Bill Price

I was asked to consider a long project in Bangladesh, where my expertise in Occupational Psychology, executive development, OD and international civil service reform would be useful. This would require me to move to Dhaka for three years.
This sounded great, so I worked on the project and the final presentation from Afghanistan and the UK, and expected to participate in the presentation in Dhaka in mid-December 2005. The date slipped, but OK, that gave us more time to work on the detail, and I liaised with John Wallace from the Helm Corporation, who would be the other full-time international consultant

The presentation was finally set for 25th January 2006, and flights were arranged for me to go out overnight on the 22nd/23rd to take part in the preparation meetings. I was booked on BA, the shuttle from Manchester and the flat bed of Club World from Heathrow to Dhaka. Sleep was impossible because of small children playing and screaming; and I had to wait an hour for my Priority suitcase to reach the carousel at Dhaka International Airport. Finally through immigration, I got a lift to the Marriott Guest House in Gulshan 2. I was very impressed – things had picked p considerably in the last ten years. I finally got some sleep and had some breakfast at 1pm. The staff were very helpful and attentive. They fixed me up with an internet cable for my laptop, water and soft drinks, and even meals on demand. My car came at 2pm, and took me downtown to the Helm Bangladesh office, where I met John, Mike, Barbara Samira & June. We had our first planning session for the presentation and interview. In the evening Mike Fraser took John and I to his favourite Indian Restaurant, where we had dhosas and a great curry.
Tuesday was a full day planning meeting, so we had a chicken noodle takeaway for lunch, and I ate dinner in the guest house.
On Wednesday morning, John’s driver picked me up for the last planning meeting, at the other HB office in Gulshan. We finalised the presentation and then went to the DFID office. John gave the presentation, and Mike allocated team members to answer questions over the next hour. Everything seemed to go OK, and we were told a decision would be made the next day. After the presentation, John showed me around Gulshan and banana, to see the sort of accommodation and facilities were now available. I was sure Marjorie would enjoy it here.
In the evening I was invited to dinner at the residence of June Rollinson, the British Council Director – a great meal including Parma ham – must be a rarity in Dhaka.
I was picked up at 3.30am the next morning to check in at the Airport for the return flight to UK, and only had about 30 minutes in the executive lounge before we were off. I had a bit of sleep on this flight, which was great. After landing in Heathrow, I got the bus from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1, and waited in the Executive Lounge for the shuttle up to Manchester. Linzi and Marjorie met me at the other end and whisked me home through the M60 roadworks.

On 2 January 2006 Marj and I took a trip to Thailand with Kuoni – a three stop tour covering Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi.
We got the Emirates flight to Dubai, had a rest in the Executive Lounge courtesy of my Skywards Silver Card, then on to Bangkok International Airport. The Airport was very impressive with one glaring horror – the queue for passport control. It seemed that no matter how many immigration officers they threw at it, the queues moved no faster. Eventually we got through to pick up our cases, and were met by the genial Tour East rep, who took us to our first hotel, the Arnoma, which looked really good, but had an awful checking-in system. We ended up with a group of Brits argueing about having to deposit $200 as deposits, even though the rooms were paid for.
Bangkok has changed since we were last there. We met Martin, a friend of Barry’s, who showed us around and explained about the sort of work/life style that Barry is contemplating. There are now lots of western style Malls, and a new night market – the Suan Lok Night Bazaar, which is very impressive. There are nice bars and restaurants, and lots of stalls with no hassle. Hardly any fake goods either – for that you still have to brave Potpong. One new attraction we found was a Mexican Restaurant, with excellent foood and service!
After 4 nights we flew to Phuket Airport, and were met by our driver who took us to the Cape Panwa Resort at the far ed of the island. This was idyllic, with its own private beach, pool, choice of restaurants and bars. To get down to the beach you could either walk or take a funicular tram. One of the restaurants was in Panwa House, a Thai/ Portuguese style villa, with lovely interior and service.
In the village of Panwa, we enjoyed the Sawasdee Cafe, with fresh fish and prawns, and the little supermarket where we got whisky for Grahame and Worthers Originals for Marjorie.
Four days later we were driven up ot he north of the island, over the bridge to the mainland, through Phang Nga province to Krabi province, thus to our final hotel, the Ao Nang Villa in Aonang. The hotel was fine, with two big pools and nice restaurants. Our superior room had a good sea-view and balcony. The town had a lot of shops and restaurants, and we took the advantage of the Splendid Massage Shop for us both to have one-hour foot massages.
On Marj’s birthday, we booked a day-trip with the hotel, to take us on a speedboat tour of Phang Nga bay, including snorkeling, island visits and lunch. We made several stops at small island, but mainly went to the Phi Phis –Big and Small. Small Phi Phi allowed us to snorkel in the bay where the film “The Island” was made, but we ended up in our own drama. The guide showed us where to snorkel, and suggested that when we had finished, we could either get back on the boat or swim to the beach, as that was the next stop anyway. In we plunged, wearing our brand-new snorkeling kit, and both of us had to spend some time adjusting the goggles and snorkel to get them right. Marjorie was in front of me, but when I had finally got my kit sorted out, he was nowhere to be seen.
Not having my glasses on, I swam around to see if I could spot her, and finally concluded that she must have swum to the beach. I followed the trail, and emerged from the surf rather unlike Ursula Andress in Doctor No. I wandered round the beach, but she was not there. Whilst looking out to sea for her, I fell into conversation with a lucky chap who was touring the world looking for desirable tourist locations that could be added to the portfolio of his son’s travel business.
Meanwhile Marjorie had got back on the boat, and after vainly trying to spot my head bobbing around in the Andaman Sea, urged the guide to conduct a search, by getting the boat moving. He tried to reassure her that I would be OK, but agreed that as soon as he had let everyone else off on the beach, the boat would go back out and conduct a search and rescue operation.
As the boat came into the beach, I expected Marjorie to get off – but it was not to be. Then we saw each other – she was still on the boat in urgent conversation with the guide. Boy was I introuble – ruining her birthday in such a beautiful location.
From little Phi Phi we sailed to big Phi Phi for lunch, and this is where we had a shock. This island had suffered badly from the Tsunami, and the desolation of the central beach areas was still evident. Godness knows how many lives were lost when the waves took out the whole of the central strand of the island. Itwa stilla mess, but local peole were bravely trying to restart their businesses, and we enjoyed a great lunch and an interesting walk round the areas which were being reconstructed.
On the 16th January we were driven to Krabi Airport and given a box of orchids from Kuoni. We flew from there to Bangkok National Terminal, trekked to the International Terminal, and flew back on Emirate to Manchester via Dubai.