I probably owe you all an apology, because for the last five days I’ve been sunning myself in Thailand with the PANDORA team and flaunting the blissful settings on Instagram. I hope it wasn’t too torturous for you!

PANDORA’s slogan is “unforgettable moments” and they certainly delivered those in endless supply throughout our stay. We met at Heathrow airport on Tuesday evening, last week, and flew into Bangkok overnight with Thai Airways. The 12 hour flight flew by (quite literally) and before we knew it we were checking into the “best hotel in the world”.

Get the full scoop on the entire trip below – from the incredible tour of PANDORA’s factories to all the delicious food we devoured…

The Hotel:

Last year the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok was voted the best hotel in the world by The Sunday Times Travel Magazine. So, never one to do things by halves, PANDORA booked us all in for a luxurious stay. We spent our time lounging by the pool, enjoying leisurely room service breakfasts and visiting the tranquil spa, which was a short boat ride away. Pure bliss!

The Factory:

On Thursday morning we travelled to the outskirts of Bangkok to visit Gemopolis, where PANDORA’s factories are based. I’ve always found jewellery design fascinating, so it was a real treat to witness every step that goes into making a piece of PANDORA. And, let me tell you, it’s a long process. Each PANDORA design goes through at least 12 different departments – from ‘treeing’ to polishing – and is hand-finished by specially trained craftsmen and women.

They now have a team of almost 8,000 people working in Thailand, and although that is an insane amount of people it still manages to feel like a community. There are staff portraits hanging in every corridor, they take annual day trips together (last year 3,000 PANDORA employees all crowded onto a Thai beach for some downtime), and there’s even a “PANDORA’s Got Talent” contest staged on lunch breaks.

When we met with Thomas Nyborg, PANDORA’s Senior Vice President of Group Manufacturing, he explained that the company has always been about the people – which is why they’re so thrilled to have won the Employer of the Year at the Jewellery News Asia Awards 2014. “We have three key company values: pride, passion and performance. And when I say pride it’s not as in proud, but inner pride. We model our team on the lion pride and I’ve actually been to Africa as part of my leadership development to study a lion pride. Can you imagine that? Which company does that for you, right?”

“The lion pride is the world’s most effective team and it has no hierarchy. They all have roles – the male protects the territory and the females hunt. And when they hunt they divide the job by whoever is the expert at hunting that animal, and that lion will have the lead at that moment. The equivalent for us here is that everybody has a moment of glory; we have this clock of importance. At 4.30 in the morning it’s the people who buy the food for the canteens who are the unsung heroes; at 6 o’clock it’s the people who drive our 60 buses to get people to work; at 7 it’s the cleaning team; at 12.45 it’s the clerks in the accounting department who do the payroll. At that moment they are the most important people in the whole company. Everyone has their moment of glory.”

Inspiring stuff, I think you’ll agree!

The Food:

On our first night we ate at Lord Jim’s which is stationed inside the Mandarin Oriental. The amazing fish tank in the entrance reminded me of my favourite scene from Romeo Juliet – it was so beautiful. I tucked into roasted sea bass with gnocchi which was delicious. And on our second and final evening in Bangkok we drove over to the Banyan Tree hotel to eat at their rooftop bar – 65 storeys above the city! The view was incredible, if a little bit scary! I ate roasted salmon and an indulgent berry tart.

The morning after our Banyan Tree visit we headed back to the airport and jetted over to Koh Samui, Thailand’s second-largest island. More on that coming soon…

Coco’s Tea Party was a guest of PANDORA in Thailand and this is not a sponsored post.

Photos taken on the Olympus Pen E-P5 (minus the factory tour photos, which are courtesy of Pandora). Coco’s Tea Party is an ambassador for Olympus.

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