My first visit to Chonburi was almost exactly a year ago, covering the Asian Youth Trophy (ACT) 2013 match between the home side Chonburi FC against Frenz United B.
At the time I was still the editor of the Dunia Sukan magazine.
Last Sunday I found myself travelling to the tow 100 km southeast of Bangkok again for an assignment which almost mirrored the one that I carried out last year.
However this time, I was travelling for asiana.my which had been engaged by the ACT organiser as their official photographer for the tournament.
Air Asia was still the official airline for the tournament and I departed to Bangkok's Dong Meuang Airport with the rest of the media group and after an hour journey arrived at the Chon Inter, the same hotel that I stayed last year.
Then I found out that the senior side were playing that night against Thai Port Authority in a Thai Premier League match at their stadium. It was an opportunity that did not come all the time, to capture the actions in the best league in South East Asia.
With a little assistance received from the home side I managed to get by the pitch side.
It was a fast and thrilling match in which the home side needed to win in order to continue their challenge for the league title.
They managed to take the lead on the hour mark but the visitors levelled not long after, thanks largely to a mistake by the home side goalkeeper.
It was a pleasure for me to be able to cover a match in another league which gave me the insight on how much better the organisation of the match-day operation at the club than the one we encounter in most local matches.
The next day it was the match that I was assigned for with Harimau Muda C taking on the host Chonburi for a place in the final.
The Thai youngsters who were trailing 3-1 after their first leg defeat did not put much fight after the Malaysians scored their first goal of the night and went down 3-0 for the Young Tigers to go through on a 6-1 aggregate win.
The next day there were talks that we would have the time to go around Bangkok before catching the flight back home.
Unfortunately the hope went up in smoke when the driver pulled into a familiar looking building along the way to the airport, an IKEA store!
Well, taking the infamous Bangkok gridlock into account it was perhaps a good decision as we need to catch our flight back home soon after.
I had been to Thailand twice now but still to visit the country's capital, Bangkok.
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