Sometimes you have those moments of realisation. I just had one; sitting here looking around in these tropical surroundings, with basic, cheap but very nice food, and then seeing our group working. I almost feel guilty for being here. Eventhough is hard work that we're doing. As a proof off that; I am completely knackered and seeing double for the past four hours.
Lets just recap till now.
We've arrived in Bangkok two days ago. After a very tiring stopover in Moscow, and a very dodgy flight with Aeroflot, we've made our way to a very nice hostel in quite a secluded area in Bangkok. Uptill now we've been exploring, walking around, sneaking into the zoo, eating a lot and sleeping our jetlag off.
Yesterday we had a meeting with a Thai frontrunner on Social Innovation, Mr. Chaiwat Thirapantu. By just going for it, establishing contact by sending an e-mail we got a meeting (sometimes things are just that easy ). We were supposed to meet up at the lobby of the Landmark hotel in the center of the city of Bangkok. The only thing was that we had a map with only thai directions on it, by which the tuk-tuk-shickrak driver took us to a closed office building in the outskirts of Bangkok. So two hours later we arrived at the actual meeting (while the girls were already long there ). Spoiled with food and drinks, Mr Thirapantu and his friends/colleagues opened their whole network up for us.
So as a result from that we already had another meeting today, and have a lot of contacts to hook up with in Phuket. It feels as if these couple of weeks won't be long enough. Therefore we've been changing our goals and expectations a bit concerning this trip, to not have too much big ideas and goals, and just take everything in that comes our way.
It actually feels as if we're laying the groundwork for a possible fantastic outpost next year.
So today we started our day with a boattrip on the main river to see a bit more of this city. After a small siesta we went on working on our projects, the weblog and designing the workshop for the upcoming summit in Phuket. After splitting up to work some more in small groups we got together again to have a meeting in our bunkbeds. Moments and settings like that can make you giggle inside.
Right now we're sitting outside in our shorts and t-shirts having a cocktail, finishing today (sorry, just needed to show off a bit here).

Tomorrow we will be leaving to Phuket for the I-genius world summit, in the Indigo Pearl five star resort (sorry again). Where we will be hosting workshops and a game.
I seriously have to stop writing for now as I am being punctured by moquitos that have been draining at least half a liter of blood from me.

Later more
Bye for now