Why to live abroad?

I just came across this nice thoughts on why everyone should live abroad at least once in their lives.
Read it here.

 If you are interested in studying in Asia or especially at Phuket, take a look at the Asia Exchange website. They also offer internships in Asia. Applying is quite easy and everything gets processed fast.

Trip Ko Lanta - Ao Nang

Due to the protests in Bangkok and Phuket the university decided to give the students the opportunity to voice there political opinion which meant - freeee time aka traaaavel time for us!!:)

On the list was Ko Lanta and Ao Nang (Krabi).

Ko Lanta itself is not the most beautiful island. But the beaches are nice as you can see in the picture. There are plenty of bars and restaurants at the beach, where you can ly in a hamock, sip a beer and listen to reggae music.
We also explored the diamond cave which was an awesome, bit adventurous experience - nothing for klaustrophobic people ;)

After 2 days at Ko Lanta we headed on to Ao Nang - 500Baht for a 3 hour ferry ride.


Ao Nang is a cozy town, which got a kinf of Thai sunset strip, with various shops, restaurants, travel agencies and international fast food shops on it. From Ao Nang you can go to various islands, go climbing at nearby Ko Railley or canoe through rocks and mangroves.

As we only had limited time, we chose to go on a one-day-trip to Hot Springs, Tiger Cave Temple, Emerald Pool (see picture above) and do elephant trekking. The whole package costed us 1000Baht (lunch and water included). Note that the price on the  brochure lists a price of 1600 Baht. Just check at the various travel agents.

Climb 1237 stairs at tiger cave temple to feel like on top of the world.The view is amazing and it's so calm up there.

Political Unrest Thailand

As probably most of you have heard or read in the news, there are a lot of protests at the moment in Thailand. Some of them being violent, some being peaceful.
To sum up the reasons for the protests: Former Prime Minister Thaksin was found guilty of being corrupt and several other issues and went into exil, his sister later claimed power and tried to bring her brother back by trying to pass an amnesty bill for him and several other corrupt politicians. For more information take a look here.

Yellow shirts are against the current governement ( under Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra)

Although Germany and several other countries have issued travel warnings, it's for sure still save to visit Thailand. Here in Phuket and the provinces there are minor, peaceful protests. As I've been to Bangkok last week I think it's also save to go there if you avoid the following areas:

• Democracy Monument on Ratchadamnoen Klang Avenue
• Ministry of Finance on Rama VI Road
• Government Complex on Chaengwattana Road
• Nang Lerng Junction on Nakhonsawan-Phitsanulok Roads
• Makkawan Bridge on Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue

Homestay

One of the activities organized by the PSU is the homestay. International students get the possibility to stay one weekend at a Thai family.
Jana and I signed up for it and were lucky. The family we went to is the family of one of the staff members at PSU, living at Phang-Nga.
After an 1,5 hour ride with the van we were there.

We had a short cooking lesson and were served delicious green curry, fried fish, etc. Afterwards they took us to a boattrip, to go and collect clamps at the beach. It was so much fun, digging with your feet in the sand, trying to get some clamps.

On the way back we had a short stop at a cave and at a monkey place. Those monkey were craaaaazy! Once I held the bananas all of them came running towards me. But it was really nice to watch them.

Being back, everybody took a short nap. While we were sleeping the aunties prepared a delicious dinner, that we ate beside a little creek next to the house.







On the next day we decided to get up early, to give food to the monks. So we got up at 5.30am, took a quick shower with the bucket and jumped into the van. The driver took us to the main street, where we tried to spot some monks and jumped out of the van as we saw some :D Usually people just wait in front of their house and wait for some monks to pass by, but we did it the adventurous way.Haha.

 After a quick stop at the morning-market for buying snacks we headed to a hill to watch the late sunrise. Simply beautiful!

In the afternoon we headed to Sa Nang Manora Waterfall, to go a bit trekking and swimming.

For me this homestay was one of the best things. It was nice to see how people in the Thai province live, get out of Phuket and meet such nice people.

Khop khun kha auntie for showing us how to make those delicious fried bananas:)

Places Phuket I Bangkok Hospital

I've never been really sick in Phuket, apart from a cold, but it's always good to know where the next hospital is located and if it is recommended to go there or not.
The 2 major hospitals in Phuket are the Phuket International Hospital (located in Kathu, next to Big C) and Bangkok Hospital (in Phuket Town).

Bangkok Hospital is fabulous! There is a big lobby, probably better equipped than most hotel lobbies, with a girl in a traditional costume playing the Khim (a traditional instrument).
Once you enter you will get assistance right away by a Thai nurse and an english speaking substitute. Registering procedure is quite fast and uncomplicated.
If you have to stay longer, I can ensure you that you feel like in a hotel. Food is served by an international hospital food company, so no worries about that either.

Anyways, better enter the hospital as a visitor and a good friend not as a patient ;)

Places Phuket I Rock City

Just in front of the probably craziest road in Phuket - Bangla Road - is this club.

ROCK CITY

Yeah! Let me see your little finger and the index finger. Here we go. There is a band rocking the stage, while guys with long beards, beer-barrel-bellies are playing airguitar. The nicely dressed, slim Thai girls next to them don't fit into the picture, but hey!
Funny contrast program to the usual Bangla thing....with nice salty popcorn!

Midterm Exams

Huuuaaaa....so, after two months at PSU it was time for the midterm exams.
From Monday till Saturday this week there are no classes, just scheduled midterm exams which usually take three hours. Well, the scheduled time is three hours, but I think everybody is faster than that.
Luckily my Thai exam was antedated, so I only had to study for four subjects this week.

Anyways, the exams were okay so far, nothing way too difficult.

Good Luck or Chok Dii to my fellow students!

Favorite Places: Sanaeha I Phuket Town

Let's start the series of favorite places with a bar.

Sanaeha Bar is a cozy bar located right in the heart of phuket town. In one of the old gorgeous sino-portuguese houses, you can find the perfect place for having a relaxed evening with friends. Lights are dimmed, there is a band playing english and thai songs on stage, candles are lighting up the faces of people having snacks and drinks.
The atmosphere is really nice, but you might consider reserving a table beforehands if you want to go there with a big group.

P.S.: Despite the PinaColada all drinks are quite good.

Thai Cooking Class

So one week ago we had our Thai cooking class. It was the first time for me to enter the cooking lab at the Prince of Songkla University (PSU).
One of the International Affairs Centre staff and a little woman with a large chef-hat (the cooking teacher) were waiting for us. We got to know that we will prepare the ingredients and finally cook: "shrimp in a blanket", springrolls, massaman curry, pad see euw (thick noodles with vegetables in dark sauce) and Muu Phat Bai Kaphrao (fried minced pork with spices).

As I can't descirbe all of the cooking procedures for each dish, I want to focus on one of the 50's most delicious foods in the world:

MASSAMAN CURRY

Ingredients needed: coconut milk, massaman curry, chicken, sliced potatoes, red pepper, onions, palm sugar, peanuts, tamarind sauce, fish sauce, soy sauce, bay leaves, cinnamon

How to: 

Put the coconut milk into a big frying pan and heat it, constantly stiring, till you can smell the coconut.

Put the massaman curry into the hot coconut milk and stir again, till everything is mixed well.

Put in the chicken or any other meat, as it will take longest to be done. Stir to make sure everything doesn't get burnt.

Add more coconut milk, to ensure you got a nice sauce and enough to soak off. Add sliced potatoes and peanuts.

Finally, add other spices (bay leaves, cinnamon, chilli) and let it simmer a bit. Then adjust the taste by adding fish sauce, soy sauce, tamarind sauce and a bit of palm sugar. Let it simmer a bit longer. Thats it!:)

Serve Massaman Curry with steamed rice

Enjoy!











For a more detailed descriptions please check out this recipe.

Koh Yao Noi

Mission: Get out of Phuket
Target: Koh Yao Noi
Plan: Drive to the pier with the scooters, take a speedboat and set over

With about 10 people, we started our drive to the pier of Phuket, which took us about half an hour (it's quite far). So right on time, we were able to take the speedboat to Koh Yao Noi, which costs 200bath per person.

Already on the way to Koh Yao Noi you will recognize that there are a few women with veils around  their head, as Koh Yao Noi's population is mainly muslim.
After half an hour on the boat, we arrived at Koh Yao Noi and took a van to the Koh Yao Beach Bungalows. For 400 Baht per bungalow, we all got a nice accomodation, 5 meters away from the beach.

We rented scooters and started touring the island

went to lovely, quite remote beaches

 had dinner at a half-built restaurant and watched the sunset

The next day we had breakfast at the beach and then chartered a longtail boat to take us to a  little islands with a looooong white sandy beach. It was perfect <3

Thai Sweets

As I am lying in bed, eating a bar of something undefinable but deliciously sweet (my guess is, that it's something made out of black sesame/black bean and coconut milk) I decided to write a post about Thai sweets.
Anywhere around here you will come across food that you have never seen or eaten before in your life. Especially at the weekend market there are tons of different food stalls, no matter if you want something spicy, salty, sweet or sour, you will find it.

So what we found at the nightmarket was a little stall, with a woman being occupied with making little crepes on a hot plate. Those tiny crepes are topped with a meringue cream and some roasted coconut. It is a pretty sweet treat but really good and not so filling.

Another favourite of mine is this tasty dish: sweet sticky rice with mango, served with coconut milk.
Since the Philippines I am always craving for sweet sticky rice. It is so delicious, I could eat a whole pot full. Anyways, this dish is filling but combines the sweetness of the rice with a bit sour and fresh taste of the mango. Perfect!

A treat which can be found a lot in supermarkets is jelly. There are all kinds of jelly and jelly layer cakes, but my favourite till now is this pandan jelly. The consistency of jelly might not be appealing to everybody, but as it is a bit sticky i like it a lot.

Tatarataaaa...here is the winner: ROTI! Thai pancake which can be filled with everything. It's hot, delicious and will melt in your mouth.

Vegetarian Festival

"The Nine Emperor Gods Festival (Chinese: 九皇爺; pinyin: Jiǔhuángyé; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Káu-ông-iâ; Cantonese: Kow Wong Yeh) is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and also the Riau Islands." Wikipedia

 

 

Here in Phuket, most food sold during those 9 days of the Vegetarian Festival was vegetarian, restaurants even had special vegetarian menus. When driving through the streets of Phuket, you could see a lot of people dressed up completely in white clothes. In Phuket Town a lot of people went to the Chinese Temple to worship the gods, say a prayer, etc. 

Today, at the last day, a lot of  fireworks lightened up the nightsky and there were firecrackers thrown all over the place. Due to that a lot of people looked like a dentist, wearing white clothes, a mask on their face and having cotton stuffed in their ears :)

 

Buddy Program

One of the best things at university so far was the buddy program. Each Thai student or sometimes two Thai students had to pick a name out of a box, so they knew which would be their international budder.
So this is my lovely buddy Areeya:

So since then we've been roaming around with the other buddys, for example visiting the Chinese temple at Phuket Town, where a lot of activities for the vegetarian festival take place.

There was such a lot of awesome, incredible good vegetarian food at the festival. Yummy! Couldn't stop eating:)

We also went to the wonderful restaurant Khaorang Breeze with the buddies. The restaurant is located on a hill in Phuket Town, where you got a lovely view from the outdoor terrace over the whole city. There is a band playing and the food is reaaaallyyyy good!

Lovely video with impressions from Thailand

Our teacher showed us this video in our Fundamental Thai class and I wanted to share it here, cause I think it's very well done. Hope you'll enjoy it!

Orientation Week at Prince of Songkla University

So after a few days of chilling at the beach, roaming around and partying finally our orientation week started. We are 73 students from Asia Exchange plus a few Chinese students. So we are probably never gonna be alone during the next months:)

Day 1

Day 2

Learning Fundamentals of Thailand and Thai People

Day 3

Campus Tour

Day 4

Visit at Asia Centre Foundation



and then it was time for.....

ICEBREAKING WEEKEND AT KO PHIPHI

Freedom Beach

Although I thought that Phuket would be swamped with tourists, it is fortunately not. One reson could be that at the moment it is still low season, the other that we live in Kathu. Once you go "over the hill" to Patong, you will see a lot of tourists walking on the sidewalk.
As we wanted to discover some more beaches we tried to get to freedom beach. It is off the road and in a bit hidden location, so not that easy to access....

With the help of our friend Patrick we managed to get there and it was awesome! There were only a few locals smoking fish, the water was clear and blue, the sand was great and the waves were perfect for some waterfun.:)