Day 3: John Croft

Hello everybody!!! My name is Jack Croft and I am a sophomore at Massachusetts Maritime Academy having graduated from Marshfield High School.

Jet lag made our 0730 wake up feel easy as it made it easy to fall asleep last night. As it was our first full day of the trip, I did not know what to expect … however once we got into the swing of what was going to happen throughout the day I became more comfortable. Once down at breakfast, we found that the food was more accommodating to foreigners than we thought. Our breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with onions and peppers as well as some waffles and coffee. After breakfast we all met in the conference room where we would have our meetings throughout our trip. We were greeted by Prof. Fazle Karim, who was admittedly funny, before our guest speakers spoke to us. Ms. Panhathai Nithilatthhi is a port and terminal industry professional who works in Thailand. She explained how Thailand’s ports have expanded over the years, their plan for expansion in the next few years, and also how the port has accommodated new technology. After the presentation by Ms.Panathai Nithilatthhi we had an hour and a half or so break for lunch.

In Thailand there is coffee break for about 20 minutes per conference as well as an hour and a half lunch break. This is very different from home, as at school I am lucky if I have a full hour for lunch. During our lunch break, we had the opportunity to try Thai food. Overall the lunch food was very good and I enjoyed it very much. The chicken was tender and had a sauce that sweetened the rice, and the pork, although spicy, was very good.

Once our lunch break was over we headed back to the conference room where a cultural presentation about Thailand that was made by AIT graduate Dr. Sujata Bhatia. Her presentation style was much different than the first presentation as she engaged the audience much more. For example there were 3 different boards and we had to split into 3 groups and we were tasked with writing about what we learned about Thailand. It was quite interesting. We also had a quick birthday party for John Carlson who was celebrating his birthday.

After our presentations, we changed into normal clothes and headed to a Thai mall. The mall seemed as if it never ended, and there were endless activities. My group played laser tag, while others went to many different stores. We went to a hibachi restaurant where almost all of us ate “Australian Beef”, which in American terms is just a rare steak over fried rice. Overall I learned that malls in Thailand are completely different compared to home, as well as how professional the port and logistic managers of Thailand operate and run their terminals. I look forward to seeing what the rest of our trip brings us!