I just got back from India and wanted to tell you all about this incredible experience…

The days leading up to trip, I was filled with excitement as it was my first international trip as Miss Supranational. I left Bangkok on the Tuesday the 18th in the evening and to be honest I did not not know what to expect. As many of you know, I was born in Thailand but my parents lived in Mumbai at the time. This is where I spent the first few years of my life, so I guess it was sort of a homecoming… even though I don’t have any real memories from the time I lived there.

We arrived in India after midnight and by the time we got through immigration, it was already after 1 am. I was greeted by Suparna, the Miss Diva Organization and some members of the media. The first thing that struck me was the warmth and energy of the people. It made me feel right at home.

By the time, we got to our home for the next few days, the Sahara Star Hotel, it was already 2am and again I was greeted with the warmest welcome. They gave me a traditional Indian welcome with a “tikka” and flowers. I was so excited to be there.

The next day we had the honor of having lunch with the MD of the Times Group, Mr. Vineet Jain, and the national director, Ms. Natasha Grover. It was such a great experience and the food was out of this world. Ms. Natasha took us to the offices of the Times Group where we got to meet all the fantastic people who work so hard to make this event happen. While we were there, we also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Rohit Gopakumar. Once again, it was the warmth of the people that made me feel right at home. We spent the evening with Mr. Rohit and Ms. Natasha and I was already having the most amazing time in India.

On Thursday, it was an early start as it was the day of the personal interviews for the 20 beautiful and accomplished Miss Diva finalists. We spent about 4 hours interviewing the girls. I also got to meet Asha Bhat, Miss Supranational 2014 here and I was just blown away by her beauty, intelligence, grace and humble nature. She is currently working on her second movie and yet she has her feet firmly on the ground. I’m so happy that I have her as a sister queen and her advice meant the world to me.

That afternoon I had so many interviews for different kinds of media portals and it was an incredible experience. I also had my first radio interview ever and had so much fun doing it. Honestly, up to this point, this trip already exceeded my wildest expectations.

It got even better… that evening the organization showed up with four bags of gowns for me to choose from for the final night. My Indian dress dream came true and I picked a gorgeous lehenga by Shantanu and Nikhil! The excitement levels were getting really high.

At 2am, I was woken up by a call from my manager Andre, who said he had to tell me something. When I opened the door, there was another surprise… Mister Supranational 2018, Prathamesh Maulingkar, had flown in from Goa to come and surprise us. I love this about the Supra Family… everyone is always so happy to see each other and we love surprises and spending time together. It’s really like a family!

Part 2 coming up soon…