Three weeks in Training Part III

On the days that we were out of AIT, and those included days other than weekends also, we could see many people on yellow tee-shirts. And the number of yellow tee-shirts seemed to grow day by day. It did not seem to be any short of fashion style – every body from every walk of life seemed to wear them, including some tourists. And yes, all those tee-shirts had same lettering, same words, obviously in Thai. In few days, I could tell why they were wearing the tee-shirts, but it was not until the return flight when I found out why they were wearing yellow. We knew a bit about the kingdom and little bit about the king. We did not know that it was 60 years’ celebration of the king’s accession to the throne. By wearing the shirt marked with “We love the King”, they were showing the support and loyalty to the king, and by wearing yellow, they showed their respect the king – yellow being the color of king because he was born on Monday. The actual day of celebrations was on the very last day of our training, and we could see sea of yellow wearing people in every part of the city, as if yellow tee-shirt was the official shirt for the day.

Being from Nepal, its very difficult to understand why they love and respect their king. And being from Thailand, they find it very difficult to understand why we give a damn to our king. I was told that the current king single-handedly transitioned the country. He’d visit villages, setup camps all over the country, much like what King Birendra did in Panchayat years. The difference was that Thailand got much better on the long run, while Nepal… well we know what it is. I’d say it is not just the King that matters, people around the King also plays big role. I’d say King Bhomibol has enjoyed much better company than King Birendra or King Gyanendra. King Bhomibol had always pushed forward the policy of one village-one product, I was told. And people have gradually moved away from traditional sex-industry to cottage and other industries. Of course sex-industry is still big there, but other industries are taking over very fast.

One of the observations that I had about that society is that it is primarily a female dominated society, with women working and earning money while men looking after the house. That may be the reason why young men there want to be women. Also it may be the reason for the flourishing sex-industry. And they in general do not cook in home, preferring to eat outside. There are lots of food stall around the city. And Thais are always eating – that’s the impression you get once you move around the cities. Any time of day, you’d see people eating something – be it fruits, noodles, fried-rice, anything. Indeed, my instructor did warn us – he said Thai’s on the road are doing one of two things: eating or talking on the cell phone. It was normal for them to have two or more cell phones. On one of our trips to Zeer, we took a bus and I happened to be seated next to this guy. He was sleeping, as usual with them in bus, and suddenly his cell phone started ringing. He looked frantically to at least three phones before he could find the ringing one and then he continued talking for the rest of my journey – about 15 minutes – I can’t tell how long he talked, because when I checked his window after climbing down from the bus, he was still talking. But sometimes I tend to think that this talking on the cell phone business is slowing coming over to our part of the world. The transportation system here is nothing compared to Thailand, so I don’t see people sleeping in the bus as soon as they get a seat, or sometimes even standing in the bus, anytime soon. And we are much too aware about our weight, and eat-at-home concept is too strong to allow us to eat anywhere on the streets – let alone any time of day.

Anyway transportation is not the only thing that we need to copy from Thailand. For starters, we could try cleaning the environment. Or may be we could try with industrialization, and manufacturing. That will take time, but will happen, if the country is to survive. I only wish I live to see it.

This third part concludes the story, the story of three weeks in Bangkok. Who was with me? Dibas Neupane is my colleague and was there with me. I could not include many of other friends who we met there and helped us. I have many memories there, with many people and lots of many stories. Eventually I might tell them, but it is neither time nor appropriate to tell them. But I am eternally grateful to Ramesh, Sandeep, Sanjeet and especially to Aadit, Deep, Nuraj and Ratna, whom I met in AIT, for all their help. Whatever Sahdev did to us when we were there I am very grateful for everything he did to improve the layout of these stories. Without his tireless efforts, these last three posts would have become much less attractive. And yes, thanks Pat, for those lovely pictures of you in that yellow tee-shirt.

This ending is somewhat lame, but I have never been able to wind down any stories. And I apologize for those large pictures.

Three weeks in Training Part II

The weekdays were full of classes, but we did manage to get to some nearby market places at Future Park and Zeer. Future Park was quite close, just about 10Km from AIT.

Zeer is further 5Km from Future Park. We took a trip to Big C hypermarket and bought some stuff – garden equipments, chocolates etc. Zeer is more technology oriented. My friend got couple of stuff – some mobiles, camera stand etc. I chose not to buy anything there, as I bought most of the stuff in Bangkok. And we could go to the cinema in Future Park – The Da Vinci Code. It was quite enjoyable, particularly because I had enjoyed the book, and seeing the stuff described in the book felt – um – for the lack of better word – great!!

Weekends were a different thing. On the first Saturday, we were taken to Grand Palace in Bangkok city. A great palace with lots of decorations, it encloses three parts: the residential palace for the kings, ministries and temples. Of course the king does not live there anymore, and consequently many ministries have moved out of the premises, but the temples and monasteries are still great.

We could not do a lot of shopping though. Primarily because we were so focused in buying a laptop that we did not look for anything else.

On second Saturday, we were taken to Pattaya. I don’t know if you have heard about Pattaya, and what it is famous for. I am sure, however, that you must have heard that one of the major income sources for Thailand is sex-tourism. Well you could say Pattaya is capital of sex-tourism in Thailand. It is one of the new cities, and was built for recreating foreign military, mostly Americans serving in Vietnam. That explains booming sex-trade in the city. There isn’t much in the downtown markets that suggest the scale of the industry. Super markets, hyper markets, departmental stores, groceries etc. fill most of the market. And yes, bars. Lots of bars, with lots of women – bartenders and customers. To someone naive like me, it simply suggests the level of drinking that goes on in that city. To someone more experienced, it shows the full extent of the sex-industry. I was told that those women were waiting for their customers.

The others in the group did describe the extent of the industry. I was told about the famous walking street – a street about 2 km in length just by the beach in the south of the city. This street is supposed to be closed to all vehicles after 1600 hours, and is filled with either tourist or the “bar-girls”. I did think it was a bit too exaggerated that I was told those bar-girls would stay fully or semi nude. All this stays a story for me, as I did not see that street, nor the night-life of the city, due to the heavy rains on that evening. (But I found this picture on the Internet. Its a night shot, with 1 second exposure, so people are not very clear. And I don't have permission to post it here.) Much later, about a week after I got home, I found out that, though fully covered, those girls would approach you and politely ask “Do you want sex sir?” and respectfully return if you answered negatively. I did, however, see the Alcazar show. It is one of the famous cabaret shows that feature Pattaya’s famous “Ladyboys”, the male-to-female transsexuals.

The show was amazing. With shows ranging from classical Thai to Chinese comical to modern dance numbers, the hour spent there was one of the most breathtaking. If you ever go to Pattaya, don’t miss this show. There are many such shows, but this one, along with Tiffany, is the most famous. After the show, you can get pictures taken with those ladyboys, just be prepared to spend 40 bhat per photo. I wasn’t ready to spend that much money, so I didn’t. Others felt they could.

I didn't have consent to publish anybody's picture, so I had to blur this guy's face. I don't know how to contact him, so his face will remain blurred for a long time.

The other place that we went to was the Nong Nooch Tropical Garden. The garden is spreads to about 600 acres of land and is beautifully landscaped. I especially liked the French Garden, which is just amazing. I can’t even begin to describe it. So here’s a picture of a part of it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a complete picture. The entire structure that you can see, apart from rocks, are plants, differently colored plants. Just imagine the effort that went into creating it. And before you conclude that I, somehow, misplaced the picture, no, that stonehenge is not from United Kingdom, it’s a replica there in the French garden. Now don’t ask me what a British piece of archaeological history is sitting near French garden, I don’t know.

And that cultural dance? Well... I don't have words to explain it. The hours spent in there was next to nothing. Completely knocked the hell out of me. The beautiful women, the extravagant dress-ups, the rythemic dance, one of which incedentally, is called Charya, and I suspect its very similar to our own charya dance. Anyway, I know I have not done any justice to that dance by not writing more about it, but I simply can't find enough words to describe it. Anyway there are much better and much richer references to Ramayan than in India, I was told. I wish I could write a very long piece about that hour sometime. May be when I get enough time....

In the adjoining picture, the Buddha that you see is not painted, its pure gold that is stuck to mountain-side. Obviously it is protected by the army and nobody is allowed to walk on the grass. If you get on the grass, they come and arrest you. Simple as that. It’s very easy to get arrested in Thailand, I was told, especially the tourist. Crime is moderate and lonely places are not safe at all. And police don’t speak English, so they will arrest you just to keep things simple for them. And if you are caught without passport and valid immigration documents, you are doomed. Get ready to spend rest of your life in jail.

The second Sunday was memorable, in its own weird way. We went to the airport, expecting Sahdev to return from Seoul, and waited for the whole afternoon. Our plan was to pick him up and get to Bangkok for a spot of more shopping. But he did not come that day. He changed his plans and forgot to inform us. Man… that was difficult. Somehow we managed to get some free time on the following Tuesday and went to Bangkok. We bought some more garments, but I had plans to buy this telescope. It was not exactly cheap, but it does what it is expected to do. On reaching home, the first thing I did was unpack and assemble that contraption. The night was, thankfully, clear and I pointed that thing to Jupiter. WOW – that was something, Jupiter with its four of the brightest moons: Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede. About a week later, when I pointed it to Saturn, I could see the rings and everything. I wish I could take a snap. At any rate, those images are something to remember for a long time. My NPR13000 is well spent!

Three weeks in training Part I

I knew I was a potential candidate for a training course on Network Security for more than a few months, but our bureaucratic efficiency shows itself in the fact that my confirmation came just two days before the date of departure, after ticket and visa. But it did come and I got to fly. It was a great flight, very stable and nice, although it was raining around Kathmandu. Weather got much better after Janakpur, mainly because the plane was now flying over 28000 ft in altitude. Bulks of clouds below looked really nice. Unfortunately, though, I set my camera for two stops under exposure and forgot later to set it back. Some of the plane pictures came really dark. Anyway, since I did not take too many pictures from the plane, it was not too bad.

When we landed, something struck me really hard. Bangkok Intl’ Airport has two parallel runways – 03L – 21R and 03R – 21L, separated by about 380m. And between the two runways is what should be world’s noisiest golf course. I wonder who plays there! Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that. It was too dark when we landed. That was day one at Bangkok, and we had to drive about 40 km north, to AIT.

AIT is a nice little place, but for us who have thought it would be enormous, let me just say it isn’t as big as we would think. And because buildings are well hidden among forest, it looks much smaller than it actually is. All the buildings are about 3-4 story high and not that impressive looking. As a matter of fact, I was shocked to see such a small facility. Next few days gave me another shock – just opposite the main entrance of AIT is Rangsit campus of Thammasat University. And that university is big. Big with big buildings and big area with big sports facility and everything.

Anyway, the night was spent in AIT Conference Centre, in a nice hotel room.

That evening we had our dinner in the hotel restaurant, and was it expensive, almost spent all of that day’s daily allowance in it. The next day was formal opening ceremony. In that event, we were introduced to fellow participants from Bhutan, Mr. Fazle Karim, Program Director, Ms. Maria Soccoro G. Fontanilla a.k.a. Cookie, Course co-ordinator, Mr. Kuldeep Nagi, Instructor, and finally Ms. Pattama Chaiyapan a.k.a. Pat. Pat took us through AIT premises showing places of importance where we would be spending time in AIT. Then she took us to AIT Extension building where we would have our class. One thing that I noticed was that AIT buildings are located inside all natural environment – lots of wild animals inside the premises.

There’s not much to report on the classes. Day in and day out we’d follow the path of the Golden Triangle: hotel room – class – cafeteria. For two days we tried the hotel breakfast. I found I had nothing to eat other than some fruits and two pieces of bread. Third day onwards, we cancelled the breakfast. Our routine was scheduled something like this: 8:30 – 10:00 first session (theoretical discussion), 10:00 – 10:30 coffee break, 10:30 – 12:00 second session (theoretical discussion), 12:00 – 13:30 lunch break, 13:30 – 15:00 third session (practical and self study class), 15:00 – 15:30 second coffee break, 15:30 – 16:30 fourth session (practical and self study class). But I’d usually wake up at 8:30/9:00 and always late. I’d get to class around 8:45 without anything for breakfast. After the sessions, I’d still be in class till 20:00 when I’d go to have some dinner.

After dinner, I’d go straight back to class and stay there till 00:00 sometimes even later. May be because of the coffee (I was doing something like 8-10 cups a day), I was not very sleepy before midnight, and I’d not sleep until 2 in the morning. It was quite fun working like that, with that much of coffee. I wish I had that kind of coffee all over again.

The return trip was memorable. It was the day after king’s celebrations, and obviously security was very tight. The coordinators were running around on the day before our return, it seemed that various dignitaries would arrive for the celebrations on the day we’d depart. There were conflicting reports, some said approach road to the airport would be closed from 7 am onwards, while another said it’d close, but time was confidential. Since our flight was at 10 AM, we had planned to get to airport at 7 AM, but it seemed that would not suffice, and were suggested to go to the airport along with the Bhutanese group, who had to go at 2:30 in the morning – they had a very early flight, around 6 AM. We were ready, of course, but later it was suggested that we leave at 6 AM. At 6 AM, we were waiting at the hotel lobby, but the vehicle was not there, and did not come until 7. Apparently the road would not be closed at all. So we got to airport and waited until our time for check-in. Just as our flight came up in the screens, a fire broke out in the terminal building and soon, the whole terminal was filled with smoke. We were ushered into second terminal – terminal 2, and it was jam-packed. Finally, somehow, we did manage to complete check-in procedure, and when we got to departure gates, the flight had already started boarding – mind we did not stop anywhere after check-in till the gates except for a few minutes for VAT refund of the laptop. The return flight was somewhat dull with nothing interesting happening. Just another flight, I’d say.

More posts on parts

I know I wrote some time ago that I wouldn’t write in part again, but this one became so long, I had to split it. I am planning to put up three parts to it, the first one coming up shortly. The first part is major part of my trip, while second part is oriented to special stuff. The third part is about the society there. The worst part about writing in parts is that I don’t write in parts, just split the story. Modifying the story to put up in parts is not easy, and when I manage to do it, it’s just terrible. But then, there’s not much that can be done!!

On other notes, I am trying to put up some pictures in the posts for the first time. I am not so sure if it will be successful!! And I sincerely apologize for any typo there might have crept in.