Chabang Port Director were impressed and remarked that we exceeded expectations and they will share with other key stakeholders. After a dinner at a local seafood restaurant on the Bay of Bangkok hosted by Port Director, K. Sutthinan, we had a very sad good-bye to the Port team and ventured two hours to Bangkok for our final days.

The final weekend in massive and bustling Bangkok has been somewhat manic with sightseeing, eating (of course), seeing Thai boxing (Muay Thai), shopping and saying good-bye to the IBM Thailand team.

To all at the Province of Chonburi, City of Pattaya, Port of Laem Chabang and IBM Thailand, you touched our hearts more than we ever imagined. We will never forget you and this experience.

-- Michael

Some press links:

http://www.pattayamail.com/localnews/chonburi-selected-for-ibm-smarter-cities-challenge-2012-18142

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/technology/IBM-team-joins-smarter-city-project-30193251.html

http://www.pattayapeople.com/default.asp?Folder=16&IdArticle=33096