Joining me for this Amazing Race in Bangkok was a department from an NGO headquartered in Switzerland. The participants formed a remote team across the world in India, China, Germany, and the UK and this was the first time they had got together. With the rise of Work From Home (WFH) in recent years, it has become increasingly common for me to work with groups who have never met each other in person before. While this team meets online every day, they had never met in the real world. And, while WFH of course starts to build relationships, there is no substitute for real world interactions, shared experiences, dinner, and a beer.
We started the race from the Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn. My amazing race leaves teams to figure things out for themselves and come up with their own plan. Team leaders need to strategise and prioritise. In this case, it was the most chaotic start to a race I have ever seen. Teams were hilariously unorganised like some sort of Laurel and Hardy slapstick comedy act from the 1930s. One particular incident involving a hotel lift (or elevator for our American friends) will go down in history as a real WTF! moment.
However, after a while, the teams did manage to settle down into a decent plan and the race took us across Bangkok on a hot and humid afternoon. Instead of ending the race back at the hotel, the group had booked their evening dinner at Blue Elephant Restaurant, a high-end restaurant set in a stunning colonial-style house that specialises in Royal Thai Cuisine. Built in 1903, it was originally a luxury department store before housing the Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce from 1928. In 2002, the building was restored and turned into the world-famous restaurant known as Blue Elephant.
It was a lovely evening of food and drink, a couple of speeches, and some singing. Not by me of course. We Brits are not known for our singing skills. The Indian and Chinese participants impressed though. The organiser had arranged a bottle of champagne for the best singer. Funnily enough, it was her.