Past memories.. life in AIT

View this document on Scribd

My Week in Vieng Chan (Vientiane), Lao PDR

This is my second time visiting Laos during the last couple of years and that was a very nice trip i could say. It is also another travelling experience in my life.

Patuxai monument, Vientiane’s “Arc de Triomphe”

Hard working often offers some rewards at the end.. and actually the trip to Lao this time was to conduct a training workshop for all GMSEENet members over the Knowledge Management Toolkit project. We had a very tough time preparing for this workshop and eventually it was quite successful and fruitful.

Workshop

From 24th to 25th July 2008, this one-and-a-half-day training workshop was held at the Lao-Japan Human Resource Cooperation Center which is located in the campus of National University of Laos (NUOL) in Vieng Chan. The purpose of the workshop is to provide the participants who are the members of GMSEENet (Greater Mekong Subregion Energy and Environment Network) the fundamental knowledge on how to use knowledge management tools for sharing the the information among partner’s universities in the region. Knowledge management tools are sets of opensource applications such as CMS, Webblog, Wiki, Digital Library..  which are useful for information and knowledge sharing. Participants are from different universities and institutions in Burma, Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.The trainers for this workshop are all from AIT, who have actively been working in the KMTK project and I am one of those.

Workshop

Departed from AIT by van at 9:30 pm on the 22nd, it took us around 10 hours over the 615km road to reach the Thai-Lao border. The border is in Nong Khai province, the north-east province in Thailand which is only about 24km from Vieng Chan.

A place in Nong Khai, Thailand

Our breakfast – Poridge (Jok in Thai)

It was about 6:30am the next day and we ate breakfast in Nong Khai before crossing the border to Lao. Nong Khai and Vieng Chan are separated by the Mekong river and connect each other by the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge.

Thai-Lao Border (Thai Side) – Imigration Check Out

Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge

Lao Side (Imigration Check In)

After checking out and checking in passport at both side we exchanged some money into Kip and continued our trip to Vieng Chan on other two vans. The vans were bringing us toward the hotel (Novotel) in Vieng Chan. It took about half hour from the border and we reached the hotel around 11:00 am.

 

The hotel that we stayed

Vieng Chan 

Once entering Lao, along the way, people lifestyle, scenery on both side of the road are quite similar to Cambodia and made me feel like visiting home again.

However my first impression in Lao, is the foods. There are alot of delicious foods to enjoy.

Nem Neoung Shop

Nem Neung (Far more difference from Nem Neung in AIT)

Lunch

Another delicious one

After checking in the hotel room, Khun Chort, a very nice Lao lady who facilitated for the workshop and who is also from AIT, had brought us to one food shop for lunch. It is called Nem Neung. The spcial menu in this shop is Nem Neung the most popular food in Lao.. and it was quite tasty..

To be continued..

Peaceful Moment..

Fantastic moment in AIT after the rain has stopped.. A greenish scenery which makes my feeling warm and happy..

Green..

and living in green..

and everywhere is green in AIT..

I really enjoy life in AIT.

Got Lost.. yet another experience..

It is not actually such a way losing.. rather it was a wrong destination with the outdated information and took me hours to seek the place.. and yeah it was another experience for me.

Which way..? Where should i go..!!? who should i ask..?

Here come the story..

Since the expired date will be coming soon for my passport so i need to go to the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok to extend its validity. Frankly, i’ve never known the embassy before .. so do many other current cambodian students in AIT. I had just googled the information and got some information.. u know it’s outdated.. I had also tried many times to call the embassy but still cannot communicated..

So today i decide to go by following the address. I had asked a friend to come with me because he was also interested to know the place but he could not since he was busy. So i was going alone. And yes luckily i brought a map with me. I took a bus to Mochit and then skytrain to Rachdamri station where the embassy located.

According to the map the embassy is aslo there. I walked a few minutes toward the place. You know what happen.. when i got there i found nothing beside such hotel or company building instead of the embassy. I still tried to find the place around the vicinity and also calling to some friends who live in Bangkok for long time but none the them know as well. I just walked back and forth to make sure I was not missing it by examining the map thoroughly .. a little bit perspire.. and finally i asked a security guard in front of one place nearby.. He went inside and took a yellow page book and showed me the map and he told me that it was moved to somewhere else even he specified the area name but i still didn’t know where it exactly is.. I just remembered the area name..

After trying to locate the name on the map i found the area but .. u know how can i know the embassy is because the area is so big… I was thinking the way to get there.. and …ok just tried with another embassy’s number.. still cannot connect anyway.. what’s wrong??!!  the number i have is 018… after trying many time i started to remember that in thailand now they change the first mobile code number to 08 instead and i tried it with 0818… and yeah! it works.. ah.. a man answering the phone and i asked him for some information about the location.. and he said the new embassy is near Lao embassy and told me the street name.. and also told me that they don’t take any money for passport extension.. so i try to notice the lao embassy location on the map and yeah i found it.. only lao embassy on the map..

Taxi! Pai Lao embassy mai? Yeah ok! come on.. It was now 12.30 already and without having lunch i took the taxi toward there.. When i got in the taxi i heard the news about Preah vihear and Kampucha..sth.. and the taxi man asked me.. Khun Lao?  i said Krub.. ah and i just kept silent without speaking a word..

After nearly half hour drive.. “Here come the embassy of Lao” he said.. and i gave the money and got off.. and spend several minutes walking around Lao embassy and finally i found my real destination.. ah it was already afternoon..

Embassy of Cambodia in Bangkok as of 09-07-2008

I asked to enter the embassy and there i met two monks from Kampuchea Krom.. they came to make a new passport..or sth. Filling a form.. and wait for 20 to 30 mn and had a chat with the monks.. Now my passport is extended..  “50 Baht..” a thai lady said. ”It is not supposed to pay money for this service..” I explain.. But she said it is just 50 baht and insisted me .. even i kept telling her that they did not take money for this service.. actually i don’t mind about this amount of money but it should be distinguished between charged and uncharged service.  But ok i didn’t want to have a bad feeling so i gave her the money and left..

Inside the wall lies the embassy building

Well, the story is almost finished.. Before i got a taxi back to Mochit i just took a few photos of the embassy and try to remember the place so that i can tell others the information if they want to go.. From Mochit i took a van back to AIT and ate my lunch..

A full day has been finished without much things to be done.. just spending time and money tiringly commuting on the way..

And.. the story end with the day..

Books to Read..

These are some of the good books that i suppose to read during this intersem.. I try to get the most from them..

It starts to rain..

 

Here comes the rainy season.. in AIT

.. and just thought and felt of sth ..

Dinner with advisor..

Last monday’s evening our advisor, Dr. Paul, had invited all of us as his advisees who had graduated and his project team go out for dinner.. The place where we went is along the Chao Praya river, not so far from AIT.. but I could not remember the place anyway. We really had a very good time to have talked and joint the dinner with him.

Quiet days!

Since many of our Cambodian friends have just graduated from AIT and went back to home country, there are only fews of us here and make me feel that it is very quiet in AIT nowadays.. Hope there will be more new Cambodian students come to AIT in the upcoming semester.. 

I knew the reason..

This Evening..

Don’t know what to do.. don’t know where to go..

Just hang out around in AIT with some Nepalese friends.. and took some photos

In front of UFM coffee shop

With some Nepalese friends (Me, Kriti, Jagadish, and Natasha)

With some Nepalese friends (Anu’s in blue)

Water Lily

Evening scenary at one part of AIT

My bicycle, near football field

Football Field

Reflection – Red is around AIT these day..