January 1, 2009 - Thailand Trip - The Backstory

Woah....a Kevin Shenoy Blog entry. The first one in 2 years (almost three)! Something must be up.

Indeed, something is up. First, it's a new year, and I'm going to try and be more faithful to the blog. Second, I won a trip to Bangkok, Thailand, and everyone has asked about it. I've told a ot of you how it played out, but like the theory on diminishing returns, the more I tell it, the less gusto it has. I rush through the story as to not bore others. But there was a lot to it.

So I figured I'd give the backstory to you. Then when Shell and I would go on the trip from January 12-23, 2009. I'd immediately sit down and write to let you know of all the fun stuff we did. A few pictures will go up on the blog, but many more will surface on Facebook. And then I'd read all your comments. I'm sure no one has ever thought of this before. I'll probably have to buy bloggerfacebook.com before someone else takes it.

On to the good stuff: The Backstory of the Trip

March-April 2008. Shelly had gotten me a subscription to GQ for my birthday in 2007. It has become one of our staples in the Loo Library. In March or April (I can't remember. I just know it was before the wedding stuff got hectic), I sat down for my evening duty. Shelly hadn't come home from work yet, so I snuck the laptop in with me as well. The wireless connection is at its best in the bathroom.

As grossed out as you are, realize that for whatever reason, I do my best thinking without pants. In fact, I've claimed publicly for quite some time now that if I could go back and do high school over again without my pants on, I probably would have ended up in Oxford. It's really best left for a debate in another blog. Just know that this is my view point and that this story is just another example of greatness without pants on from Kevin Shenoy.

As I sat in the bathroom thumbing through GQ, I noticed an ad that prominently showed "Win tickets on Cathay Pacific." In 2004, Montu Patel, a good friend, took me on a once in a lifetime trip to Hong Kong. He had us flown out on Continental. I thought their business class experience was divine. That was why Shell and I chose to fly Continental to Greece and Italy for our honeymoon. A few months after Montu and I went, Nandita, my sister, went to Hong Kong. She flew out on Cathay Pacific and told me how it was essentially the Willy Wonka chocolate factory for airplanes.

When I saw that ad, I thought, "I have to try to win these tickets." I wanted to know the beauty of the Cathay experience. So I looked at the ad carefully, and it said it was a Bombay Sapphire sweepstake. The contest asked, "What does exploration mean to you?" It asked for an essay of 50 words and that it be submitted online. So I switched from GQ to laptop and wrote what first came to my mind. 

I wrote, "exploration means putting aside your fears, your reservations and your desire for normal and status quo. It means taking a sip from the cup of life and rolling with the punches. And if the cup of life has Bombay Sapphire, then all the better."

I even remember thinking, "that's good. That's got to win something. Maybe not Grandprize worthy, but something." But that was it. I closed the laptop and flushed. I wouldn't think of this again until Oct 9, 2008.

Oct 9, 2008 - 10pm - I was sitting on the couch with the laptop after dinner; Shelly was sitting on the couch going through some of her stuff. We were just lazily unwinding from our day. I was checking the email account I have when I am asked to provide an email address from products or services. I also use it for my "One Fan's View" mail box. I check it regularly enough, but it's not my main account. It's binaural02@hotmail.com

I had just posted my Billszone.com article about the horrible loss to the Cardinals and was checking the fan responses.  I decided to check the junk folder email as well since it had been awhile. 

In that folder I saw, "Bombay Sapphire Spirit of Exploration from Alex S." in the subject and To: headings, respectively. It clicked immediately that I had done something with Bombay Sapphire awhile ago. So I opened it. It said, "You are the grand prize winner, but I need to hear from you by tomorrow. This is your third and final notice."

Now think of the circumstances. It was in my junk folder of my junk email account. It said 3rd and final notice. It required that I answer quickly. It looked like every other scam email that I get in the binaural02 account.Yet in the back of my mind I thought, "but I did something with Bombay Sapphire." I was confused. 

So I showed Shell the laptop and she said, "well, if you did something with them follow up. What's the harm?" The email did have the guy's contact information. He was New York City based, he had a company url which took me to a very corporate looking ad agency. So i agreed. I should follow up with this tomorrow. I was getting excited, but I didn't believe it at all. 

October 10, 2008 - 3pm - I had a busy Friday at work and went down to the gym to work out. As I was walking back to my desk I remembered, "Oh Sh*t, I have to call that guy about the Bombay Sapphire trip." It was 3pm.

I got to my desk and called the guy, Alex S. He was really nice and super laid back. He didn't have the voice of a huckster. He didn't sound like he was a scam artist. But Kevin, that's the scam. These guys are good. 

Kevin: Hello, Alex? This is Kevin Shenoy.

Alex: Great to hear from you. You won a trip to thailand.

Kevin: Is this a joke?

Alex: No, it's totally legitimate. 

Alex now proceeds to read the official rules and regulations of the trip. 

Alex:...11 day trip to Morocco, Spain and thailand with a film crew......dates of travel must be taken by Sept 15, 2008.....

Kevin: Wait, the 15th passed. And what is the film crew all about.

Alex: you know what, this isn't really clear.

Kevin: Is this a scam? This doesn't sound real.

Alex: No, it's real. Do you want me to read you your submission?

Kevin: Yes.

Alex:

Kevin:<> But why Morocco, Spain and Thailand. And what is with the film crew.

Alex: Like I said, this isn't exactly clear. What happened was Bombay Sapphire put together the contest and had to evaluate what they thought was a winning response. They got more responses than they expected, and it took more time than they thought. They are actually behind in terms of the official rules. So I'll have to go back to them and find out what this is all about. We're just the 3rd party marketing arm. 

Kevin: Cool. Let me know what has to happen.

Alex: Well, I just needed to hear from you. So I heard from you. It's official. You won. I just need you to fill out two forms. One is a release that says you are over 21 and the second is the tax form that you need for tax purposes. Take your time with them. Look them over and get them back to me when you feel comfortable.

At that point, I believed it was legit, but I didn't want to say anything to friends. I called Shell immediately and said, "That thing we talked about last night. It seems to be real. but let's not tell anyone anything. I want to run this by some people and get the trip in our hands. Then we'll let people know." Shelly agreed and was just as excited as I was. Maybe even more. 

Later that night Shelly's facebook status was going to be, "Shelly and Kevin have a surprise for everyone." We talked it over and agreed that it sounded like we were waiting to announce we were pregnant. So her message read, "Shelly and Kevin have a surprise for everyone...and we are NOT pregnant."

Oct 9 11:30pm - We just had come back from a movie and ran to Pam and Paris' apartment. Paris is a lawyer and reviewed the documents Alex sent to us. He agreed, "if you submitted to their website, then all these documents look very legitimate. You aren't really giving them too much information. It's a very low risk at this point that its a scam. If he read you your submission, then it sounds good."

The only problem was that I didn't know if maybe I was making it all up in my head to justify that I won. Maybe this was the new step of diabolical internet scamming. Tell you something that you wrote and 80% of people just agree. But "sipping from the cup of life" seemed so familar. It sounded like something I would write. I had wished badly that there was a way to look back and confirm I wrote that, but there was nothing I could do. 

Paris's approval made this all the more real. But I was still left wanting to see the planning of the trip happen before I got excited. So I emailed Alex S that night and said, "I'll come down on Tuesday with my wife to submit the papers. I have a few questions."

October 14th 2008 - 1pm- Shell and I walked into Alex's office. It looked quaint but legit. It wasn't exactly the largest marketing firm in New York, but it wasn't a shoe box either.  Alex shook our hands and seemed like a cool 30-something just doing his job. He again told us that the trip details weren't clear, but that Bombay Sapphire has had contests like this in the past and Bacardi, the  Parent company, often times ran similar contests. He said it can get confusing. We asked if we could postpone the trip into 2009 as we were short on vacation days. 

He said it would be fine. 

I asked if I could get a copy of my submission. He agreed, he'd email it to me. 

We left the offices with our questions somewhat answered, but still open-ended. It was still really frustrating to not know the details of the trip. It was frustrating to not get to talk to a Bombay Sapphire representative. Shell and I walked out looking at each other like, "I guess it's ok. I guess we won. Let's tell people."

We immediately changed our Facebook status's to "we won a trip from Bombay Sapphire." But I remained worried. 

November - December 2008 - The dialogue with Alex S. had been limited. He had confirmed that Bombay was ok with us going in 2009. He told us that there was no camera crew and that it was just 7 days in Bangkok. This made more sense as the website of Bombay Sapphire is a picture of Bangkok's famous Sky bar. There is no mention of Morocco or Spain on the website. However, he could not get us a Bombay Sapphire person to contact us to get the trip. The two times i emailed him, he said that the Bombay Sapphire people had been busy but were suppose to call soon.  They wouldn't ever call me. Finally, in early December, he emailed me saying that Kervin Y. of Explorient Travel would contact me to set stuff up. 

Getting anxious about the contest's validity, having a world economy meltdown, working at a company that had come to a virtual standstill, and wanting to be on a cool vacation all pushed me to google Explorient. I found their number and called looking for Kervin. He knew who I was and told me he just had to talk to the bombay Sapphire people. 

Within 3 hours, he called back saying, "ok, the dates you wanted are fine. If you want to extend your trip on your dime but fly back for free, that's ok with them."

At that point, Shell and I talked about Thailand in every detail, figured out where we wanted go while we were on that side of the world and got back to Kervin within a week of what our final itinerary would be. We debated about going to India since we have friends out there and we really want to see the Taj. Shell loves traveling and somehow always feels like each trip will be our last. So she likes to do as much as possible. It's very cute and endearing. Like a puppy who thinks their owner won't return when they seem him/her walk out the front door. 

The more we talked about it to each other and with other people, it seemed like we'd be rushing two great trips into one by going to India. We also have family on my side that we'd have to see. It would be expensive and exhausting. 

Traveling to another island within Thailand became a great idea. Thanks to Political unrest in Thailand, Hotels and airfare came ultra cheap.  For the cost of taking a 7 day vacation in Ft. Lauderdale, we'll be spending our time at Koh Samui at a 5 star resort. Friends who had been all raved about Phuket and Koh Samui. So we kept reading stuff and pulled the trigger on Koh Samui.

Conclusion - So that's how we got this trip. It's pretty awesome so far. The high of winning, the worries of if it was legit or not has been really taxing. Of course the airfare is economy. The first flight is 16 hours from NY to Hong Kong. I'm trying my hardest to get into business class, but we can't. Out tickets are a special class of ticket that can't use miles to upgrade you. The cost to just upgrade is outrageous. They want $8000 per person. You figure those tickets are about $1000 per person and now they want an additional $16,000. Why not just ask for two unicorns and the holy grail?

I find it pathetic that bankers could mess up every bank in the world, that politicians can sell seats, that Bernie Madoff could steal $50BN from people, and that the auto industry is failing but the same guys stay in charge. Yet somehow, I can't find a single loophole to get my specific class of ticket upgraded from the 3 different airlines that I have miles with. 

But I am excited for the trip. I can't wait to write about all the stuff we got to see and eat. I'm most excited about getting some more tailor made clothes. 

The only worry we have is that Shelly and I have been watching a show on NatGeo called, "locked up abroad." There are people who are locked up or captured and you see their story. There have been a couple on Thailand, but most of them are from people who tried smuggling drugs. I get angry at my dad when he smuggles nuts into a football stadium. So i think we're ok on that front. However, we saw "Brokedown Palace" with Claire danes, and it freaked me out. I can't wait to go to Thailand, but most importantly, I'd like to come hom.

With that all said, my only thoughts until January 13th is, "Thailand, here we come!!!"