Golden Circle Week, and Miami

21-May-2023

Good morning ...

I had a really great time in Miami attending the Golden Circle event. In retrospect, it looks time went by in too fast like we just went in there.

Day 0 

We onboarded Emirates A380 to Dubai and then B777-300 to Miami from Dubai. First time in A380 and it looks bigger and spacious. It took around 6 hours to reach Dubai and another 16 to reach Miami. It was quite a long flight end to end, but able to get some sleep during the Miami flight.

Day 1 15th May

Reached at Airport around 10:40 local time and we were onboarded onto a bus to hotel. It took like two hours before we finally checked-in around 1 pm. We relaxed a bit, get some sleep and go to Reception and Opening Session at 5pm followed by a Welcome Dinner from 7pm to 10pm. Day 1 was largely uneventful; we could have done more with pools guess. 

Day 2 16th May

Started with missing the yoga session at 6am. We freshened up and went in to get our breakfast. Two sessions Why the world need IBM and then off to lunch. I had chosen CSR activity, so we were taken to an elementary school. I ended up cleaning and picking up dead leaves from the garden. It was kind of okay but looks very much staged. It was still little fun and different. Later, in the evening we went in for an Italian dinner at Dolce Italian. The food was okay, may be American Italian. We ended up walking to the street and shops at Lincoln Avenue, it looks like a good shopping and eating are. 

Day 3 17th May

Decided to go for a walk to see sunrise, we got up bit early and ended on the beach walk road. It was a good start of the day followed by a little more relaxing breakfast. We got into Garage sessions post breakfast and then seems like there was no other till late. K Daranee and team decided to explore the Lincoln shopping area, so me and Pasin also tagged along. I bought some artificial jewelry for Myra and Pallavi and ended up with a black T-Shirt for Anvay. We came back around 1pm, just able to get our Lunch and I moved to the learning class of Ceviche and Mojito. 

I was taken to OLA bar about 15 mins ride from the bus. It was a good session, ended up learning making a fish dish and mojito with Rum. 

There was another dinner in the evening from 7pm, "Celebrity Evening". We thought, it was like another dinner, so we ended up in casual, and to our surprise when we went down, each one was dressed like going to a red-carpet event. It was dinner, drinks, shows and then a concert by One Republic. I never heard of this band, but the music was good. I came back to the room around 11pm but Pasin stayed for another 30mins or so. He really seemed to have liked this. 

Day 4 Departures

We started early with a walk, and then spent some time in the pool. We wanted to spend more, but as we planned for some shopping little far away, we got out around 9am, packed our stuff, got ready and went in for breakfast. We came back to room, freshened up, checked out and moved our baggage to the luggage area. The shopping outlet was really far away, like 45mins taxi ride. It was a Saw Grass Mill in Sunrise City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The place was really nice, and prices were great. I probably end up spending the largest amount of money I ever spent on one single shopping. 

We came back around 04:30pm local time and a black SUV waiting for us, thanks to Emirates business class tickets back to Bangkok. We reached airport at 6pm, checked-in, spent some time in Turkish Lounge. 

On the flight, had 2-3 drinks and didn't realize when sleep took over. I slept for 8-9 hours and then, had a good breakfast and we landed in Dubai around 07:35 local time. I did some shopping, and back to A380 business class which was another level of luxury. I had few drinks, dinner and slept for about 3 hours. It was a good flight back to Bangkok, and a Limousine was waiting for you to drop at home. 

I arrived back to the apartment around 9am. Back to work fellas ....

vA