I’ve been with this AP ‘Regional’ office for about 2 years now and there has never been much opportunity for me to travel; although the question of ‘how do you feel about traveling frequently’at the interview never really got out of my mind. I sort of gave up the idea of traveling for business as I don’t foresee opportunities coming my way with all the internal instant messengers, free IDD calls available, there isn’t much a need for us to travel to the various countries Besides, the traveling is often the other way round, people travel to Hong Kong for training, regional meetings, attachment etc. You don’t hear people going out to have training, meeting or attachments. Most important reason of all I reckon, is that I am still a little tiny ‘potato’.
The first opportunity came to light last year, while I was working on an Australian project, my then boss said he’d try to arrange a trip down to Sydney for me; to do what? I was not sure. But eventually we managed to work out things off-site, in other words, there wasn’t a need to travel (you know with all the environmental awareness about carbon emission etc, our group do encourage us not to travel unless it’s absolutely necessary.)
This year, with a lot of new initiatives coming from the top, we were tasked to understand the local practices and processes well. Being the ‘country co-coordinator’, (we were called country managers, but I always thought our role as ‘country coordinator’, oops, I hope not many of my colleagues or bosses are reading this blog.) I finally had the opportunity to go to Kuala Lumpur. Not a very exotic or exciting destination, but there is an advantage: it is close to home. Throughout the journey, I was more looking forward towards the weekend get-away in Singapore than anything else.
The business part is not very interesting to report, so I’ll skip it. What is exciting about this trip is the friends I managed to meet at KL and of course, Singapore and a small (very tiny tiny) part of being on the road on my own in a while…..
I met up with Elvin, a good friend since AIESEC days at KL! Although we live in different cities, but due to his ‘frequent business cum leisuretrips’ to Hong Kong and my once-a-year leisure trip to Singapore, we do meet each other quite often. And he was in KL at the right time!! As he was planning to stay in KL during the weekend that I planned to spend in Singapore, I could use his apartment for free! (Although I have to say that while the taxi driver took me through the colorful lights of Geylang, I did feel a bit embarrassed. Again while going out for supper late at night , another taxi uncle asked what I was doing late at night there! ) If you thought Singpaore is clinically ‘clean’ without any vices, you are wrong. It has its vices just that they are well-managed, even taxed by the government.
The weekend I was in Singapore was quite the best and worst time I had for a long time. It was really cool to meet up with friends and catch up without worrying my dear darling being too bored with our conversation and also in a long time, I felt like a functional person with the ability to carry out interesting and meaningful conversation again, but the air was bad with chocking haze. The moment I started walking down the street, I felt my throat drying up with certain smell of forest fire. (Well, there is a kind of smell.) I fell sick after the weekend, spent 3.5 days resting at home the following week. But nothing is as valuable as the friends I have back there, and meeting them has always brought back fond memories we spent together.
The outcome of the trip was good. The trip improved our relations with the country and with a better relationship, everything is much easier now.
文章定位：
