Every firm in Asia wants to take me to Phuket

It seems that every employer I worked for wanted to take me to Phuket for work. This year, I had the great fortune of going to Phuket again for a retreat with my co-workers. The experience, however, could not be more different.

First - the offsite is during workdays, which means it lasts from Wednesday to Friday, with the option to extend through Sunday with accommodations at your own expense. For banking, the offsite was Friday evening to Sunday, with no options to change anything.  Second, there was actual work involved in the second offsite – we conducted a 6 hour meeting on group strategy, where as in banking, it was strictly a mingle event. The most profound difference, however, was the activities we chose to engage in post work functions. In banking, we continued on the excess partying and drinking in Patong, where groups went to homosexual shows, lady-boy shows, ping-pong shows, the whole host of activities offered in Thailand. See my post about it a year ago. In my current work, we went to Muay Thai fights, had seafood, went to Baba Nest, one of the world’s greatest beach bars, and did a lot of exercising, sunbathing, and the whole host of activities one is supposed to do on vacation.

The view from the Baba

My most favourite part of Phuket this time around was definitely the Muay Thai fight – it was an experience out of this world. We bought the VIP seats for about $80. We got to sit in these grungy La-Z-Boy armchairs and was given cheap can beers. First few rounds, the fighters are so young. Pre-teens. As they got older, it became more violent. The water would drip on you as they are forced against the rings because you are sitting so close. The fight is 5 rounds, 2 minutes each. In the adults, there was a knock-out every fight. The level of violence was something professional sports in western world do not compare to. And the absolute length of the fights was shockingly short. Some would last only 1 round. Surprisingly, a white dude won against a Thai guy in one of the rounds. Pretty fly for a white guy.

Look how young some of the kids are!

Everyone being silly, but in a nice/harmless way.

Overall, while we didn’t stay in five-star hotels like we did in banking, the presence of time made the trip much more enjoyable and fruitful for me. Money cannot buy time. \