Sukkothai with Anne Flore

On Wednesday evening we went to the new Bus Terminal of Bangkok in Mo Chit to take the bus to Sukkothai ... it used to be the Capital of Thailand before Ayuttaya and Bangkok and it belongs to UNESCO

We arrived at 5am walked along the high way and took an other bus to the old city where all the temples are. As recommended in the guide we found a nice guesthouse to take a breakfast and rent bikes !

We stayed there until 4pm and then took the bus to Chang Mai.

In half a day we really had enough time to see all the temples and visiting early in the morning is a good idea in this hot country ;)

Baiyoke Tower

Also really worth to go to ! The photos are bad quality but from this tower you can see whole Bangkok and it s fucking HUGE !!

Again not the cheapest place to take a drink but for once it is nice ..

Siam Paragon ... The Thai Harrod's

Anne Flore arrived on Tuesday morning and after my class we went to Bangkok ... we had a look in the Routard Guide to find good adress to eat and we saw about the "Gourmet paradise" ... and indeed it's a paradise ... you are lost in hte middle of hundred restaurants, stands and a huge supermarket!

In fact it is a kind of Harrod's with the big difference that here you can aford everyhting !! Really worth it ;)

You can find everything .. even german Wurst :D

But it is not the cheapest place to eat in Bangkok

Those French people ...

Ok I now begin to understand why French have this reputation abroad ... arrogant, rude and selfish ...

It is the first time that I experience a group of french people among other nationalities ! I have already been abroad but I was alone.. here is completely different !

Yesterday I was in class of Business Communication and then Marketing with 8 other French (Marine, Aldrick, Ludo, Magda, Sebastien, Aurélie, Julien and Cosme) among a class of around 40 people ! We were at the back, all together and we couldn't prevent speaking during the whole duration of the class... I think the other students are really shocked that we behave such a rude way, at least the way they look at us let me think so...
All the Asian students of course but strangely enough also the German guys and the Dutch are really serious during the class or at least quite ...

The Asian student laugh at all the crappy jokes of the teachers, but I am not really surprised of it lol !

No what is really surprising is that for the first time in my life I was ashamed of belonging to the group of French people ..
Julien and Aurélie every time they were saying something to answer the teacher were speaking about France and French people even if the question had nothing to deal with European customers behavior ... it sounded sooo selfish ! and then the professor (who is a German guy) said that "in Japan young people are really respectful of their professors, while in France the teacher is the ennemy" .... oups he does hate us :( !!!!

French are really strange animals ... I think I will learn a lot during those 5 months !!
The professor showed us diagramms about country trends in terms of values .. (typical marketing studies..) and we are always away from the other European countries .. I will try to find more studies cause I am pretty surprised !!!

I spoke with a Thai guy at the end of the class and here is his impression about Europeans .. we are really cold at first time and it is difficult to break the ice but then we are really nice to hang out with ... Good point, cause on our side we are really not at ease with the way they smile to everybody with big "Hello" and "How are you" all the time on the campus ... It sometimes feels like we are in Disneyland with everybody happy and friendly !!

I am in class right now, so if I want to begin to stop being rude I must stop now ;)

Ko Chang

We went to Ko Chang this week end, it is an island (bigger than Ko Samet) about 5 hours driving from Bangkok in the South East of the city....

Our master plan was to leave late so that we travel during the night and arrive early in the morning ... that's what we did, but 5 hours in a bus with freasing air conditioning makes it quite impossible to sleep :D So we arrived in Trat at 4 am with no idea how to get to the ferry and in the middle of a big storm ... At this point I really asked myself what I was doing here !!!

But eventually we found a taxi or I should say a taxi was waiting for us as the bus driver called a friend when he saw 7 Europeans getting in his bus ;) So we paid 180 Bath (less than 4€) each for 30 min taxi to go to the ferry + ferry go and return !!
But the wether was still awfull and we were a little bit tired ...



Hopefully everything went better then .. we found a nice beach to have a rest, then a really sweet hotel for 150 bath (3€) each for a night next to this beach and we went for a walk (3 hours .. I was exausted but it was beautiful and fun) to go to eat in the fishing village in the south !!







Then we end up in a very crappy area and decided to go back to our beach by hickjacking and we were lucky enough to arrive on time for the sun down :D



The other days we had to split the group as three of us took motorbikes to drive to the south east area but it was 70 km ie 140km in two days and i thought I couldn't do it, so we went to an other beach and went snorkeling the last day on an island opposite to ours ... I had the opportunity to play Tarzan, which I did very well :)



Ferry is a perfect place to sleep, trust me !!

On the campus

Of course I am stupid and at first sight i thought it was a crocodile and got really scared but it is not ;)

Here is an oerview of the campus :
I don't have much photos yet, so it is not very representative. There is a lot more on the campus ...

Tough day today...

Woke up at 7:00 am to queue for the Student Village. We have decided with Daniel and Fanny to take a flatshare together so that we can have a kitchen and bigger beds also !!
We won't know before the 29th if we get one, but it should be fine !!

Then I went in class for Business Communication, the teacher is a typical american guy and the class consists basically of a big One man Show ... but at least it should be really easy to validate !!

I have met really nice people there ...

... there was commentaries about everyone I met here, but now that they have the address I had to delete it ;) ..

So yes for a supposedly mysanthrop girl, I have met many people :D

Aldrick, Moi, Patrick & Typhain but I don't have photos of the others yet


We are having a very big Storm right now, big thunder ... and that's why I am writing sooo much ... brrrrr I am scared I want the arms of my doudou ;) but that's fine I will soon, cause he took his tickets and Frank will arrive on October in BKK !!
I forgot to mention it but of course I am highly happy :D

The plans for this week end is to go to Ko Chang !! juhuu leaving with the last bus at 00:00 to get there early in the morning, take motor bikes and drive south to the beach through a nice "randonnée" according to lonely planet ... and coming back on Sunday night ot be in class on Monday morning :( I won't sleep much and I hate that !

Ok it is definitely not really a tough day, but compare to the rest of the week it is : class, queuing this morning, storm and then bus tonight, it is !! ;)

As Anne Flore is arriving on Tuesday morning I might not give any news during a few days.. most of you just don't care but I prefer letting you know anyway !!
We have planed to go to Sukhotai, then Chang Mai and then Ko Samui and Ko Tao .. should be intense in 12 days !!

I discovered a new desert here, the girl called it "PongHon Sai sai", no idea how to write it but this will be my new addiction I think .. I also love their sticky rice with coconut and Mango ;)

But don't thing that everything is nice.. look at the picture below:

A full market of dry insects .. hummm



Ok then shower, backing and let's go...

Beautiful creature next to my room ....

This campus is really cool ... I have a new friend living next door ;)

It is just awfull, when I went out of my room this afternoon what a pleasant surprise to discover one of the ugliest creature that God has ever done lol
No in fact she (she is a female dog) is almost sweet but has probably all the possible dog diseases .. especially skin problems lol

I took a picture for you :D

Tesco Trip

I could explain you about the trip this week end to Ko Samet, but it would be boring ! We went to 10 exchange students from the campus to the island this week end, it was really great : sun, beach, parties, motor bikes, great fun .. but apart from a few sun burn, i don't have anything special to mention :(

On the contrary, about the trip to Tesco this evening I can say a lot !!!! I am really not proud about it, as I really could be dead right now but we get through it and I made a deal with myself that I won't listen those stupid french ever again ....

So, I was told this week end that there is a Tesco supermarket really near to our campus !! The french people who told me this were really proud of explaining how nearer it is than the one we went to and in order to emphazise this, they said that it was possible to get there by bike ... You have to be aware that the road out of the campus is a 8 lines road, 4 lines high way and 4 lines normal way but in Bangkok they drive as speed (see the picture below)!! Therefore I asked them if they were sure and they said yes of course it is five minutes away and there is a road you can drive on...

Then ok and we (with Daniel the German guy) took our bikes instead of paying 50 bath for a taxi (25 each which means less than 50 cents !!) ...

BUT it turned out that the road on the side was just the "security" way and that the 5 minutes way was 5 kilometers :(

We drove at least 15 minutes on this way with all the trucks and busses passing us very fast and then I get really crazy and SCARED and I asked to go back ... we tried an other way and end up in a ghetto ie a closed area where I almost get bitten by a dog and where all the local guys were looking at us and saying some probably not so nice things :( ... so eventually we had to do the way back on the high way, the wrong way round (cause we couldn't get on the other side) and without light !!!
Of course we would have never done this in Europe and just because everybody is doing this here (and many die everyday of course but they don't have any choice !) we just did it too !! amazing how stupid i can be.. I am happy that they don't jump from the bridge cause i am sure we would try it too .. pfff

But now I am fine and can't wait to see the people who told me this to share my feelings with them ...

bouhhh it was sooo scary !!!

Campus Overview

SOM = School of Management ... wouahhh !!

We just had the introduction today and I still have no idea what I will be studying here lol (starting on monday !)

They just spoke for one hour about attendance but I know from experience that the more they speak about it, the more you can afford not to attend ;) ... at least I will soon know about it ..

Otherwise we had the first party yesterday... as you can imagine very big one : put thousands of Asian on a campus and you will have a very hot ambiance !! We were maximum 50 at the bar including 30% European... all the other came for the free dinner, took bag with them and bring the food home - it is quite arrogant from me to laugh about it, cause of course it is all about money and they don't have but it still remain strange to see them at the end of the buffet struggling to feel bags with food... (even stephanie and camille wouldn't do it :D) all the more as there is no fridge in the rooms hummmm ;) - anyway they came for this and then just went home ... It will be quite difficult to meet them !! shame :(

During the orientation day, all the speakers insist on the importance of having fun, not working too much and meeting other people ... it sounds really strange, when you remember that at your orinetation day in France they only insist on "don't get drunk to much and please work a litlle bit" !!
So yes I guess it is why everybody speak about culture differences !!!

But I met a few afghans, a few thai and many Indians who were so crazy on the dance floor !!! hihihi It is definitely a very international campus or at least Euroasian campus, cause don't expect to see a black guy or a south american but more than 30 nationalities is not bad...

Here is an overview of the campus, bad quality sry : ok the video is not even uploading :(

First impression of Bangkok...

After two hours of Bus (of course we didn't took the good one at first try ;) it would have been too easy ! You have to remember that here we just speak with signs cause they don't speak english and I have learnt that when they say "ji ji ok" it doesn't mean , IT DOESN'T MEAN that they understood and you can't be sure that what they said was right !! ) but anyway after two hours of bus (with air conditioning) we arrived in the west part of Bangkok, the touristic part with most of the temples and the backpacking markets & hotels !!

Everything cheap, you all know about it, we went to Grand Palace and Wat Poh, had nice green curry for less than 1 €, cocktails for the same price ... all those things are typical ones i don't need to tell you ...

But the funny thing is that this morning we went to have a breakfast and I went to the toilets ... I noticed thqt the door was difficult to close but I forced it cause I am always optimistic ... but when i wanted to go out, it was just impossible ... I tried, I forced but no way, and in Bangkok the slightest effort and you r wet !! it was at the end of a corridor so I couldn't call people to come and nobody was coming... so I had to get out through the trap at the bottom of the door ... you have to imagine me destroying the door (in plastic hopefully !)and then crawling on the ground to get out ;) Was quite funny !!!

Otherwise nothing really noticeable happened :(

But Bangkok is a really crazy city and I can't wait to descover it better !!

Today is orientation day ... I forgot to register so i will have to wake up really early to do it before ... I don't understand I spend my time planing and organising and i always manage to miss half the thing !! don't make sense at all !!If you have a theorie let me know ...

They don't speak english ...

Ok, so yesterday I wasn't sure but now I am : most of the Thai of course don't speak or understand english !!! It makes sense.. why should they speak english when nobody does in my own country, especially in my country :D

I didn't take the exchange in Mexico because I was scared not to understand spanish good enough, I think it wouldn't have been worse lol

It will make things quite funny !

We went to buy bikes today but then we had to come back and it was too far and too dangerous to bike back to the campus ... so we had to ask a taxi ! But when he doesn't speak english how to explain that he has to wait for us until we get the bike ... we eventually met a girl who explained him in Thai and when we came back there were 5 people waiting for us taking the bikes and everything ... we were the big attraction of the moment .. sehr peinlich ;)

But at least we now have bikes to go around the campus, which is really huge but beautiful .. no photo to provide, but soon !!!

OMG ...

Oh My God, I am quite impressed cause it could have been really worse than this !!

Nothing lost, nothing important forgotten, not even had to run to take the plane...
The travel was really ok, I had to pass before everybody at Roissy Charles de Gaulle (but you know me, I did it really discretely) because otherwise it would have been just to get the plane even if i was there one hour in advance ... Air France is french organisation so I am not that surprised :D

KLM is very nice for its tall blond stewardess with blue eyes but otherwise the food is not that nice and hollandish as a language is really strange (not to say ugly !!) But I managed to sleep and after a few over queuing at the arrival, the AIT volunteers were there waiting for us. Over queuing because i had to queue twice: Indeed, I had forgotten to fill in a form in the plane and after queuing 20 minutes the lady told me to go get a paper and come back !!!!! No idea why everybody did fill this form and I didn't... I saw people doing it but it didn't get to my brain that maybe i should do it too ... strange life !!

So now i am in my tinny little ugly room lol without air conditioning and I am just thinking that I will try to spend as much time as possible outside :D
No I think everything will be fine ! Tomorrow I will go with my new friend - the only guy I met for the moment is a German guy ... those Germans won't let me alone !! ;) - and so we will go to buy bycicle and go around the campus which is quite big !!

...

ok then let's go :-/

Unbelievable :
I managed to put everything I need in only one luggage and I am under the 20 max kilos !!! big victory !!
I hope it is the sign of the beginning of a huge sucess story !!!

I would love to write some more but i am highly stressed right now and prefer going to read Nietzsche ... lol

PS: Let's attribute the uselessness of this message to the high level of excitation !!

See you from BKK

Fucking Blog !!

That's it, I know I have absolutely nothing to say, that nobody will read this and for good sake cause it won't be of any interest ... but anyway I am still writing this blog...
Just because I know it is essential to keep my statut of very highly cool person ;) unbelievable !

Oh yes and just to add a little bit to the already ridiculous situation .. I have to write in English, not only because it is so fancy but because I have friends all around the world and I don't want anybody to feel frustrated !

You have all understood thanks to the very original tittle of this Blog that I am going to Thailand for 6 months :D I am smiling just to reassure myself because in fact I am just highly stressed:
- Malaria
- Dengue Fever
- Hepatitis A, B, C and maybe even some new ones
- Japanese B Encephalitis
- Meningitis
- snakes
... and of course our favorite sun burn and DIARRHOEA are waiting for me !!!!!

oh yes I forgot about plane crash ...

But if i get through this it should be rather nice, I just read the guide of the AIT (Asian Institut of Technology) http://www.ait.ac.th/ and the swimming pool, the tennis and squatch courts, the new restaurants look really fine !!!

I really can't wait to see how I will manage in this new environment ! After a very succesfull year :
- forgot my luggage at the airport in Munich, (very romantic story by the way but quite stressful :))
- lost twice my credit card and company pass
- misread my contract for London and thought I was twice as much paid as i really was (just awfull story !)
- Took an unfurnished room in frankfurt and had to sleep on the ground for three months cause I misunderstoog AGAIN !!
- bought a guide on amazon for Amsterdam but took the wrong sending options and got it after the trip !

... and unfortunately so many other little adventures (if you remember some more feel free to add them on commentaries!) ,

So yes after this succesfull year, i really can't wait to see how i will survive in BKK ...
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