Thailand vs. Oman (World cup qualifier) 5.9.2011 - part 1

It was tuesday evening and the premier league has been on a break for 1 1/2 weeks already. That's way too much for a freak like me. I couldn't handle it anymore so i've been trying to get any kind of football stimulus and i decided to go watch Thailand - Oman world cup qualifier. It was played not very far from my home at the Rajamangala national stadium. When i went there i still didn't know how to get the tickets and if there was any official sellers anywhere. There was loads of people around the area, most of them going to the match and others working, selling football related things and something edible. 

As i went closer to the stadium i saw many people selling tickets on the street. Also many people buying from them so i assumed it was a safe thing to do. I still continued closer to the stadium and gave it some thought. Drank a cup of coffee and watched the masses. Suddenly one guy came to me and asked if i was going to watch the match. I said yes and he handed me a ticket and said here you are welcome to Thailand. As in my country were always thought to be suspicious about nice people so i wondered a little but i didn't see any problem taking a free ticket. I asked him if he wanted one and he said he already has his, he just got a spare one. "Welcome to Thailand" he said again and i thanked him alot but i felt i couldn't really thank him well enough because i was left silent after such a display of being nice. So now i had a free ticket to the game, and also in the best stand, not bad! I still don't know where to officially buy them except from the internet and the sellers around the stadium but this ticket would have set you down 500 thb. A little bit more than 10€ and about 15$. The cheaper tickets cost anything inbetween that and 100 thb (about 3 dollars or 2,5€).

This is the end of part 1. To be continued....

Timo Travel

Does studying abroad feel like an impossible task?

                  photo: Oxyg

Have you ever thought of studying abroad? For the sake of learning a new culture, new language or just have a great time abroad while getting alot of new experience. It's not that hard, if i could be able to get away to Bangkok, Thailand to study, then can you. I come from a family that has an average salary in my own country, might even considered to be below average, that didn't stop me. I'm here right now, enjoying what bangkok has to offer. Meeting alot of new people, learning a new language and broadening my views on life. Even if feel like I'm not learning alot in school, i still feel like I'm learning everyday by just interacting with people from another culture.

So is it expensive to study abroad? Yes it might be, depending on your own background and for me it's not easy either. However the cost of living is much cheaper than in many western countries and i get along with about 20,000thb per month (as of 5.9.2011 that is about 500€ or 700 usd). I don't have any special luxury in my life right now, luxury as in material things. What i have though is the possibility to go out and eat great food everyday. And by "go out" i mean eat at a restaurant several dishes 2-3 times a day. A normal price for a dish in Bangkok is about 30-50 thb, that's local food and depending on where you eat. In the center it might be difficult to find a dish for 30 thb. But in the suburbs where i live and study you can even find it for 20 thb. That's about 0,7$ and about 0,5€!!! I don't have a TV but i go out watching football in a bar in the weekends. For good food and LITRES of beer i usually end up paying no more than 300 thb. That's not a bad deal if you still need to watch football without owning a television. There's is plenty of other entertainment that Bangkok has to offer, some cheaper and some more expensive. However i feel 500€ (incl. rent) gets me further here than for example 1500€ would do in europe. That amount is including tuiton fees that in my university is about 30-40,000 thb per semester. Some universities are cheaper and some more expensive but i feel this university is a relatively good one for an affordable price.

A cup of coffee costs about 0,25€ at a seven eleven and between 0,5€ to 1€ at other places. There heaps of good fruit available everywhere, smoothies and shakes for sometimes as little as 0,25€. Sometimes even i refrain to drink beer in favor of the delicious non-alcoholic fruit drinks available everywhere. Well THAT is something! I will post more on the economy issue later because with the huge crisis going on I'm fed up with talking about money. However feel free to ask me any questions you like about living expenses and overall living in Bangkok.

Timo Travel

Parking in Bangkok

Sometimes it will feel impossible to get your car parked in Bangkok. As you probably heard the traffic here can be horrendous and it most often is. What to do when panic strikes and you really need to get you car parked? In the picture below you will see the solution some people will make. And yes it stood still and it was also not the only one parked on that road. The road is Rachadamnoen Nok avenue and host's a fair amount of traffic in daytime.

I will post later about how to get a drivers license in Thailand! ;)

/ Timo Travel

Disorganized school!

There hasn't been really much happening lately. I can say that the school's here are a little bit funny, or actually it's not going to be fun at all if any of the following things will happen to you.
There's cases of the office:

- Loosing your grades. One, two or maybe ten of them. Not cool!
- Loosing your payment receipts, so suddenly you have taken shitloads of classes but never paid the THOUSANDS of dollars you were supposed to pay.

Another funny thing is that we pay an additional fee to every course for the course material. This course material sometimes will never be and at other times you will get it the last lesson of your class.

Man it can be irritating sometimes, but I'm keeping my head up. :)

Lack of information

I often see a mix of superstition and 'knowledge' that has not been properly thought about. It happens everywhere, i can say that for sure it happens also in Europe. But still in someway it feels so typically Thai.
Talking about fastfood now again. Yesterday i talked with two people who had different opinions on Mc'Donalds. One guy i met he was so surprised that i said Mc'Donalds is not healthy food, and he wondered 'how come'? He never thought it could be unhealthy in any way at all. Never even heard about such a notion. The other person again, she refused to eat Mc'Donalds at all. She said it will give her breast-cancer. Where the heck that came from?

Back to Bangkok

I'm back in Bangkok as i wrote earlier on my twitter. Which you can by the way find on twitter.com/Bangkokstudent 

It has been taking me awhile to get rid of the jetlag, climate change, new enviroment and all the accompanying things but i already remember why i moved here in the first place. The first day i was out for a walk on my own soi i saw two kids playing. And obviously the thai-way of having fun as kids is throwing sand in each others eyes and also rocks in every size and form. Seems like a good fun to me, anyone up for some sandwar? I admit that in my country we also throw snowballs in wintertime and they can be damn evil if they're made at right time. They can be very cuddly and soft but at certain weather it will be alot of pain if u get hit by one. Some people even but their snowballs under the water for awhile to make it freeze and u understand that it means u will be throwing iceballs after awhile.

But my people are pagan caveman and i actually don't think anyone even expect's us to come up with any actual mindshaking inventions. Interesting topic though, u could tell u more of that sometime. But for now it's sleeping time, see you again.
/Timo Travel

Greetings from the land where people wait for green light even though there's no cars in sight

Bangkok is famous for it's crazy traffic and heaps of people everywhere. Somehow i still felt more stressed being at the Stockholm central station where the commuter trains and metro etc. leaves from. There should be only something like 1 million people in that city but it was damn crowded. In that matter there's no bigger differences between the two cities, but what's with the stress and running guys?

At the Stockholm station people were literally RUNNING around. Looked like chickens in a chicken farm or a kid running after buffalos with an ak-47. You really had to look to every direction to avoid getting hit. No "excuse me" or "pardon". Just "get out of the way, I'm coming and I'm an very important and busy person".

I'm not sure if it was just the reaction because I've just arrived from a country where everything goes with half-speed from scandinavia, but that was crazy! Are people really that busy? Are they really in such a hurry? In Thailand you would be sweaty after a minute of such 10km/h running-walk.

To me it's incredible how such a small city can feel so much more crowded and congested than a city 10 times the size. Maybe it's just peoples attitudes that differs. I cannot recall even once that i would have had a Thai running into me like a cannonball. Then again I'm usually 20cm taller and 20kg heavier than most Thais also. :)

Cheers readers!