ASEAN Youth Exchange Program - Thailand - Part 1

Hello world,

I have been in Thailand for 4 days. I safely arrived in BKK on 15^thafter some problems and annoying things. But everything has been good so far. The hotel I have been staying is awesome with sufficient comforts, especially swimming pool and gym. My roommie is a Malaysian girl called Grace. After receiving the hotel room, we walked to Terminal 21 – a shopping mall – to have some food. The mall is big, each floor represents one country with famous images and stuff. The food and drink here are not expensive. I saw many cars and big motorbikes moving on the roads. There are also sky trains above the roads. Thailand is country of driving on the left side so it was hard for me to get familiar at the beginning. 

swimming pool in our hotel

 

Traffic jam in BKK

Next day, we went to Chulalongkorn University to celebrate opening ceremony. The university was big, much much much bigger than mine in Hanoi, and very beautiful. In the afternoon, we did a campus tour to visit this university. The weather was so hot but we had to walk. Tired but it’s worth it. At least I had lots of fun here, knew more about the university and made friends with lots of people. But I failed to remember people’s names because they looked similar and their names were quite hard to remember. I thought they encountered the same with my name. It’s the reason why a boy from Brunei named me Betty. In the evening, Vietnamese team went to a night market by subway. It was the first time I had gone by subway so I was really excited although I felt tired. We also passed by a bar street where we saw some ladyboys who had long legs.

Vietnam Delegation in opening ceremony

My friend - Bank

with Mits from Philippines, taken at Chulalongkorn University

Let's jump!

 

Group 1

In the third day, we did ice breaking activities including making groups, doing group cheering and so on in the morning(I had no idea about cheers so I couldn’t think about anything. Luckily, a Philippines guy created some moves for our team. But I have forgot everything after 1 day). In the afternoon, we visited Wat Pho Temple and Museum Siam. It was hot and sunny but I didn’t bring any sunglasses, hat and sun block so my skin had become darker. The Museum Siam was very nice. There were lots of activities for people to discover Thailand from the past to now. We watched movies, played games, listened to the radio and many things to understand more about Thailand and BKK. At night, we went to another night market with our staff (one of them can speak Vietnamese) and bought some T-shirts.

In Museum Siam

watching boats

Today, we had our very first lecture on ASEAN Identity. I stayed up late previous night so I was a bit sleepy while listening to the lecturer. But the workshop and discussion group in the morning were nicer. I liked the workshop on Advocacy as we did many activities and raised our voices and opinions about peace making. Not only did students from other countries speak English well, but they were also intelligent and confident. I had learnt lots of things from this camp. 

We also swam today after having dinner then we did rehearsal for our culture night tomorrow. I saw other delegations practicing their performance and preparing for tomorrow everywhere in the hotel. Hopefully, our performance will go well.

I don't like the food at the hotel much as the taste is strange and different from what I eat in Vietnam. But I ll try to eat street food. They are much better.

I don’t have much time here as the majority of our time is spent in class with lectures and workshops. So I can’t write more specifically. But I will try to keep writing posts. 

So the first four days in BKK have gone. I have six days left. Just enjoy!