Last impressions...

Below you can see an image from my last day in Sanambin school... Aren't the students lovely? I'm surely miss them a lot...

 

Teaching in Khon Kaen is Over

This week I finished my teaching in Khon Kaen. It was a great and very interesting time. I had a great luck with the school, the teachers, the classes and mostly with the host teacher in Khon Kaen. All of them were very kind to me and supported me as much as possible.

Sanambin school, where I was teaching, is a huge school with about 3200 students. They have students of all levels, from kindergarten to high school. I was teaching Pratom 3-6, which is 3rd - 6th class of elementary school English. My favorite class was the 4th class, since they were very active and interested kids.

Teaching English is a very difficult subject, from different point of views. On one side it was very hard, since I speak only very basic Thai and some English teacher don't speak English at all and couldn't translate to Thai. So it was very hard to explain basic sentence structures and grammar. One aspect is the fact, that many students don't like English as a language, because they have been only taught in grammar and this isn't fun at all. An other point is the fact, that classes are not divided by student performance which is very bad. In one class you can get all kind of students - good students and students who even can't read a simple sentence although they had English for six years! This makes it very difficult to teach.

The school has two weeks off and I'm developing open source

As many of you might know, I like open source a lot and I support it as good as I can.

I believe very much in the idea of open source and I use my free time to develop open source myself.

This week I just finished a new Eclipse help plugin for eclipse-tutorial.dev.java.net. I posted something in my software blog: http://tomionsoftware.blogspot.com/

Enjoy :)

Trip to Nongkhai

After my first week in Khon Kaen, my host teacher and a second teacher from the school, took my for a trip to Nongkhai.

Nongkhai is at the border to Laos and it's a very beautiful and as well very quiet place.

First we had a look at an old temple beside the Maekong river. The temple is built upon three huge stones and the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable.



After the sight seeing at the temple we went for lunch just beside the Maekong river and the view was great. The river is huge and flows quietly but certainly down the valley.

If you would like to make a trip to Laos and would like to have Thailand as a base, Nongkhai is a good place to stay.

Sanambin School in Khon Kaen

I stay in Khon Kaen for more than two weeks now and I'm teaching English for kids at Sanambin school. Sanambin translated is airport in Thai; the school is not near the Khon Kaen airport, but during World War II, there was an airport where the school is now. So they called the school "airport school" :) Maybe I didn't get the story right, but if you know the right story, just leave me a comment and I'll correct it.

The teaching is a lot of fun and it's nice to see the kids studying. The school is huge, there are about 3200 students and the classrooms are crowded. In the classrooms there are between 50 und 60 students. The teachers have to use microphones, so the students will hear them.

It took me a few days to get used to the microphone and now it's fine. If you have to teach 60 kids, you'll appreciate the microphone - once the microphone didn't work and the day after my voice was very croaky.

The students are very cute, when I walk in the schoolyard often the students come to me and wai me (wai is a traditional Thai greeting). Some even try to speak English and usually the conversation ends, when I ask them a question and they don't understand it. Sometimes they like to talk in Thai with me and they are shocked, when I answer in Thai too ;) usually it's funny for them, when a western teacher speaks Thai.

English Camp near Siseket

The first activity with Volunthai was an English Camp near Siseket. The English Camp took place in a small village.

It's a very poor village and the farmers in the village earn about 3US$ a day. If you consider, that they work about 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, this is not too much.

It was very nice to see, how the kids enjoyed the English Camp. I have posted a few pictures below :)



You can see all the pictures here :)

Enjoy!

Volunthai quarter in Korat

Right now I'm already in Khon Kaen and started to teach as a volunteer at the Sanambin school. I'm a bit behind with all my pictures I made and what I would like to write, so please have a look at my personal website for the first pictures...

I promise I'll write more about my current activities during the next few days :)

Check out the first pictures of the Volunthai quarter in Korat...

Is There Justice?

A few days ago I visited the Human Development Foundation (HDF) which is a non-profit organization, helping poor, abused and sick (HIV/AIDS) children.


The organization is lead by a catholic priest but there is no proselytization of the children. Beside this they have Christian, Jews, Buddhist and Muslim supporting the organization.

While I was there I was wondering, if we can expect justice from life in general. If you see a two year old child, already infected with HIV/AIDS, somehow this question comes up, if you like it or not. I think we can't and more important we don't have to. The thought of expecting justice from life is childish and has nothing to do with nature. Nature don't have to and isn't righteous - for what?

I think the problem starts with the expectation. We don't have to expect anything, because through the expectation we will attach feelings and if our expectations aren't fulfilled, we are disappointed. Although I know, I won't be able to live with no expectations at all, I think I should try.

If we believe in justice and if we believe in the right thing - what ever this might be - we can only achieve that by doing it ourselves. There is no justice in general but everyone of us, can do the right think in the very moment.

If we can understand why we are doing certain things, if we understand the motivation behind our actions, we can be righteous. But this is probably a theoretical approach, since we won't be able to understand our actions completely, hence our self-influence is very limited.

Bangkok Buildings

A few days ago I made a trip through Bangkok mainly for photographing some buildings. I created an album of the pictures on my personal website, you can see the album here.

I made the trip with one of the motorbike taxi drivers, below you can see a picture of him


I added you a few picutres from the collection :) enojoy!

River Cruise in Bangkok

I made a river cruise lately with a colleague and it was very nice. Below you can see a typical impression, while making a river cruise.


I made a few pictures available on my personal website, have a look here!

While cruising the river, there are many different impressions and some of them make you think a lot. The water of the river is very dirty and than you'll see many people swimming, bathing and even brushing there teeth in there. Surely it's not the most healthy thing to do, but I guess, if you don't have somewhere else to go, you won't think about that.

If you stay in Bangkok and you have a look at non-typical tourist places, you'll find out, that one of the main properties of Bangkok, are the contrasts. For me it's still very surprising, that it is possible to have so big contrasts in such a small place. The difference between the very poor and the very rich is huge and they just live one beside the other.

I don't understand, how this is possible and why there is no kind of "revolution", but maybe this is Buddhism...

No work, no food

In Thailand people often use the phrase: no work, now food (mai mee ngaan, mai mee gin - ไม่มีงาน ไม่มีกิน). This phrase reflects a lot of the attitude of the people and there point of view about there daily work and life.

In Thailand people appreciate it, when they have work and they proud about it. For most people, work still means, that they'll be able to feed there family and buy the most important things they need for there daily life.

What is the purpose of work anyway? I think most people in the west forgot, why they work. I believe the main purpose of work is, that we are able to exist. If we don't eat and drink, we can't exist. Our body is (from a very simple point of view) like an engine, if there is no energy for the engine, it'll stop working. If we work, we are able to afford our life. This might sound strange, but isn't it like this?

I consider myself a very lucky person, since I grew up in a loving family and in a very well developed and rich country. But growing up in a very well developed and rich country can be a handicap too. In Switzerland many people don't learn to appriciate the most basic things and they think everything they have, is how it has to be. Most people in Switzerland don't have to deal with the question, if all there children will go to bed with a meal. Since people don't face this situations, there daily life reflects on there attitude in a different way.

So basically in Thailand it's not important if someone works for McDonald's, cooks in a street kitchen or is a taxi driver. The fact, that someone is working and is able to take care of him or herself and the family pays the tribute to the community.

I think most of the people in Switzerland would be able to learn a lot about attitude, if they would come here and spend some time with open eyes. I'm not talking about vacation, so there won't be a misunderstanding ;)

If you read so far, I'm very interested in your point of view... Thanks!

Teaching in Khon Kaen

Next month I'll go to Khon Kaen for two months and I'll join a local school to teach children English.

So far I never been in Isan, the north-east of Thailand. I'm very curious how it looks like and how the people are - the Isan People in Bangkok are very nice, kind and humble. I'm sure in Khon Kaen, they'll be no different :)

The Name Bangkok (Krung Thep)

Unless talking to foreigners who don't know any different, Thais will never call their capital city Bangkok - indeed, some Thais in the more remote provinces may never have even heard of it being called that. Instead in Thai it is known as Krung Thep (กรุงเทพ), which roughly translates to 'City of Angels'.

Krung Thep is an abbreviated version of the ceremonial full name, which is shown below.

กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์

In English:

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

The full version of this article can be found here: Krung Thep, the full name.

Thai Baht

The baht (บาท, symbol ฿, ISO 4217 code THB) is the official currency of Thailand. The issuance of currency is the responsibility of the Bank of Thailand... [Read more]

Below you can see all the available banknotes:






The exchange rates, can be seen here:

• RatesFX

Although many things are very cheap in Thailand - for European, American and Japanese people - you can spend in Bangkok easy as much as in Zurich.

Vacation in Phuket

After a few weeks of a lot of work - you might have recognized, that there were no new entries in the blog - I finally had some time for a vacation in Phuket.

A good friend of mine from Switzerland is visiting Thailand and we spent the last week together in Phuket.


Below you can see some pictures from the trip and you might get a little impression from Phuket.




If you would like to see all the pictures, have a look at my website:

• http://www.tomi.ch/reisen/thailand2005/phuket

Enjoy :-)

Visa Run August 2005

Last week I had to go for another Visa run to Cambodia. It's strange how impressions changes within such a short time... The first time I've been here, I was shocked! I couldn't believe the big gap between these poor people and the casinos just near by. This time I tried not to attach to many feelings and it was much better...

It was very good to see, that these people were laughing most of the time and they might didn't feel as bad about there situation as someone seeing this big difference...

Muay Thai

The last weekend I went to a Muay Thai fight in a small, nearby stadium. The place was completely crowded and packed.

When the two fighters entered the stadium it was very quiet. I had the impression, that only very few people paid attention to the fighters and it seemed, that they all come for some other reason.

The coaches made the fighters ready for the fight and talked to them all the time. I guess this was a kind of "your are the best fighter in the world, my son" speeches ;-) After they entered the ring, there was a traditional fighter dance (I don't know how to call it) and it was very quiet in the stadium.


After the action started. The two fighters first had a look at each other and started very slow. Their punches and kicks were very slow and it looked like slow-motion. After a while the fight got really intense and the crowed started to yell, every time one of the fighters made a good punch or kick. While they were fighting the people in the stadium placed there bets and it was amazing to see, how fast the bookkeepers kept up with all the screamed numbers.


After one hour I had enough and I wanted to get out, but this took me more than 20 minutes, since people were everywhere! It was really unbelievable and if you ever have a chance to go to a fight, do it! :-)

Provinces of Thailand

Thailand is divided into 76 provinces (Thai: จังหวัด, changwat, singular and plural), which are grouped into 5 groups of provinces. The name of the province is the same as that of the capital city, which is sometimes preceded with a Mueang (or Muang) to avoid confusion with the province.

North

• Chiang Mai (เชียงใหม่)
• Chiang Rai (เชียงราย)
• Kamphaeng Phet (กำแพงเพชร)
• Lampang (ลำปาง)
• Lamphun (ลำพูน)
• Mae Hong Son (แม่ฮ่องสอน)
• Nakhon Sawan (นครสวรรค์)
• Nan (น่าน)
• Phayao (พะเยา)
• Phetchabun (เพชรบูรณ์)
• Phichit (พิจิตร)
• Phitsanulok (พิษณุโลก)
• Phrae (แพร่)
• Sukhothai (สุโขทัย)
• Tak (ตาก)
• Uthai Thani (อุทัยธานี)
• Uttaradit (อุตรดิตถ์)

Central

• Ang Thong (อ่างทอง)
• Ayutthaya (พระนครศรีอยุธยา)
• Bangkok (กรุงเทพฯ)
• Chainat (ชัยนาท)
• Kanchanaburi (กาญจนบุรี)
• Lopburi (ลพบุรี)
• Nakhon Nayok (นครนายก)
• Nakhon Pathom (นครปฐม)
• Nonthaburi (นนทบุรี)
• Pathum Thani (ปทุมธานี)
• Phetchaburi (เพชรบุรี)
• Prachuap Khiri Khan (ประจวบคีรีขันธ์)
• Ratchaburi (ราชบุรี)
• Samut Prakan (สมุทรปราการ)
• Samut Sakhon (สมุทรสาคร)
• Samut Songkhram (สมุทรสงคราม)
• Saraburi (สระบุรี)
• Sing Buri (สิงห์บุรี)
• Suphanburi (สุพรรณบุรี)

North-East

• Amnat Charoen (อำนาจเจริญ)
• Buri Ram (บุรีรัมย์)
• Chaiyaphum (ชัยภูมิ)
• Kalasin (กาฬสินธุ์)
• Khon Kaen (ขอนแก่น)
• Loei (เลย)
• Maha Sarakham (มหาสารคาม)
• Mukdahan (มุกดาหาร)
• Nakhon Phanom (นครพนม)
• Nakhon Ratchasima (นครราชสีมา)
• Nongbua Lamphu (หนองบัวลำภู)
• Nong Khai (หนองคาย)
• Roi Et (ร้อยเอ็ด)
• Sakon Nakhon (สกลนคร)
• Si Sa Ket (ศรีสะเกษ)
• Surin (สุรินทร์)
• Ubon Ratchathani (อุบลราชธานี)
• Udon Thani (อุดรธานี)
• Yasothon (ยโสธร)

East

• Chachoengsao (ฉะเชิงเทรา)
• Chanthaburi (จันทบุรี)
• Chonburi (ชลบุรี)
• Prachinburi (ปราจีนบุรี)
• Rayong (ระนอง)
• Sa Kaeo (สระแก้ว)
• Trat (ตราด)

South

• Chumphon (ชุมพร)
• Krabi (กระบี่)
• Nakhon Si Thammarat (นครศรีธรรมราช)
• Narathiwat (นราธิวาส)
• Pattani (ปัตตานี)
• Phang Nga (พังงา)
• Phattalung (พัทลุง)
• Phuket (ภูเก็ต)
• Ranong (ระนอง)
• Satun (สตูล)
• Songkhla (สงขลา)
• Surat Thani (สุราษฎร์ธานี)
• Trang (ตรัง)
• Yala (ยะลา)

To get a complete overview, please have a look at Provinces of Thailand; From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

What is the area and the population of Thailand?

I was wondering how big Thailand is and how many people are living here. I checked the CIA World Factbook and found the following numbers. I added some other countries, so you'll be able to compare it.

Thailand

Area: 514,000 sq km
Population: 65,444,371

Switzerland

Area: 41,290 sq km
Population: 7,489,370

Germany

Area: 357,021 sq km
Population: 82,431,390

Israel

Area: 20,770 sq km
Population: 6,276,883

Thailand is more than 12 times bigger than Switzerland! Impressive, isn't it? :-)

I like the World Factbook a lot, it's very interesting. Have a look by yourself and you might discover some interesting facts.

Lokthip meditation Center

Next to the mansion I'm staying, there is a small place called Lokthip Meditation Center. It's a very nice and the people are very friendly.


I didn't have time to visit so far, but I definitely will have a look next weekend. I'm looking forward to some nice meditation hours.

Impressive sky

The weather is changing really fast here and so does the sky, have a look at the following pictures...

Daily lunch...

There is a little street kitchen in front of the mansion I'm staying. "Pi" Daeng is cooking there everyday different Thai meals.


"Pi" is a polite form to call an older person and daeng is the color red in Thai. Thai people usually refer to an older person with "pi" and to a younger person with "nong". It's also very common, that everyone has a nickname. Usually this has to do something with the birth of the person or the feelings the mother had during the pregnancy. I'm sure there are some other reasons too :-)

So "pi" Daeng is a really good chef. My favorite meals, she's cooking are: Khao Pat Gai, Pag'gana Pat Gai and Pat Krapau Gai. Everything clear?

The meals are very cheap, compared to Switzerland or other European countries. Khao Pat Gai costs 25 Baht, which is about 0.85 CHF. Don't forget, that a cup of cold water is included and if you are really thirsty, you can have a second one too.

Just beside the street kitchen a few motorbike taxi drivers are waiting for people who are looking for a ride.


They are really nice and friendly guys who are always looking for a conversation. Unfortunately my Thai is still not that good, so we can talk only about very simple subjects, like: "Today it's really hot...", "Do you like the food?", "Where do you go today?" and similar ones... Mostly the conversations are ending with a nice smile :-)

A sea of houses and probably a sea of dreams...

Every morning I look out of my balcony and the same question is going through my mind. I see a sea of houses in front of me and I think, that behind every window there might be a person, getting up just right now, as I do.


These persons might have dreams, wishes and fears. What are there dreams? Why do they get up every morning and try to achieve there goals?

What is it, that pushes us to achieve certain dreams and wishes? How do we get the idea of a goal? What is influencing us and why do we try to get something?

I think, to expect an answer is not necessary, I believe it's enough, to get a better answer. I believe, that the most certain thing in our life is, that nothing is certain :-) Somehow this makes me feel very comfortable. If we would be able to accept, that life might have a plan for us and our role is much less significant, than we would like to believe, we probably would be less greedy, more understandable and probably wiser.

I wish you all a wonderful day and take care! Most things, happing to us, are not as important as we might think in this very moment... Give the impressions some time and reflect upon it, you might discover some different point of view after a few days...

Getting used to it...

The first wave of new impressions and feelings is over and the daily life starts to establish itself.

I think it's a good sign, since it shows me, that we can adapt quite fast and basically we can live everywhere.


I'm looking forward to some new impressions and hope it's going to be very interesting too :-)

Public Transportation - Sky Train and Subway

Bangkok is offering a huge range of different public transportations. There are sky trains, subways, buses, taxi's, tuk-tuk's and motorbikes.

The most convenient transportations are the sky train and the subway:

• Sky train (BTS)
• Subway (MRT)

The sky train has two lines, the Silom line and the Sukhumvit line. To change from one line to the other, there is an interchange station, called Siam. Many of the stations are connected directly to shopping malls or nearby important places. So far there is only one subway line. As you can see, the sky train and the subway are complementing each other, so it's very easy to go from one place to another.


Between the stations, it's recommended either to walk or to take a motorbike taxi. But please don't forget to ask for the price in the first place ;-)

Visa Run July 2005

My visa got expired, hence I had to go to Cambodia to get a new tourist visa for 30 days. The first impression was really great. You book a seat in a bus which drives to the border of Cambodia, there you pass the border, eat lunch on the Cambodian side, come back to Thailand and you get a new visa :-)

I had to be at Sukhumvit Soi 12 at 5.00am and got on a nice bus...

In the bus, they had some simple and tourist friendly instructions, how the day would look like... Basically the following steps:

1. Departure from Sukhumvit Soi 12, 3.5 hours to the border of Cambodia (Poipet)
2. At the border, all the formalities will be done by our guide... (no line up at the Thai immigration)
3. Cambodian immigration
   
4. Lunch
5. Enter Thailand, get in the bus
6. Back to Bangkok
   

Unfortunately, the day looked a bit different... :-( The prime minister of Thailand replaced the responsible minister and everything got a little messy...

When we arrived at the border, the bus driver told us, that we have to line up at the Thai immigration, since they didn't sort it out yet with the local police who was in charge. I guess they had to renegotiate the deal ;-)

I don't know, how many people lined up at the Thai immigration, but it took us 4 hours to pass it! I have chosen a very bad day, since I went on a Saturday. On the Cambodian side, there are huge casinos and since gambling is forbidden in Thailand, many Thai's go gambling for the weekend in Cambodia... So, never go on the weekend! It's full with gambling addicted people...




One of the first things I recognized, where all these young and very dirty children, who tried to get some money by holding an umbrella above your head - as sun protection. This was really very sad to see and made me think a lot... It looked like they were living on the street and nobody took care of them...

On the Cambodian side you could see, how these people where living...


After 4 hours, we finally could enter Cambodia. The first impressions wasn't much different from Thailand, but I guess this comes from the fact that most people passing this border need either a new visa or just would like to waste there money in gambling...


Just two hundred meters from all these poor families and children, you could see the casinos and there we went for lunch...


This gave me a very bad feeling and I couldn't eat much. Somehow I felt very bad about sitting in front of huge buffet and on the other side, these children where begging for some Baht's standing in the sun all day long...

Before we went back to Thailand, we had to line up again and luckily, this time it took us only 1.5 hours :-) But standing there, a sign came to my attention...


This is no joke! Never ever get in touch with drugs in Thailand or Cambodia, you might have a lot of time to rethink your actions after, or in the worst case you won't have any time at all!