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dimanche 26 novembre 2006
Par matt le dimanche 26 novembre 2006, 00:08 - voyages, voyages
C'était il y a déjà deux semaines ... Un super week-end avec Adrien et Noémie (une française qu'on a rencontré içi), avec plein de temple et de Boudhas, des rues animées à toute heure, des chauffeurs de tuk-tuk fous, des masseuses thaïlandaises :) et des soirées cools avec des intiens et leurs potes francais. C'était un chouette week-end quoi !
Les photos suivantes vous donneront un petit aperçu du week-end, ya aussi du texte en anglais si vous voulez :)
samedi 25 novembre 2006
Par matt le samedi 25 novembre 2006, 23:47 - voyages, voyages
Ben oui, il ne faut pas oublier que ce gros week-end entre Koh Pha Ngan et Hat Yai était censé être consacré aux révisions. J'ai donc promené tout au long du voyage une bonne quantité de polys et un livre sur la gestion de la relation client. Et je n'en ai évidement fait qu'un usage très modéré :) Ce n'est pas l'envie qui manquait, rassurez-vous, mais on n'a pas eu beaucoup de temps avec tout ce que l'on a fait !
Voilà les photos de ce voyage bien sympa et plein de soleil, de mer et de bonne nourriture thaï !
vendredi 24 novembre 2006
Par matt le vendredi 24 novembre 2006, 16:05 - trip advice
There's not much to say I guess. Bangkok is the capital of Thailand for a few centuries now and is quite famous ! We took the plane in the evening on Friday and came back on Monday evening, having then 3 days there.
We arrived late on Friday (around 2am at the guesthouse) so we slept quite long on the morning. We took a breakfast at the israeli guesthouse we were in, the Greenhouse in Thanon Rambutri if I remember well (first one we found, it was not so easy to find a guesthouse in Khao San neighbourhood at 2am on a friday night). Then we walked to the river and took a boat down to the Tha Sathon (central pier). This boat is a good way to see Bangkok from the river, it was pleasant.
Then we took the Skytrain to the very north, last station, of Mo Chit. We had an appointment with a friend from the INT (my home school) at 7pm and decided to spend the afternoon there. The Chatuchak market is just near the station on every Saturday and Sunday. It is a huge market with many many things, some clothes, of course, but also some pets, flowers, paintings, handicrafts ... It's quite beautiful and incredibly cheap. We stayed 4 or 5 hours there (and I'm usually not that fond of shopping :)) !
At night, we took a van to go to the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) where my friend Laurent and other people from the INT are studying. There were a party there where every country cooked something to make the others discover their local food. It was good. Then we experienced the local pub and its cheap whisky. This is quite strange, people are dancing around the tables, but it was a good evening. We went back to Bangkok at 3am ...
We didn't wake up very early once again ;). After a lunch in Th. Rambutri, we walked in the direction of the Grand Palace. At the middle of the trip, a guy wanted to give us some advice. "You should not go there on Sunday, many people are praying, foreigners are not welcome", "Have you been to this Buddha, this one and this temple". "Try also to go to this shop, they're selling gems at an uncredible price". Well, we'll see mister ... "I call you a tuk-tuk, he can drive you everywhere for cheap" (80 bahts for the whole trip, the driver waiting everywhere). Well, we finally followed. I think he was paid by the shop ? but anyway the day was ok.
So we went first to Wat Intharawihan and its 32m high standing Buddha. It was the first one and we appreciate it. But it's true that at the end of the day, after thousand Buddhas, you don't even have a look at them anymore :). After this we went to another temple but monks were praying or something like that, it was closed. We walked around in the garden, I spoke with an english-speaking thai (not so easy to find) and took tuk-tuk again to the shop the guy wanted us to go. There were beautiful gems, that's true, but still a little bit too expensive for my student purse :). We didn't stay long and people there weren't boring, it was ok. Then the tuk-tuk drove us to the Wat Saket and Golden Mount. This is another temple, but next to it there is an artificial hill from where you can see Bangkok. The view was not very special, but the place was calm and we stayed there for a while. When we came back, the tuk-tuk had left without even being paid :), so we had free trip ! We walked in the street following a Lonely Planet walking tour. We went through the Romaneenart Park where we made a stop, lying on the lawn. There were Thai people all around, some children playing, it was nice. Then we walked to Wat Suthat and visited it while the sun was going down. The end of the tour was in the Pak Khlong flower market. There where beautiful flowers everywhere, and so cheap once again. So sad I cannot bring it back to France :). As we had an appointment for dinner in Suhkumvit, we took a tuk-tuk once again. Crazy tuk-tuk :).
We spent the evening with some french people, some we saw the day before, some new ones. We ate in a good restaurant in a soi (an lane-way that runs of a bigger treet) of Suhkumvit, the neighbourhood of embassies and well-known hotels. It was pleasant and interesting to talk with some french people studying there, to compare with our experience in Singapore for example. After the restaurant, we went to the Saxophone, a live-music bar near Victory Monument. I really enjoyed the place, they were playing some good groovy jazzy music and had nice cocktails. We talked quite a lot again and went back home around 1am. We walked through Khao San road before going to bed, but everything was closing, we were late.
Waking up quite early to have the time to enjoy the whole day, the went first to the Grand Palace. We went into the Palace without paying, it was interesting but nothing really phenomenal ... then we just skipped the Wat Phra Kaew and its emerald Buddha. We judge it was woth the 200 bahts they were asking for it and we already saw so much temples ... We just went to the close Wat Pho ant its giant lying Buddha (45m long!). Actually this temple was very cool, not to many people, nice gardens, small statues everywhere. I liked it.
After this temple morning, we wanted to try the well-known thai massage (well, try again for me, but still :). We went to the Wat Pho massage school, it was very pleasant! Then we ate in a small thai restaurant in front of the Grand Palace and took the boat down to Chinatown. Once there, we walked in the markets for a while (they weren't as nice as Chatuchak) before taking the taxi to the airport ... the trip is already finished!
Bangkok is definitly an interesting city, so lively all the time, mixing so many old things with new ones, with an overwhelming circulation and tuk-tuk and cars everywhere ... There are not that many things you really have to do there, it's more a matter of enjoying the atmosphere, walking around ... and three days are enough for this !
Par matt le vendredi 24 novembre 2006, 12:36 - trip advice
Koh Phangan is a well-know island in the Thailand Gulf. It belongs to the Koh Samui archipelago. The three main islands are tropical paradise destinations. While Samui is the biggest island of the Gulf, Tao is famous for its diving spots and Phangan for its fullmoon party. This monthly held party gather up to 10,000 people on the southern-shore beach of Haad Rin. But the rest of the time, people can enjoy a nice island atmosphere and perfect sand beaches. Almost what we've done ...
We left NUS at 5pm and took bus 200, MRT, bus 160 to Johor Bahru, Malaysia and its famous Larkin bus terminal. This is a good way to save a few dollars instead of taking the bus directly in Singapore. As it was the beginning of the holidays for Singaporian schools, we weren't much confident in our chance to find a bus to Hat Yai (Thailand) direct. We arrived at Larkin around 6.40pm and we managed to find a bus departing at 7pm for Hat Yai. The bus was quite full and I believe we've been lucky. This seemed to be the only bus for Hat Yai departing. You can find it at the counter 36. Price is 73 MYR.
The trip was quite nice but so long ... We arrived around 8.30am (local time) in Hat Yai after queing for a long time at the Thai border around 7am. There weren't that many people but the officiers weren't very efficient! We changed money (no more ringgit needed ...) before the border but the rate was better in the travel agency in Hat Yai.
Hat Yai is only a stop in a long journey ... The bus brought us directly to Davis Travel where we bought a minibus ticket to Surat Thani (240 bahts), the harbour for the islands. The agency was selling joint tickets (for 500 bahts) with the ferry, but this was for a slow ferry at 4.30pm arriving at 10pm in Koh Phangan. Leaving Hat Yai around 9.30am, we arrived in Surat Thani around 2.30pm. Once again, the bus brought us directly to a travel agency who tried to sell us ferry ticket for 650 bahts. We finally bought it 350 bahts. It was a fast ferry, leaving at 4pm from Donsak, one hour away from Surat Thani. We met an odd Singaporian guy on the way: Although he had finished his school for 6 years, he wasn't working for real yet, enjoying travelling and freedom. That is really unusual for Singapore and he explained social pressure was quite high toward him!
When we arrived in Thong Sala (the main city of Koh PhaNgan) at 7pm, the taxis literally rushed at us. And since sleeping in the city is not nice, we had no choice but to bargain with them. We were only a few farangs (foreigners) on the ferry as it is low season and nobody was heading to the same beach. This was good for taxis but not that much cost-effective for us. With Adrien, we wanted to go to a Thong Nai Pan, a remote place in the north-east, but being only two it was obviously overpriced (800 bahts for the taxi). So we managed to reach an agreement with the other people (a French girl, a Canadian and the Singaporian) to go to the nearest nice (according to french Guide du Routard) guesthouse, Cookies, for 50 bahts of taxi each.
This place was nice, populated with people you just expected on such an island, smoking not only tobacco ... We were tired, we just had dinner and went to bed.
On the morning, I walked along the coast around cookies, it was so still. Thong Sala seems to be within walking distance (30 to 40 mins). Since we wanted to go to Thong Nai Pan (TNP), we decided to leave after breakfast. In Thong Sala, we managed to find two german people who were going to TNP too and we shared the pick-up taxi for 150 bahts each. The trip is around 1hr on bad dust roads. I think it's quite impossible to go there when it really rains ...
TNP is very remote. Since the trip there is quite long, there is a real feeling of being far from the crowd and the stress of the city. The beach is really beautiful and just lively enough. At least during the low season: there were closed resorts and very few people on the beach (we saw maybe 25 different people (foreigners) there!). We slept at the Baan Panburi Village in a quite simple hut for 350 bahts. There is a nice bar just in the middle of the beach with a free pool you can play all night long against local people. Name is the Flip-flop Pharmacy. The restaurant next to it is nice too.
The weather was not perfect since it was the north-east monsoon and this beach was thus directly hit. This means nice waves on the beach and some 15-minutes rain three or four times a day. Nothing really bad, you just have to take your towel back from the beach to the hut 15 meters away :).
While we thought we would have a few days lying on the beach reading our books for the coming exams, our trip was finally more about moving all the time. This was ok too, reading can wait after all :). We had to leave TNP only one day after coming since we wanted to dive and there weren't that much possibility to do this there. It was possible, but just meant taking a taxi to the other side of the island, dive and come back, and it was pretty expensive. Since we had to leave TNP the day after anyway, we prefered trying to go directly on the other side of the island. The taxi to Thong Sala was organised by the guest house for 100 bahts at 4pm and once there, we took another taxi to Chaloklum, a small fishermen village in the north of the island for 150 bahts each. We arrived there at night, we just made our way through the village, asking for diving and then we took a guest house on the beach a little bit further, something like a 15 mins walk. It was the Chaloklum Bay Resort. We just had a room in the main building for 300 bahts, but it was ok. We were the only customers there, it was strange. So many bungallows and nobody in ... Beach was beautiful but probably not nice for swimming, not deep enough for at least 500 meters.
Waking up early in the morning, we walked back to town and found a diving club ready to go (the Chaloklum Divers, held by german nice people, on the main street of the village). They were going to Sail Rock with a few people, it was looking nice, we went too. For 2400 bahts each, we had two dives and everything around. The way to the spot was something like 1 hour of boat. the sun was shining so much ... The day was wonderful, visibility and currents excellent for this time of the year they said, with more than 20m. and almost no currents while it can sometimes be 2m. and strong currents. We'd been lucky :).
After diving, we were drove by the club to Haad Salaad, a very beautiful beach on the west side of the island to spend the afternoon. Once again, beautiful sand and perfectly clear water on this monsoon protected side. We had a wonderful sunset there too. After that, we decided to take the night ferry to save one night, anyway we would have had to sleep in the main town and take the 7am ferry to be on time for the flight back. We went back to Thong sala, 150 bahts each again ...
The night ferry at 10pm is 300 bahts and was actually ok. There are matress on board you can sleep pretty well. You arrive quite early (4.30am) in Surat Thani, that's the only point. Once there, we were led to a travel agency who sold us tickets for Hat Yai (250 bahts).
The other reason we took the night boat was that we wanted to visit a little bit Hat Yai instead of spending the day in transportation. We left Surat Thani at 6am and arrived around 11am in Hat Yai. Following the Guide du Routard's advice, we went to Thong Nga Chang waterfalls. It is 45 minutes away from town with these shared taxi, a mix between bus and pickup taxi. The way there is only 30 bahts, but the entrance is 200 bahts for foreigners! Anyway, it was worth, the waterfalls were really beautiful, we swam there, water was quite cold but ok.
We just had a little problem to go back. The taxi told us to be there at 4pm. We were there, but there weren't taxi anymore ... We waited for a while and were finally brought directly to the airport by a Thai guy. It wasn't so easy to communicate, they were speaking very very few english. But anyway, we arrived at the airport five hours early, enough time to read for the exams. A little bit at the end of the trip ... was reading trip after all :).
jeudi 9 novembre 2006
Par matt le jeudi 9 novembre 2006, 02:56 - ma p'tite vie
Here is a little post to keep you aware of my projects for the next month ...
I don't know if i will have so much time to write in the next weeks: my schedule is likely to be a little packed with exams coming, projects to finish and still so many places to go to :).
I spent the week-end in the island of Penang, malaysia. Even if Penang is a malay island, the trip was not one of these 'wonderful beach trip' again. Actually Penang is a big island in the north west of Malaysia and the most interesting thing on the island is probably its biggest city, Georgetown. With its 500,000 inhabitants and its rich history, the town is quite nice. We had a very cool week-end with Adrien and Gabor (my hungarian CS4260 and CS4266 teammate). I guess I have to write a little bit more about it and to publish pictures we took, but it will wait (and don't know how long it will, since some posts about september trips are still to be written :)).
Friday evening, I leave Singapore again to fly to Bangkok, Thailand. We're going with Adrien and Noémie, a french girl usually studying computing in Grenoble. We'll meet Laurent from the INT there, he's a former classmate of mine. I think it will be a enjoyable week-end once again. Will tell you more later (woh, some posts to be written again ...) !
I'll be back on Monday evening for my last three days of lecture here (and probably for a while :)) before leaving for Malaysia again. This time, we will drive (yes, drive :)) toward the center of the country and its highlands with the usual german people. It sounds very good too ... We'll stay there for a little week, since it will be our reading week. (We won't forget to take some books, we're supposed to read, aren't we? :)).
Saturday the 25th will be my first exam (this nice CS4250). One week later, on the 2nd, I will finish with CS4266. I will then have one more week before taking the plane back, and I think I will go to Thailand and its beautiful beaches, in order to make a huge stock of sun before coming back to the french winter. Anyway, this is in more than three weeks, I'll see !
If there were only travel, it would be quite easy ... but I will also try to see local people the most that I can before leaving. Tomorrow I will eat with some teammates (Lulu, Alisa and Kit - yes you know two of them) and I will probably eat with the people from another team in the week after.
We also have a few things to do in Singapore before leaving. Like going to this famous ladies' night (every wednesday is free flow and free entrance for girls in many places in Singapore) (so we must go there on a wednesday, problem, there is only one left :)), going to the new asia bar, maybe do a boat trip, go to the Ministry of Sound, a well-known club here ... (as you can see we really did few about clubbing and going out here, everything is still to be made ;) !)
To put it all in a nutshell, my last month here is going to be pretty busy, but woh woh woh, that's nice, I like it. (Some people may recognize these words I borrowed from a well known kazak actor, Borat :p). I'll keep you aware the best that I can!
Oh, I have a last little thing I'm sure you will be glad me to tell you. Since many readers of my blog seem pretty concerned by my look and especially my hairs, I have to warn you I've been to the hair-dresser this week-end, I no longer look like a strange animal. Don't be afraid, i won't look clean long, my beard is growing again. Little picture ?
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