April Contrautimes

Inspirational Travel 1

THE CON TRÂU TIMESIssue 4 - April - 2012

2 Inspirational Travel

THE CON TRÂU TIMES

Table of ContentsPublisher

Hr Department

DesignerBui Minh Tan

Staff WritersTruc NguyenHai Nguyen

PinkyHijaaz LatheefLuon Pheany

EditorBev TaylorRay Petts

PhotographyHoang Hai

Customers’s contributionPaul Dunleavey

Staff of the monthEvents1. Have you ever visited in Sangklaburi?2. The Mai Chau Lodge’s staff teambuilding3. Happy weekend with CB Club4. Happy New Year in Cambodia5. Green Office in Sai Gon

Guest feedbackVacanciesTips6. Make your cube a better place to workBirthday and anniversaries7.List of May birthdays

Credits


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Staff of the month MS. Vu Lan PhuonG

oPEraTion ExECuTiVEStarting with BT officially in Aug 2011, Phuong has always delivered

a high standard of work and has ensured Flight Centre clients receive a high quality service. Phuong is considered as a real buddy to the FC

team and receives excellent feedback from the team regarding her level of work and cooperation.

MS. Trinh Minh hao onLinE SaLES ExECuTiVE

Outstanding feedbacks from clients regarding Hao’s professionalism, enthusiasm, good customer service and problem solving skills

Hao met her targets for both New Sales and Travel Date in Feb and Mar

People are our most valuable resource!Nominate someone you think deserves recognition – someone who

truly shines!


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We’re confident that many people never been to Sangklaburi or don’t even know where it is or in which part of Thailand?

Buffalo Tours Bangkok office’s recently visited Sangkla-buri as an inspection trip consisting of 9 staff with the following breakdown. Hayo & Noi from the Fox team. Mod & Pinky from Sales, the Purchasing Team of Mee Mee & Tum, the Operations Team of Mattie & Pou plus Marijn our Intern

We started from Bangkok in the early morning due as it was a long 5 hour journey heading west in the direc-tion of the Burma border.

Sangkhlaburi is one of district of Kanchanaburi province where is best known for World War II’s back-ground. On the way we did inspections at some hotels, restaurants and new attractions. First we stopped to inspect Mida Resort and we were delighted at the hotels natural beauty. Located less than three hours from Bangkok the resort is situated near downtown Kanchanaburi and the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.

After enjoy a delicious lunch, we drove to Sangkhaburi. We were surprised by elegant scenery. The floating House on the Songkaria River has a mountainous back-ground like a painting.

We felt that we arrived in Sangkhlaburi because we saw local people who were in traditional dress and powdered their face similar to what they do in Burma.

Sangkhlaburi borders to Burma at Three Pagodas Pass to Muang Phya Tong Sue which is the commercial area of Myanmar and famous for wooden furniture.

Next destination is Saphan Mon. It is also called “Saphan Uttamanuson” This is the longest wooden bridge in Thailand with a length of 445 meters cross-ing Huai Song Ka Lai where people in Sangkhlaburi and Mon Village travel back and forth.

This place is another great sight – seeing point of Vajiralongkorn Dam where many creeks; Song Ka Lai, Bi Khli and Ran Ti, meet together leading to “Sam Prasop”. We had a chance to meet and greet from little boy local guide to tell history of bridge (It was pity that he couldn’t speak English). We were smile with lovely and

Have you ever visitedin Sangklaburi?


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kindly host. He can be a tour guide and tell story from his grandparents or parents’ saying.

We arrived at P. Guest House the accommodation for this trip. P. Guest House & Country Resort is a fusion of boutique resort mixed with wild blend eco style. It is located in the edge of the Lake at Srinakarin Dam.

Next day, some of participants got up early to offer food to monk which is the local people’s routine in the morning and the Buddhist way life. You can buy set of Monk food offering according to your preferred, price of set between 20 – 200 Baht.

Mon’s Buddhist will knee and pay homage before of-fer food. It is worshipful and faithful a long time from generation to generation. After that relaxed with fresh air and drank coffee and tea in local shop. Then, visit Chedi Buddhakhaya (the huge golden chedi) and Wat Wang Wiwekaram. The Wat was built by the late Abbot Uttama, who was one of the most important Monks in Thailand, and is still highly revered in the Mon com-munity.

Next was time for adventure and we looked forward to taking a boat trip to visit Wat Saam Prasob (The Sunken Temple) The sunken wat is the last remaining vestige of the old town flooded for the creation of Khao Laem Reservoir and the top 1-2 meters of the Temple is in view in September.

Next was the elephant camp. We sat in local truck on dirt road and red earth and passed the small Mon community – Kong Mong Ta Village. We enjoyed a 60 minutes elephant ride on a natural seat without belt or you could sit on elephant neck, and command them to walk like a mahout.

After lunch we travelled 20 minutes to the bamboo rafting centre where 2-3 persons per raft stand for 60 minutes for travelling downstream.

This is one of the activities which can help you relax and enjoy your life through screaming and laughing. While rafting, we were able to swim and cool down. We then visited Weaving for Women, the shop is run by Daisy Dwe, who fled Burma and has settled in Sang-khlaburi to help other refugees. Products are excellent and money goes towards a great cause. On the way back, we dropped off to visit Three Pagodas Pass and the border market (and, if the border’s open, cross over to Payathonzu, on the Myanmar side of the border).

On the way, we visited Kreongkrawia Waterfall – it’s near main road and it use for tourist drop before con-tinue drive to next destinations. Finally, we reached our purpose and mission complete!!!

It was unbelievable that we could fall in love with this district easily. We are waiting for your turn to visit Sang-khaburi

P.S. Thank you all of participants who cooperate and have a great trip together.

“By Pinky- Thailand Sales Executive”


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The staff at the Mai Chau Lodge enjoyed undertaking various fun and challenging team building activities to promote and learn about working as a team. Throughout the day they participated in a number of games

aimed at pushing not only their physical ability, but also their mental power as a team. By overcoming tricky obstacles such as a giant spider web, they learnt an important lesson about working together to reach a common goal; which they can use not only in their working environment, but at home and in public as well.

The event was organized by the Mai Chau Lodge Sports and Welfare Association, and was coordinated by Ruth Davies, Hijaaz Latheef and Dang Duc Hoa. This was the first team building event for many of the staff,

and they were excited and enthusiastic to participate.

All the staff showed unity by wearing the Mai Chau Lodge polo shirts. The Mai Chao Lodge team was completed by the involvement of Sales Manager M Ha, Chief accountant Mr Truong and Operations Manager Mr Hoa who all keenly took part in all the activities and brought the team together.

staff teambuildingThe Mai Chau Lodge s


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The day’s event, started in the Mo Luong cave with a group sing-along to the Mai Chau team song, followed by group meditation and a speech by the Jetwing Indochina CEO Mr.Kumar Senaratne on the importance and implications of good team work. The cool condi-tions and open spaces of the cave created the perfect conditions for many of the planned activities, which in-cluded; ‘Finding the candy’, ‘Balloon tower’ and ‘Banana game’. The staff were divided into 5 teams, named after local villages; Poom Coong, Vang, Chieng Chau, Chieng Sai and Mo Luong. Before each activity the teams ap-pointed a team leader and were given time to plan. The games were scored based on team work, leadership and enthusiasm; the winning and runner-up teams were promised a great reward.

After a long lunch break, everyone rejuvenated by showing off their best dance moves in a group dance

competition, followed by a quick group massage which complete the rest of the day’s activities. Each activity was followed by a short speech by Mr Kumar who ex-plained the lessons learnt from each activity and how it can be applied to the work place.

The day ended with a group pyramid, an award cer-emony and group photo, and of course a trip to the local Bia Hoi! The organizers received positive feedback from the staff, and are keen to repeat the event in the future.

By: Hijaaz Latheef- General Manager Operations-JWI


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Happy weekend

with CB ClubOn Saturday afternoon, 14 April, Crazy Buffalo (CB) members organ-ised a small but mean-ingful out-door activity – called Paintball.

In the beginning, someone in my team said “ the pain was unbearable” but the most important thing is we had a great time shooting each other and share our happi-ness and laughs with each other.

We plan to have more out –door activities like this in near future, as it’s a great chance we show our team spirit, strengthen our solid-ity not only to CB Club members but also to extend to Jet Wing, Mai Chau, and Thien Minh Group staff as well.

“By Nguyen Hoang Hai – GR executive”


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All countries celebrate their own New Year every year. They set the time of celebrating according with their

belief, customs, and traditions. For Cambodian people we celebrate New Year since the ancient time over for 3 days, usually from 13th to 15th of April or during a time Khmer call “Khe Chet” which is best the time when people take a break from the hard work of harvesting rice.

During this time, everything is very expensive. The price can double the normal price for food, fruit, bus tick-ets etc. However people who work away from their village will go home to spend time with their parents, relatives and also go to pagoda or enjoy traditional games together. When the New Year comes, it means that we are one year older, we try to avoid the negative things and what happened in the past and look to the future.

Buffalo Tours Cambodia team celebrate New Year every year and also have a party with the staff and suppliers. There were 40 people who joined our party this year, they are office staff, freelance guides, drivers, and we were lucky to have Panya join us this year during his holidays. It was nice to all be together enjoy-ing the celebration and time to have fun with our friends and colleagues as we enjoyed a meal and drinking. Here in Cambodia the BT team is like one big family.

We wish our colleagues in the Vietna, Thai and Laos office a Happy New Year and wish them a lucky and successful year ahead.

By Luon Pheany (Ms Pheany,Operations Executive)

Happy New Year in Cambodia

Green


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Buffalo Saigon plants rice at our office. There are many recycled materials were used up in this time. We have yogurt cup, water bottle, Lipton box and even eggs of rice plant. It grows up every day and now taking green breath to each corner. Let see these photos, they will explain about rice growing in our office.

off in Saigon

Green


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Feedback on what our staff members have been doingDear Buffalo Tours,

I am not sure to whom I should address this email, but should appreciate it if you would make aware all those involved, both in London and in Vietnam, of our good wishes.

You arranged for my wife and I a holiday in Vietnam, reference 29413. We are now back home in England and want you to know that we enjoyed the holiday very much, and were most grateful for all the help given by the Buffalo Tours people, and by your agents.

May I thank the company for remembering my birthday, and for the generous present which we received from your company whilst aboard Prince 2 junk. We had never been to Vietnam before, and were struck by, amongst other things, the beauty of the country and the friendliness and generosity of its people. Mr Dunleavey


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3. Spanish intern: 01

requirements:• Student studying a degree or diploma in Tourism, Travel, Hospitality, Marketing or Business Management• Student studying for any degree or diploma and interested in pursuing careers in Travel & Tourism or Marketing• Native Spanish speaker• Fluent English• Online marketing and search engine optimisation skills• Computer skills including fluency in Microsoft Office

For detail job description, please visit our websites at: www.buffalotours.com and www.thienminhtravel.com

. assistant - hotel General Manager (Mai Chau based): 01Qualifications & skill requirements:• Graduate of a recognized hotel institute, having specialized in front office operations & sales, having knowledge of all areas of hotel operations• Computer literate• Good knowledge of English with writing skills & with knowl-edge of a European language such as French• Flair for Public relations & Customer care Experience:• 2 year in a similar position preferably in a resort operation

Desired Characteristics:• A young & energetic individual who likes to take up the chal-lenge & lead a team of young locals delivering a good service to customers • Looks into little details in making the operation different from the rest.• Creative individual who can suggest/introduce practical new ideas.

Qualifications & skill requirements:• Vietnamese• University graduate degree in tourism or hospitality • At-least 5 years of sales management experience, preferably in the field of tourism, hospitality or airlines • Fluent in English. Vietnamese and other languages a plus• Computer skills, including fluency in Microsoft Office • Excellent interpersonal skills across variety of cultures • Positive attitude, practical experience, with the ability to lead and motivate a team• Can work independently and with a team• Excellent sales and negotiation skills • Communication skills including reporting• Strong sense of customer service• Knowledge of destinations is an added value • Willing to work irregular and long hours in high season • Strong organizational skills, ability to work under pressure and prioritize tasks

2. Sale Manager – BTa hanoi: 01

Vacancies in Vietnam


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Place to WorkMake Your Cube a Better

Many people spend more time in their of-fice than they do in their bed. You deserve a comfortable workspace. Here are three ways to make your office a place where you can accom-plish your best work:

• Sit with your back protected. Research shows that people are more comfortable when their backs are not exposed. If your back is to an open space, pivot your chair and use a different section of your desk.

• Make adjustments. Solving small discom-forts—adding a light to your workspace or bringing in a small fan—will help you feel in control of your physical environment.

• Make it yours. People who personalize their spaces are happier at work. Put a family photo on your desk or hang up a poster of something important to you.

Harvard Business Review


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nguyen Van BachDo hoang Longnguyen Thi TamDao Thi huyennguyen Cao xuan Vinhnguyen Thi To uyenPorjai Chaiwongyartnguyen Quang huyPham ngoc Minhnguyen Trung CongSisaleo Thammathongsyhuynh nam Phuongnguyen To TranTaylor Beverleynguyen Thi Thanh hongDoan Thi Lan PhuongLo Thi Viet haGraham harpernguyen Thanh hoangTran Thi Minh TamTran Thi Bich hueVu Thuy Tu MiBui ngoc LinhDoan Thu hien

Tran Thu Trangnguyen Thi Mai Lan nguyen Thi Thu hienBui Minh Tanninh Thi hong hanhThammasak Busbongho Thi Thu ThuyVu Thuy Tu MiSucheera SasisuriyabhoomParintr Mateveravong

May 1stMay 2ndMay 2ndMay 2ndMay 3rdMay 5thMay 7thMay 7thMay 8thMay 10thMay 10thMay 11thMay 11thMay 12thMay 17thMay 20thMay 23rdMay 23rdMay 24thMay 26thMay 26thMay 26thMay 31stMay 31st

07 years in service04 years in service01 years in service03 years in service07 years in service02 years in service01 years in service02 years in service02 years in service02 years in service

French Team LeaderGerman SalesTicketing ExecutiveDesignerHR ManagerTeam Leader Fox Team BTA MKT ExecutiveOp ExecutiveReservations ExecutiveAirport Representatives

Legal AssistantDriverTour GuideAdmin & ReceptionistIT SupporterPurchasing ExecutiveBranch Manager Chieng MaiDriverTour guideCTO- Thien Minh Deputy DirectorReservation ExecutiveGuide – Cho LonTravel ConsultantMKT DirectorAccountantVETBTA Team LeaderVET Business DevelopmentDriverChinese Inbound SalesCEO AssistantOperation ExecutiveOnline MKT Team leaderAccount receivable

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