Thursday, April 10, 2008

The Trip to Thai Immigration that Never Happened

Something funny (and nakakainis at the same time) happened to us last Monday, 06 April 2008. We were supposed to go to Thai Immigration Office to have our passports stamped for Visa extension. I actually found it weird that we had to do this right away when we've only been here for less than a month, but Richard said that TMAP-EM's HR wants to do it all in one go along with his other co-workers, so we're left with no choice but to go with them. A TMAP-EM shuttle will pick us up at the lobby at 8:30am along with the other ICT's (Inter-company Tranferees) staying at Oakwood.

So we woke up early, ate a quick breakfast, got dressed and went down to the lobby to meet with the group. But when we got there, no shuttle was in sight. Richard's Indonesian co-workers were not around either. The only person that we saw was Benny, the Malaysian guy we met at the train station last Saturday.

At that moment, Richard knew something was not right. Toyota is always on time; tardiness does not exist in their vocabulary! He couldn't believe the shuttle wasn't there yet. I was thinking the shuttle just got stuck in traffic. So we waited at the lobby -- until 9:00am.
It turns out that Toyota cancelled the trip to Immigration. They said they left a message at the front desk but we never got it. I think they cancelled it last Saturday -- that was the time we were out, and the same time we met Benny at the train station. That explains why he didn't get the message too. The person from HR said that she asked the Indonesian ICT's that she was able to talk with to tell the others that the trip was cancelled, but she didn't give them our room number. Smart move.

Sayang, nag-bihis pa naman kami....




...at nag picture-taking pa!
Good thing Benny was there! He was able to contact the other Malaysian who was already at the office. That's how we found out that the trip was cancelled. Kung hindi, namuti na mga mata namin sa kakahintay. Hehe!

No comments: