Bangkok on Hold

My mother and my two aunts are now probably tired from their late night flight to Bangkok. As I type they might already be scrutinizing the hotel, unpacking and planning for their early city-tour trip in a couple of hours. Or if their flight was fortunately on time, they're probably asleep right now. Well, I should've been there with them, but I'm here in Manila. If you've read my previous post about how excited I was on this planned trip, you would never have imagined me postponing the trip and writing this. But I figured certain decisions had to be made and timing really works in mysterious ways.

Just a brief background on this Bangkok escapade, I was the one who initiated the trip because I grabbed an international Cebu Pacific seat sale to Bangkok. I hardly have the skills to convince people to spend, but in this regard I was able to convince and excite my two aunts and mother. I convinced all of them to take a Bangkok adventure with me and so they agreed. Tickets were booked four months ago. But apparently within for the past four months, unexpected but happy things came up and I ended up not coming because of work. Since I just transferred companies, I have to adjust and "follow" management's corporate training schedule as strictly as possible. Mine is an extra special case since my function is fairly new and thorough migration is involved. In fact, in one week's time I'll be flying to New York then Ohio for a grueling 2.5 months training. So these past few weeks are concerned with documentation, concept training and access testing. My superiors are very understanding individuals, and probably they would've understood, but personally I didn't even attempt asking for a two day vacation. At this rate, I know within myself that I do not reserve the break and even if I did I wouldn't have the audacity to leave the compressed work schedule behind. I'm already tight in a tight schedule in the office and my leisure Bangkok trip should be the least of anyone's concerns including my own.

So early on I have gracefully accepted and decided that I would not be able to see Bangkok as planned. As much as I'm eager to taste their culture, duty to my new company comes first. Some of my friends said that I shouldn't feel bad about Bangkok since I'll be traveling to the States in a matter of days. But truth be told, I'm more interested in Bangkok. I've been to the United States and this time around, I wouldn't be going there for vacation but for work.

There is no use to getting frustrated now. I have decided early on and I know in myself that I made a right decision. It's not that painful now when I think about it. I just hope that my mom and aunts would enjoy without me and find whatever they expected to find there. I hope they may have great experiences in Bangkok. As for me, I know I would get to see Bangkok some other tine. It's not the end of the world. I even already planned to visit it with my brother as soon as I get back from the States. As for the ticket, it isn't that hard to digest since I got the ticket on a promo rate. I've wasted money, but I did it for justified reason.

So the temples, the culture, the street food, the plays, the elephant safari, the river market and all the shopping would just have to wait. I'll see all of it soon. For now, I would just let my mom and my aunts enjoy. I'll be waiting and anticipating on their wonderful stories of what I missed and will soon see in Bangkok.