Along the rail road

There won't be much writing today as I start to get a really bad sore throat and headache. It's been raining the whole day and there are constant news of summer storm hitting many provinces. Anyway, here are some quick shots of scenery along Thai rail road. This particular route was from Chacheungsao to Bangkok. It took only one and a half hour and only cost 13 baht as opposed to 70 baht for 2 hours bt bus. The difference is, there is no airconditioner in the train. =P

Inside the train


Cars waiting for the train to pass


A house next to a railway


A flock of white birds in the green field


A farmer is driving his machine to prepare the field for growing rice


A canal under the railway


In the far distance behind the rice paddy, there are new houses and the high-voltage power line nearby. Quite an interesting combination, I think

Visiting Trang beach

After Songkran's festival at my grandpa's house, I came back to Trang and was just in time to do some trips with my friends from high school before they all went back to their work/study places. We went to the beach 40 minute outside of Trang city for delicious seafood meal. The restaurant was next to a pier and a fisherman village which we spotted a bunvh of canoes for hire. So we decided for a short paddle after a our meal. Five of us went in one canoe (2 too many for the usual load but they let us go anyway). We paid 100 baht for 5 people and for unlimited time of paddling(it was 5 pm so they probably knew that we wouldn't go for long although the canoe hirer said we could paddle even when it's dark.) Our paddling experience was... funny. Out of 5 people, only 2 that could somewhat paddle so we spent a lot of time just spinning around. It was very funny and we had so much laughters that we almost couldn't stop. We could see that people from the village was looking and giving us moral support from the shore. My friend and I finally reached the beach on the other side of the channel. The beach on the mainland of Trang province are usually made of dark sand and some areas are even muddy. The place where we landed our canoe was muddy and filled with sea grass. It's interesting looking for marine creatures in that ecosystem. We saw some people picking up some kind of shellfish which could be eaten. We spend about an hour walking barefeet in that soft muddy shore and digging up funny marine creatures. It was a sea visit experience that was so different from anywhere else I've been to. It might not look so inviting for many people but it was awesome for me. =D

The white sea grass flowers float on the water surface above the shallow sea grass bed

The protective part that contains white flowers of the sea grass


Sunset behind the fisherman village on the mainland


One of my friends is digging up what is believed to be a funky shellfish with extremely long body while the other one is helping by pulling her (making sure she won't be pulled down by the monster. =P


Me massaging my feet on the soft muddy beach

Songkran at my grandpa's house

During Songkran (Thai New Year) holidays, I went to Suphanburi to visit my grandparents. We took a night train on April 11th from Trang to Bangkok. The train was supposed to reach Hualampong station in Bangkok at 8.30 am on the 12th but it was delayed because the earlier train somehow missed the rail and fell off the track. Luckily, nobody was hurt but it resulted in about 7-8 hour delay for the later trains. So my mom and I didn’t get to our destination until 4.30 pm, almost 24 hour journey!

Once I entered the house of my grandpa’s where I was about 3 weeks ago, I was amazed by the huge changes that was done for Songkran. My grandpa paid quite a lot of money to transform an empty space in the middle of the house into a beach volleyball court with the sun shelter over the top. It was money well spent though. I have to say that because I later had a lot of fun with it. The reason behind such an expensive construction was that so the grandchildren can play sports with each other while coming to visit him. It worked very well as my cousins are in the age of unlimited energy and really like playing. However, the only drawback was that I had to be the one entertaining the kids by playing with them because I’m the only adult who is the closest to their age (the eldest among my cousins was 12!). Anyway, it was pretty fun playing with them despite the fact there were 6 of these little kids constantly wanting me to play with each of them one after another. We played volleyball (without rules as some of my cousins can barely hit the ball), badminton, table tennis, cycling and boardgames. I was totally exhausted by the end of the 2 day event (13th-14th).

In the morning of the 13th of April, we all paid a respect to my grandparents by giving them flower (jasmine) garlands and watering their hands with scented water. Some of my aunts and uncles came later at night as they have to travel from work or to the other side of their family first. I have 4 aunts and 4 uncles, all are younger than my mother. Four of them are married and have kids so you can imagine how big the family are when everyone gat together. I never fancy a big family but once I saw all my uncles and aunts and their kids together with my grandparents, it felt so warm that I wouldn’t want it in any other way. I’m glad that my mom has a very warm and loving family despite all the hardship they faced when they were young. And of course, lucky me! =D

Thai tradition of watering the hands of our elderly


All the flower garlands that were given to my grandparents


Playing sport with my little cousins, aunts and uncles


My big family

Bangkok to Phuket to Trang

I had a smooth ride with the night coach from Southern Bus Terminal in Bangkok to Phuket. The bus left at 6.30 pm, took a half an hour break for a small meal at midnight and reach Phuket bus terminal at about 7 am on the next day. My dad had already been waiting to pick me up which was very nice. He drove from Trang to Phuket since the night before and stayed in the hotel nearby so he could bring to the university which is located out of Phuket Town.

I had an interview at 10 am so that left me plenty of time to get ready. The interview went very smoothly, my dad even get invited to sit in and talked to the interviewers who are the deans of the faculty. They are really friendly and seem keen to have me in their team. Now it’s up to the scholarship office to settle the paper work and the official procedure. I hope I will get to work there as there were also other governmental offices in Bangkok that accepted my application and would put me to the job without an interview (which I found a bit odd). Anyway, I guess they are desperate to get people to work for the government because people with high degrees often go elsewhere since the governmental workers get pretty low salary. That’s quite sad for the country but it’s how the reality is.

After the interview my dad drove me around Phuket to different beaches. Of course, we drove by Patong Beach where more than half of the shops and people are not Thai. Personally I don’t like this place because it’s too crowded and too much development (not in the positive way either) but it can be a good experience to see it anyway. We didn’t stop there but went to the quieter beach. That would be at east side of the island. We had a stop at Phrom Thep Cape at noon. My dad had a nap while I walked around taking some photos. It’s a cape at the southern end of Phuket and famous for sunset.

A road along Patong Beach


Am at Prom Thep Cape


A beach on the eastern side of Phuket


Then we head of to Ao Nang in Krabi. We get there at about 7 pm and all the street shops, pubs and restaurant have all been running in full display. It’s pretty similar to Patong but at least there are not that many big buildings and the layout of the shops are more organised and blending in with the natural surrounding. I hope it stays like that for long time. We didn’t have dinner at Ao Nang but continue driving toward Trang. My dad let me drive for a bit, that was my first time driving an automatic car. I managed not to crash into anything although there were two times that someone just crossed the road in the dark right in front of our car. We stopped at food store in town for a late night dinner at about 11 pm and my mom came to meet us there. So I was finally with my family after 4 days of travelling around.

Part of a market in Trang where my mom brought me to buy some breakfast


Life back at home is… interesting. Some are in positive ways while some are not quite how I would want it. Well, at least I quickly get back into riding a motorcycle and can get around without much trouble (except some issues with the direction). Being able to do things on my own help me get rid of some unpleasant feelings sometimes. I hope everyone is having a great weekend and Happy Easter! =)

Sawatdee Kah =)

Greeting from Thailand! Yep, I’m back at home in Trang, a southern province on Andaman Coast of Thailand. I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport near Bangkok on March 18th. Yeah, it’s quite a big gap to between when I arrived and now that I just have time to update my post. There has been a few things going on which involved some traveling so it wasn’t quite convenient for me to sit down and write what I have been doing and where I have been. Besides, my work situation is not settled yet so I didn’t feel like telling people the incomplete update. Well, sometimes, incomplete is better than none. So here it goes, my story of life at home.

I must admit I had a little culture shock when I first arrived. Although it’s my homeland, being away for 6 years made me get used to different system in other countries and somewhat forgot the severity of how crazy life in Thailand can be, especially on the road. My uncle (1 of 8 siblings my mom has) picked me up at the airport which is about 25 km from Bangkok and drove me to the other uncle’s house to stay overnight. Riding with my uncle from the airport is an experience by itself and make me realize how much I still have to adjust with living back home. Let’s just stay, sticking to the traffic rules is definitely not enough to ensure your safety on the road. Because it seems like most people don’t follow them anyway.

After staying in Bangkok for a day, my aunt brought me to my grandparent’s house in Suphanburi. My grandparent’s house is a fusion between the Thai style wooden house on the upper level and the modern tile floor at the lower level. But what I like best about this place is the kitchen, they always have lots of spices and food in there and that really remind me of the old lifestyle of people in this area.





I went to visit a famous temple and a giant Buddha image. I think being somewhat inclined to believe in good karma is something I will always quickly get back into without any difficulty. Inside the temple, there are huge paintings about a famous literature with description in both Thai and English too. So I spent a while looking at them before rushing back home as the rainstorm was coming. By the way, the name of the temple is Wat (temple) Pa LeLai. I spent 2 nights In Suphanburi and then took a coach to Phuket for my interview with a university there.





Well, I guess that’s it for today. I will try to find time to put more stuffs in the next post. Take care everyone.