My tour to the Amazing Kingdom of Thailand

MY TOUR TO THE AMAZING KINGDOM OF THAILAND

Beatrice works for Standard Chartered and won an Award and a free trip as part of their Clean and Green week. Standard Chartered organised Beatrice's trip through responsibletravel.com and Gecko Travel.

I would like to first of all extend my sincere gratitude to the Management of Standard Chartered Bank for having given me the opportunity to visit Thailand. I had the best experience and most exciting tour in Thailand, which I will always live to remember, and greatly treasure. My first visit was to Bangkok – Capital City of Thailand. Bangkok is a remarkably interesting city with uncommonly beautiful people, heavy traffic jam and various street stalls plus open-air restaurants.

On the second day, I had a ride on the long tail boat across the Chao Pharaya River. This is one place to catch a fresh breeze and encounter the most popular sport of feeding hundreds of big fish with bread while on board. From the Chao Pharaya River, I visited the Wat Pho Temple, which is renown for it's giant, gold plated reclining Buddha statute. My next visit was to the Grand Palace of the Thai Monarchy. It is a lovely place with classic artwork and beautiful gardens.

I crowned off my stay in Bangkok city by visiting Standard Chartered Nakornthon Bank – Sathorn Main branch where I received a warm and friendly welcome from both the Manager and her team. One thing I admired about this branch is their high level of hospitality. This made me feel at home and proud of SCB. They also had 150 years small donation boxes positioned in their banking hall encouraging customers to make small contributions to the less privileged.

From SCB- Sathorn Main branch I had a marvelous ride on the skyline train and then took a flight to yet another interesting town of Chaing Mai. Chaing Mai is a less busy city with less traffic jam compared to Bangkok.

On the third day I visited the Tribal Museum which is Chaing Mai's principal tourist center for information on the 9 hill tribes of Northern Thailand. The museum also harbors over 1000 objects, which were collected over 30 years ago by researchers at the tribal research institute.

My next visit was to the Warot Market, this market had a variety of eye-catching foodstuffs like water snakes, frogs, crunchy caterpillars and insects, wild fruits etc. These are some of the best dishes in Thailand and they can be prepared and served on demand.

I then visited the Doi Pui Hill tribe village and Doi Suthep temple. It takes a great deal of exercise to climb 325 steps to reach this temple. The Thai's have a belief that the higher one goes, the closer you are to Heaven and so this explains the number of steps.

The fourth day was the most interesting and best day of my tour because it was full of adventure and action. First I had an elephant ride through the rain – forested jungle of Mae Tang, followed by an oxen cart ride around the village after which I embarked on the inflatable boat rafting exercise on the white and scenic Mae Tang River.

The fifth day was one of massive exercise. We started off with an early morning trek through the hilly small village of Baan Teen Doi. I spent a night at the Hmong hill tribe lodge where the Hmongs entertained us – one of the hill tribes. Something to remember about this lodge is their great tasty food and woodwork.

On the sixth day I visited the Tad Mok waterfalls and the lovely orchid farm after which I checked in at the Paradise Spa Resort. Indeed it was real paradise as the name suggests. At this hotel, I had a splendid and soothing spa plus an early morning aromatherapy massage. In the evening we had a candle lit dinner in the hotel's museum.

The Seventh day marked the end of my visit to the amazing Kingdom of Thailand.

I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to Mr. Mervyn Davies, The steering committee of UK, Mr. Richard Etemesi, Mr. James Mulwana our Board Chairman, Harriet Musoke, Catherine Njoroge, Christine Nakityo, Genevieve Kotta, the SCB – Mbale, Gecko tours and travel, responsibletravel.com and all other SCB team members.

I have had a lifetime opportunity, which I will live to remember and I pledge full commitment and ownership to the Bank coupled with a high level of team spirit.

I urge team members to embark on creative thinking and hard work these say a lot about who we are and what we are as a result it takes the Bank and us to greater heights.