I was booked into the Centara Grand – my third visit to this hotel, same time every year for the same event, the Asia For Asia Summit, a one-day workshop on the meetings industry.

Each time, I am asked to fill in the guest registration form. Which I do dutifully. The staff are so earnest about it I don’t wish to make life difficult for them.

Driving up to the hotel, I saw what used to be the World Trade Centre shopping centre which was razed during those ugly nights when Bangkok burned.

A hoarding covers the ruins – there’s a big word on it. HOPE.

We do.

I am looking forward to a good shower – it’s been a long day. I headed straight to the airport after a day of meetings and I am feeling and looking the worse for wear.

Seeing those immaculately-groomed Singapore Girls on the flight makes me feel slightly worse but at least I know that if I got pregnant, I wouldn’t lose my job.

There’s been a lot of publicity lately about how the Singapore Girl has to quit flying after the first trimester of her pregnancy and she receives no maternity benefits unless she can secure a ground job, which is not that easy.

But change is on the way. Probably due to the publicity and feedback, the airline is now considering giving them a one-time ex-gratia payment when the baby arrives.

Feeling happy for the Singapore Girl, I arrive in Bangkok in a good mood. It got better when I was told that I was being upgraded to a deluxe suite.

The suite is a good size. Well laid-out. Big bed. Big bathroom. It’s the bath that stops me in my tracks. It’s the oddest shape bath I’ve ever seen – more like a giant wash basin.

I look for the shower. There isn’t one. That’s when I realise that basin-bath is it. Your all-in-one device. Bit like the iPad except it doesn’t do the phone thing that well.

I look for steps to get into the bath because the side is rather steep and the bottom of the bath is rather circular and could be slippery when wet. None. I think you’re meant to climb over and into and out of it in one smooth glide which you wouldn’t want to do in a sarong kebaya, pregnant or not.

This is what happens, I think, when a designer is allowed to create his dream bath and it turns into not such a good dream for operators and customers.

I do what I have to do and that night, I went to bed dreaming of Tweety Bird having a bath in his basin.

 Featured image credit : http://www.panoramio.com