I cannot forget a date which changes my life, it was 7th Feb 2003. Today I am going to tell you how my new phase of life begins means my rebirth in Bangkok, Thailand.
My Rebirth in Bangkok, Thailand
This was the day when I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, it was like a new birth of mine and I was ready to feel and experience the same. This was my lifetime dream to visit out of the country, anyhow with the reason for traveling, at last, I reached Thailand. And my flight landed at morning 6:30 am Thailand time, I was nervous and excited both simultaneously as it was my first time visiting, I already had a visa for 3 months from India but over there at the time of immigration, they only provide visas for 15 days.
Rebirth in Bangkok
So I requested the person to give me one month visa as I have come over here for traveling purposes, now the thing was that generally, the immigration staff don’t do this but I guess I was lucky enough to get one month visa on arrival after my request. I went outside the airport, took a cab, and went to the place where my friend has booked a hotel for me, it was affordable, and the day was Sunday. By the time I reach the hotel, I was looking left right, and all over, thinking and feeling totally different like this is not India, a new place, while I had carried all my luggage along with my documents bag.
Firstly, I did my breakfast at my place and then call my friend that what to do next over here, so he said that being Sunday it was a holiday, then he guided me about the local travel, newspaper, from where to get food, different restaurants and much more stuff.
I had my lunch with my friend at a pizza shop and I was a vegetarian at that time so ask for veg pizza. Now the big challenge for me was food, as I was unaware of the Thai food, how they were made and all, so all I use to ask was vegetable rice that’s it! And my breakfast includes bread, tea or coffee. While I started feeling panic and homesickness at the same time, such thoughts started running into my mind that why I am there, what I am going to do and what if something happens to me, etc.
I Was Searching for a Job in Bangkok
Finally, the working day starts on Monday and I saw a lot of traffic on the road as Bangkok was famous for its traffic. Now every day I use to buy English newspapers from the roadside and look for the vacancies and use to call them but the struggle was that very few people over here understand English, you can say it was a lot of struggle for me to even connect with them on call. Then I use to go to an internet café and registered myself on some of the Thailand job vacancy sites and send my resume on a daily basis to different sites of job vacancies, this was my daily work after I am done with my breakfast and lunch, as I don’t have my laptop with me.
Bangkok in 2003
Life was getting more tough as after all my efforts I was not getting any call for an interview, so I asked my friends to help me out in getting any work. They said we are looking for that and told me that they will arrange my meeting with one of their owners, while one day I went to meet the principal of the college but I don’t have any teaching experience so it didn’t work out for me, still, I was just searching for the job no matter what it is. I wanted to work there and to stay, while the cheapest bus doesn’t have A.C. in it and all I use to ask was which number of buses visited here and went there.
In the initial stage at least for a couple of weeks, it was tough for me to get things done and I was struggling with lots of things from which one was food and language, while I went for a couple of interviews as well but did not get any positive response instead they demoralize me by saying that foreigners do not get job easily over here and it was not the USA or Malaysia to have a demand for IT people, etc, I was not getting any positive vibes.
Bangkok in 2003 Near Victory Monument
From two weeks it turns out to be the third one but still nothing working out, still, I was not giving up as I don’t have any other work to do. After that, I saw an advertisement in a newspaper which shows a vacancy for an IT person so I directly called and set up an interview, before that I would like to add a few of my struggle stuff such as I use to carry visiting cards along with me and use to give at every store /shops in a hope that if they required any IT work so they can reach to me. At that time there was not any source of social media kind of stuff, all one can do was newspapers and job websites to look for any vacancies.
My First Job Interview in Bangkok Near Ramintra
Now back to my interview stuff, as my interview was set for the next day but I don’t know the location so ask my friend he guided me by saying that I have to take the van from there, now the problem was that driver doesn’t understand English and I don’t get Thai language, it was getting difficult for me to know where exactly I have to get down from the van. So, I use to ask people sitting next to me, and I use to keep an eye on the stop so that it did not get a skip, but I mistakenly went down before my stop kind of two streets before.
So, I ask for the exact location and started walking towards it, it was hot, and I had my handbag containing all the documents. Now I only remembered the street name and forget the rest of the address, so while walking I turn into a lane but it was a residential area, I went from one end to another end of the street but couldn’t find it, now the problem was company contact number and address was misplaced by me, and only street number I know. Somewhere I still remember the company name but was still unable to find it, then I remember that below that company there was a restaurant that was also searching for employees during the time I saw that advertisement.
Then I went a bit back and saw a small door of the restaurant, I went ahead to ask them, when I went inside my condition was too bad because of heat, sweating all over. Luckily the restaurant person knows English, so I asked him about the Asian wildlife company location, as I came for the interview. He told me that it was on the first floor of their building and they don’t attach any company name board as it was a family kind of company.
I went towards the first floor and got confused with so many doors, so I finally got the one as that person help me out and saw a few employees were working there. A lady came towards me she was the one to whom I talked on call for an interview, by her face she seems to be Indian, later got to know that her mother was Indian, and she was a Thai-born lady.
Then had a good conversation with her, and showed them my documents. She said that she checked my documents and will arrange the interview within a few days with the main boss, I requested she conduct it soon because of my visa issue, and she was ok with that and ask me to wait for her phone call. I was hoping positive response for this interview, while on the other side, I was under the stress of money, visa extension, etc. All I have was hope… This story completes over here. Thank you!
One-Day Trip to Ayutthaya City Near Bangkok
Further continuing with my interview, the lady asks me to wait for the call for a personal interview. I went away with a positive response and was hoping for things to work out over here. Finally, I received the call a couple of days and went to meet the main boss for a personal interview when I saw him, he seems to be south Indian, but he was Malaysian born but brought up in India.
So, I felt a kind of good connection over here as felt good vibes from them and an Indian touch you can say. The interview started and the interviewer asked me a few questions such as where I am, what I have studied, etc, so I frankly said everything to him including my study, job, and purpose of coming to Bangkok. The boss doesn’t understand Hindi but knows English, I said the whole story of mine.
After the interview gets over the boss was okay with everything and told me to help out with work and visa if possible things work out, he asks me to visit again tomorrow and he will call one IT person who was going to ask me some IT-related questions to me. I agreed and came back the next day and his friend was ready to take my interview related to IT fields, he was a friendly person asking a few simple questions only such as what I have learned and how many languages I know, etc.
First Job Offer in Bangkok
I felt a friendly environment over there after done with the interview we both went to meet the boss, boss’s friend said all okay and to proceed further, so the final boss gave me the job and ask me to join the 25th date and my salary would be 20,000 Thai Baht. I was so happy at that point in time that I cannot express it in words as only a week was remaining for my visa to get over plus getting a vibe that they will help me with my visa as well.
From Monday I started my work and timing to reach was 9 am in the morning, it was far away from my place nearly an hour it takes to me to reach the office. Boss used to come at 10 am, as soon as I reach office they make me sit in front of the computer and ask me to perform a certain task and I did it successfully, in a couple of days whatever work I did they get impressed by it and ask me when my visa was going to expire.
So, I told the date and they told me that I must travel to another country and visit on a non-immigrate visa so that we can apply for a work permit. They help so quickly like booking my ticket for a Singapore flight and from there I can apply for a non-immigrant visa and back to Bangkok. In their company, few consultants were already there so they know the actual process which helps me out a lot. So the funny thing was with me that every day I use to see my Singapore ticket and use to think that along with Bangkok now I will visit Singapore as well.
I was excited but nervous as well as one of my friends said that if any problem was detected in your documents, they won’t allow me to come back. I prefer to ask my boss, I ask him that is it the correct method to go as if any uncertain thing happen and I must stay in Singapore and it is expensive to stay, etc. so, my boss said let’s talk to our consultant that what are the possibilities of getting a non-immigrate visa without leaving the country, so they tried some possible options from here itself and visa got converted into non-immigrate visa successfully.
Now I got the stamp for 3 months and within these 3 months, I must apply for a work permit along with one year of visa. I become happier at that time that I got my job along with my visa and things are working out. They were happy with my handwork and they applied for a work permit along with a visa process of one year on my behalf by following all rules and regulations, while I remember that the next month, I got my work permit during my job period, so I become really happy that I can stay at Bangkok for one year along with legal work permit, job, visa and family kind of environment in the company.
I was feeling damn happy as for the thing I came over here I got that. At least I have a time of one year to prove myself and after working hard, my life vehicle was started coming on track, can say a good phase of mine started from here. This was the end of this part rest will continue in the next one. Thank you!
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