What’s up, y’all. I’m writing this entry from an internet cafe in Chiang Mai, which is in the northern part of Thailand. We got here yesterday and got the hookup to be staying in yet another really nice hotel…Travis is doing it up so big on the lodging coordination front for this vacation. We haven’t done much around here except walk around the downtown area to check out some of the old temples and the local markets, but this is a really cool place to kick it. prior to this leg of the trip, e’d been ripping and running to see as many sights as possible, but had to slow down a couple of days ago when my man Jon caught some sort of stomach bug. At first I was bummed about not being able to see more things, but, when I realized how tired I was, I started seeing the downtime as a much needed rest period out here to prepare for the Vietnam leg of the trip in a couple of days.
A couple of days ago, Jon and I went on one of the island tours in Ko Samui and had a great time. I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the 7:30am pickup time from our hotel but he assured me that it would be worth being groggy that early in the morning. The tour started out with an hour long boat ride out to one of the islands around Ko Samui, where the achored up and let everyone on the tour go snorkeling. Now, some of you might remember my snorkeling experience from St martin last year, so y’all can understand the fears I had in getting in that water. The people on the boat convinced me to put on a life vest and try it again, which I did…but as soon as I got in the water, I felt myself going straight down and freaked out. I had to have been in the water for all of about 15 seconds. It’s all good though because that was better than saying I had completely punked out. Following the snorkeling, the boat took us to another island where we hiked up toward a couple of observation decks that had the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen before…and I’m not exagerrating about that. What i saw was something out of a post card: blue skies, crystal clear seas, green trees, white beaches…simply amazing. Jon took some picutres of it all and I hope to get some copies of them to post on here once we all get back to the US. We had a buffet lunch on yet another island after this and the food was good, but the best part of the trip was yet to come. After lunch, the guides took us down to the beach where they had a bunch of kayaks for us. We spent about 30-45 minutes sea kayaking around that island and it was a great experience. Aside from the fact that all that rowing was helping me get my swole on, we were able to get even more amazing views of the islands and the seas from the kayaks. Following the kayaking, we just hung out on the island for a while, where we chatted with the other tour customers who were from all over the world and had other interesting stories about their times in Thailand. By the time we got back to the hotel, I was 100% exhausted, but, as Jon had promised at the start of the day, it was well worth it.
In addition to the last few days’ worth of activities, I’ve finally been cranking on the readings for the “Information in markets and Markets of information” seminar I’ve got coming up and this stuff is pretty interesting. The readings are all about auction theory and the types of information involved…I never knew how easy it is to screw up something as seemingly simple as an auction. I’m hoping to knock the last of the readings out for this joint by tomorrow, so I can use the rest of my time to read the ~300 page book that we’ve been assigned for the other seminar I’m taking. I am SO not ready to be back in the classroom yet…
Marquis,
I hope you’re continuing to have great time in Thailand. Don’t forget to check out the ladies at Discovery and Central before leaving Bangkok!
Question for you that is totally off topic! I have trying to learn the basics of financial modeling and analysis on my own. I was wondering if you could point out any good resources you came across at Stanford (Textbooks, Websites) that might help me get started.
Thanks!
Anonymous,
Thanks for checking out my blog. I always try to give good info about the B-school game to folks who come through here.
Exactly what are Discovery and Central? I’m about to head out to Hanoi, Vietnam now and will be flying back to SF this weekend. I’m going to be staying overn ight in Bangkok before my flight, but I doubt I’ll have tiem to go out.
As for your financial modeling and analysis question, I’d highly recommend the textbook that we used for the class, which was co-authored by a GSB professor, Jeffrey Moore. The book is called “Decision Modeling in Excel” and the link to it on Amazon.com is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/013017789X/qid=1126685548/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-7665254-9258321?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
Hope this info helps.
Thank you, Marquis. I’ll check the book out. I think I heard about that book.
Discovery and Central are shopping malls in Sukhumvit. They are known for having good food and nice looking locals.
Thank you, Marquis. I’ll check the book out. I think I heard about that book.
Discovery and Central are shopping malls in Sukhumvit. They are known for having good food and nice looking locals.
I don’t think we checked out either of those malls while we were there. We ended up checking out The Emporium mall, which was just as pricey as an American mall but was pretty nice otherwise. Then, a cabbie recommended that we go to the MBK Mall and I swear that I hadn’t seen so much bootlegged fashion since my time living in NYC after college.
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