TBEX Asia 2015 – Bangkok Thailand

TBEX is the world’s largest gathering of travel professionals (bloggers, writers, new media content creators and social media influencers). Bangkok, Thailand was the host city and country for the first TBEX in Asia.

This gathering was also well suited for me as I’m actively promoting travel in Thailand online and it’s good to meet like-minded people who believe that online media is the way to go in the future. It’s also in line with Tourism Authority of Thailand’s campaign for 2015 “Discover Thainess” which allows travel professionals to come Discover Thailand and Thainess for themselves.

So, without further ado, let me take you through my first TBEX Asia in Bangkok! :)

This trip, I flew over to Bangkok via AirAsia. They recently launched Go-To-Gate which is suitable for business people or those without any check-in luggage. Just check-in online, print your boarding pass and proceed straight to departure gate.

Time to escape the haze and head over to The Land of Smiles, Thailand.

For this trip, I also got the WIFI Router from Changi Recommends as I would  be doing live updates throughout the event and it was essential for me to be connected all the time. The unlimited data by telcos is  good but it’s never enough for me because it drops to low speed after 2GB. I must say that it’s totally unusable for me after 2GB Data Limit because my Instagram just won’t load.

As this trip was quite a last minute decision, I had difficulty booking a hotel last minute as many of the hotels was fully booked due to many events ongoing in Bangkok. Thank God for HotelQuickly, I managed to find out which hotel was available through their app and successfully got a room in Bangkok on the day itself!

Special for Singapore readers: Use “AROIMAK2” and get S$25 off your first Singapore hotel booking!

Finally at  Queen Sirikit National Convention Center!

TBEX Asia 2015 began with a Press Conference. Mr. Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor said, “Thailand is pleased to welcome more than 600 talented bloggers and online writers from around the world to the TBEX Asia 2015. TAT will take this opportunity to promote our successful “Discover Thainess” campaign, which highlights the distinctive characteristics of Thailand and showcases the 12 Hidden Gems” destinations. We hope that the event is fun and productive for participants and further enhances the image of Thailand as a top venue for world-class events of all sizes and types.”

Hand Weaving. Here in the convention venue, you really get to Discover Thainess!

Trying on Thai costumes!

Fruits become so beautiful under their hands.

We were hosted with lots of delicious Thai Food and we had a great time networking with different travel professionals from around the world.

At every Thai event, there will definitely be a graceful Thai Traditional Dance Performance.

Loy Krathong came early this year for TBEX Asia participants and all of us got a chance to experience it.

The event kicked off with Opening Keynote by  Anton Diaz from  Our Awesome Planet.

Lunch was buffet style with lots of delicious Thai food.

After dinner, we headed for a Bangkok Tour, visiting Yodpiman Flower Market. Despite being in Bangkok so many time, this is my first time visiting this market properly. Thailand never fails to amaze me everytime.

Being taught how to fold Thai Lotus Flower.

My new friends  with our Lotus Flower (folded on our own). From left to right, Alvin from Alvinology.com, myself, Nat & Hiro from  nathiro-travel.com  and Weizhi from  kampungboycitygal.com

Tuk Tuk Ride to Yaowarat, Chinatown. It’s so cool to see a Tuk Tuk entourage.

Yaowarat is just packed with people during the Vegetarian Festival, full of shops selling street food.

Surprised to see this Bamboo Sticky Rice being sold at Vegetarian Festival. This was one of my childhood snacks which I always got along the way to Pattaya in the past.

All of us had a great time learning from each other and we headed over to Asiatique for our Farewell Party.

Thai Pancakes, so delicious!

TBEX participants get to experience Muay Thai Live, which is one of Asiatique’s main attractions.

TBEX Asia ended with beautiful fireworks. Glad to have met many new like-minded people during this event. :)

Time to head back to Singapore. Wish that I was able to stay longer for Post-TBEX Tours, but unfortunately I had to head back to Singapore as I had another trip planned and I had to fly off on the same day.

The Hot Meal was perfect for me to fill my stomach as time was not on my side. I had to rush home to pack my bag before going back to Changi Airport for another trip.

There’s an abundance of airlines flying to Bangkok but here’s why you might want to fly with AirAsia!