Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts

4 Must-Visit Cities in Asia


Asia is the largest and most populous continent in the world. There are 48 countries in Asia today, according to the United Nations.
There are many interesting countries in Asia that you must visit at least once in your lifetime.
Here I listed out some nice cities that you may start your discovery of Asia if you are planning to come for the first time.


1. Malacca, Malaysia
To suggest a place to travel in my country, I would always tell my friends start with Malacca, which located in the middle of the Peninsular Malaysia.
This historical city centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the best starting point for you to know more about Malaysia.
Malacca, Malaysia




2. Singapore
Next to Malaysia, Singapore is one of the most popular travel destinations in the world.
It's a small country, with full of excitement and things to discover.
Singapore





3. Bangkok, Thailand
Thailand is well known for its rich cultural heritage. Another popular thing to do in Thailand is to experience the floating market.
More : http://mush4crazy.blogspot.com/2015/11/diy-guide-to-damnoen-saduak-floating.html

Bangkok, Thailand



4. Taiwan
This is the most friendly country that I ever visited. You should visit this country to experience warmest Taiwanese and the beautiful scenery from the nouth to the south of the country.
This is also one of the country that I would like to revisit.
More : http://mush4crazy.blogspot.my/2014/11/collection-of-food-in-taiwan.html

JiuFen, Taiwan


Here's another 5 selected cities in Asia that I plan to visit in future:
Siam Reap, Cambodia
Beijing, China
Kyoto, Japan
Seoul, South Korea
New Delhi, India


Don't know how to plan your trip to Asia? Scare to travel to a new country? You may find some useful guides on travel in Asia from the links below:
www.asiaodyssey.com

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DIY guide to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Bangkok Thailand [UPDATED VERSION 2015]

I went to Bangkok for a short break in June. This trip was just spontaneous.
I bought the flight tickets one month before the trip, and later start to plan the trip in 1 month.
The most important thing to do for an independent traveler before a trip will be doing research before depart.
For Bangkok, it's consider easy to discover it by yourself. Information available online are quite sufficient .It doesn't necessary to follow a tour or having a tour guide.

Floating market is one of the unique attractions in Thailand.
This floating market is one of the hardest research that I ever made.
It is hard as most of the travelers mentioned about scam pier in Floating market and how commercialize the floating market is.
To be honest, when I saw so many negative feedbacks and scams about Damnoen Saduak floating market, I'm a little bit distract from going.
I should try once, at least once to see how this floating market is packed with tourists.
I would like to go without following the tour with gang of tourists.

I found that the information provided to get in to floating market are mostly not updated.
Therefore, I decided to compile and update the information on the simple way to get in to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market independently without following the tour.



How to go??
Considering as budget fare as possible, there are 2 ways you can go,
- By Bus no.78. You have to wake up very early and make your way to the Southern Bus Terminal(or Sai Thai) . The 1st bus at 6am depart to the Damnoen Saduak. The single trip fare per person is 73 baht
- By Mini Bus ( aka van) . The mini bus depart from Victory Monument, which is nearer to city centre compare to Southern Bus Terminal. The single trip fare per person is 90 baht. Personally, I strongly recommend taking this mini van rather than the bus. The departure location is nearer to the city centre.

It's about 2 hours ride from Bangkok city centre to the floating market.

The driver will turn into a pier and let you get off. You will meet some people approach and ask you to take their boats. They will say it is impossible to walk in. Just ignore them. Why?? It's just a scam which charge you a higher price on boat going to the floating market.


Sources: http://www.diytraveltips.com/2012/07/damnoen-saduak-floating-market-bangkok.html


The truth is the distance to the heart of floating market is walkable. Now what you can do is either walk to the floating market or taking a local "yellow" bus.  Actually, it looks more like a mix between mini van and lorry. The fare for yellow bus is 10baht.

For trip back to Bangkok from floating market, you have to take this yellow bus to the main road ( You may refer to the drawing above), then later take bus no.78 to Bangkok.


Here is the entrance of floating market





and of course for first timer to floating market, I strongly recommend you to take a boat ride within the market. After some bargain, I managed to get a 45 mins boat ride for 300 baht for 3 people. I believe it's a good deal . Remember to do some bargain for all the thing you would like to buy in floating market.

I enjoyed the boat ride, saw the locals preparing and selling the food on the boat. The boat ride will stop if you wanna buy something on the way.
The boat ride is enjoyable, a bit annoying when encounter the motor boat, which disturb the silent of the market. Here I strongly recommend paddle boat instead of motor boat. Motor boat travel fast but it's just spoil the whole environment.







As floating market is one of the very famous tourist attraction, the price might go a little higher. You may buy some of the food, such as coconut ice-cream and fruit .
Besides the boat ride, it is possible to discover the floating market by walk. There are different sections of the market are connected with bridges and walkways.









Why you should DIY and go to floating market without following tour?
1. It's cost saving. If you following some tour agency, the whole jouney will cost you at least 1000baht. If you DIY, you can save up to 70% of the fares.
2. You can avoid the crowd in floating market. Normally the floating market will be crowded after 9am. If you take a boat ride in a crowd, your boat will get stuck and wasting time.
3. You have freedom!!! You can decide when to go and leave the market. You will have time to discover some hidden treasure in the floating market.


It's not as difficult as you thought to DIY a trip. Just try and you will like it.


You may read this blog about DIY to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. I found it useful and help me a lot during the trip.
http://www.diytraveltips.com/2012/07/damnoen-saduak-floating-market-bangkok.htm



All prices listed as accurate on my visit to the floating market on June 24, 2015.

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University Scholars Leadership Symposium @ Learning Journey

I know it's a long long time ago overdue post....( about 6 months ago thingy....LOL)
I feel so embarrassed for not continue the last post about this symposium.(Actually I have completed written this symposium in mandarin in my another blog, and for this blog, I written half way and didn't continue but still written " to be continue" in last post...LOL) You can check last post here
and somemore I just discovered that the organiser of the symposium read this blog,
and somemore they added my written post in one of the media gallery...

OMG!!! suddenly feel so malu with my poor writing skill + inaccurate grammer ...
So, to make myself feel better, I think I should continue the last post,
and what I haven't write and the most important part of the symposium held at Pattaya, Thailand in August of last year--- Learning Journey


Her name is Dabell...
She is so cute, just look like a normal children,
However, she can't listen,She is deaf.....
In 7-days symposium at Pattaya, I have opportunity to visit people who are less fortunate
Every group were given task to complete with less fortunate community
My group was given task to bring fun and joy to the deaf children from Pattaya Orphanage...
So, we brought the children to one of the famous tourism spot in Pattaya --- Sriracha Tiger Zoo


Learn some sign language from the children and the people in-charge of the school of deaf. We had some communication barrier since I don't know thai language and she is deaf...but with the help of people in-charge and some delegates from thailand, I know more about her..


We watched tigers and elephants shows. The children were energetic and keep clapping while looking at the tigers


The children always with happy face although our communication without the words
Dabell tried hard to let me know her thought, and end up she wrote many thai sign in my booklet, and all thanks to thai delegates to help me translate....

All children are very obedient and courtesy
You can see the children were queue to get their goodies....


And they bow after received goodies....
“we cannot spoil them, even though they are deaf, just treat them like normal children"
These children need our care, need the community to support and care them
although we can't do much to them,
at least this kind of visit make them feel that they are no different from others..
The deaf children still can live like normal children

Group photo with the deaf children


The children school, and also their home...


The Symposium move from the hotel to outdoor,
and Learning Journey make the whole symposium become more meaningful,
This is not my 1st time become volunteer but It's my 1st time become a volunteer outside my country,
In term of helping them, actually we learn more from those less fortunate
Their positive attitude and mindset, their optimism, their courage
Happy can be very simple, Happy does not necessary to use words to express
A smile from inner heart is the biggest happy



I'm happy to meet all delegates from different countries with the same passion in the 7-days symposium...


Hopefully I still have more opportunity to join this kind of activity...
and this year University Scholars Leadership Symposium will held at Bali, Indonesia..
Theme of this year : Making DREAMS happen
Application is open now..
A journey that you should not miss and you will not regret....
If you are interested, you can visit their website for more infomation





Pattaya, personal, Thailand,
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University Scholars Leadership Symposium @ Pattaya, Thailand Trip



Finally I have time to blog it here, Yes, I WENT THAILAND for my very 1st time.Thanks to my University for sponsoring me for this trip.

University Scholars Leadership Symposium have gather more than 30 countries university students with more than 300 delegates.This 7-days symposium have mainly focus on the topic of global humanitarian affair.Networking session was also an important session for us to communicate and exchange our view with other countries students.

It was rain when we reach Suvarnabhumi Airport Bangkok on the 1st day


The officials( aka as ajk ) were in airport waiting for our arrival.



Pattaya is a small city, 2 hours journey from Bangkok. Wao!!!There was banner welcoming us.



Pattaya is a famous tourism spot in Thailand.The business in Pattaya are mainly bars,disco,clubs,massage and some grocery shops



Really "Original" Nasi Pattaya ate at Pattaya...Haha


I think this Pxxx burger can't find at Malaysia McDonalds...LOL....


I'm going for registration.....yeahhh!!!


Symposium venue, 5-stars Hilton Hotel Ballroom


Classy design and strategy location which is in front of the central Pattaya beach.


And very very very delicious food which make me fat after 7 days symposium....haha













Professional Chef doing pizza....


Sunset of Pattaya Beach



At the symposium, I must tell you that the crystal light on the top of ballroom is beautiful than what you can see from the photo..wao....


The speakers and the organisers


All delegates were divided into 10groups. I'm in Group8..Group8 is great!!


With the same passion of concerning the global issues


Tiffany's shows- Pattaya famous performance






Here we are, Malaysia representative...It was actually 9 of us...


Thai Alangkarn Theater


Perfect terrific performance, light, color and sound effects..They used the real elephants...Storyline was about the Thai king history if I'm not wrong( Because we all are keep focusing on the effect....LOL....)


Flowers on my neck....woohoo.....


The free time after the activities was mostly at night and I'm not going so many places since I didn't delay my flight ticket...haizzzzz



Networking .....interaction.....networking

yes,It a symposium,It a golden chance for you to broaden your social circle.

*****************************************

I must admit that the talk make me feel sleepy( so I chewing many mentos during the symposium....haha!!)

Guest speaker, Dr. Wijaya Godakubura, President of Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation, Sri Lanka.


Another guest speakers
Peace activist, Dr Hakim,Founder of Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

Many delegates like his talk..

He strongly believes that peace is possible..


Thailand famous tut-tut car

It between 10-30baht.(RM 1-3)

walking street in Pattaya, Just similar with jonker street or Petaling street in Malaysia

But It's full of "bar,disco" smell....

Her inspired short talk have made many audiences cried...

Her braveness to live although she are handicapped.

the power of dream, dare to dream,dare to realise..

Learn a lot from this symposium...

Happiness is not difficult as we thought,when you see the children joyful face
Happiness can be easy, If you are happy..,

To be continue....
Pattaya, Thailand, Travel,
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