Adverse economy

I don't mean to lecture you about how "prosperous" current global economy is at all. It's just at work, today, our MD gave his speech and greeted "Happy New Year" to everyone officially and we also listened to a speech from CEO from the video. Both things lasted like an hour....including other extra things in between. After that, I actually feel a bit discourage rather than motivated. How strange! I'm a self-motivated person. Maybe I need to be motivated from other people. Anyway, it doesn't mean that our big boss didn't encourage us but I think it just didn't work with me :-S

I think people in general (not only the management at work) talk about the decline of economy too often until I feel like we say it until we will become like it or we are like it but we say it worse than it actually is! If I was in other business, I may probably feel different. So I think we should look at the bright side and try to seek for opportunities which are obviously there or hidden there. We'd better be positive but of course, positive on realistic basis. Cheer up, people!

I managed to pick up my bank statement this morning. What's next? I'm looking for a cheap and better mobile phone than the one I'm using. I have used this one for 4 years already so you can imagine how OLD it looks and I'm afraid it's gonna be broken soon. Hopefully not but I'm afraid so. lol

Apart from a mobile phone, yep, a laptop. One of my workmates would like to sell one because she said it was kinda slow when booting stuff. I told her how about 10K baht ($285/EURO 212/ GBP 192/AUD 400 for est. current exchange rate against Thai Baht) She was quite shocked by the price I offered because when she bought it 2-3 years ago it was about 40,000ish baht. (time 4, please) Anyway, I told her it's better than sell it as a junk. She will bring it to the office tomorrow as she would an MIS member to check why it works so slowly. If it is slow, I think I get a chance to ask for more discount. LOL It's only 60GB and I don't know about other details of its capacity yet. ...still it's better to have one when you WANT one! hehe

See you tomorrow, maybe.

Today to me to yesterday and to tomorrow

While I was having lunch today, there was someone raising her voice in a local restaurant. (Most of local restaurants here are not like a proper restaurant in Western countries). I had a look at the source of the voice and I found a couple started fighting each other over a topic I couldn't hear very well even though they spoke Thai. I was sitting at the opposite end of them. They tried not to speak so loudly but apparently everyone's eyes stared at them before they realise it's non our business, lol. I just felt sorry for them. They wouldn't enjoy the meal at all. The girl started to have tears in her eyes and she was saying sth like the guy didn't care about how she felt and now maybe this is her last straw or she might get emotional from time to time I do not know. At that moment, I feel like it's hard to be a couple. It takes a lot to be a HAPPY couple I have to say. I wish I'll have a happy one but again noone knows how I will end up. The girl didn't finish her lunch and she probably lost her appetite already. They left before I finished my lunch and I thought this was the thing I was going to write it today. Now I'm doing.

Lesson to learn: Don't fight over a meal, LOL

After that, I had a haircut. I'd better call it hairtrim but to my face, it seemed that the hairdresser trimmed my bang too short. I have to say I'd better do this myself if I know it would turn out to be like this. Maybe it's a bit too trendy for now. I didn't like it that much. I thought the hairdresser would clearly understood the meaning of the length at my eyebrows. Did she understand? I didn't whine or anything. I just paid her the money and thought I would never come back again. Thanks! I have to wait for 2-3 months until I get what I'm looking for, I'm afraid. And that may be about time for sth special for me this year. Here is the today's result.



I came back to find my friend lost his laptop during his trip in Indonesia. He's safe though which is the most important part. Thank Buddha...and God if you like LOL! However, laptop is not only valuable stuff but it is quite important in today's life. I feel very sorry for him and I know it's only little chance to get it back. You can find out for more story from here www.trevssalsatravels.blogspot.com

If any of you would like to sell a laptop at a friendly price, pls contact me. I need one in next a few months or you can sell to my friend because he needs it NOW lol.

Last but not least, I just realise I would like to post my trip diary here but I can't turn the time back. If you have any idea, I can re-write the date and make it looked like I have posted it for 4-5 years ago, that'd be great. Maybe at least 2 years are already awesome! Any idea?

Tomorrow I'll pick my bank statement at a bank. Then go to work after that. It's going to be an exhausting morning!

I will re-start

Today is just a day...OK it's Sunday 18th but it's not special. It may be someone's birthday but I don't know them in person so overall, it's just a day to me. However, it will become a big day from now on because I decided that I will start updating my blog to make it a proper blog from now on. I actually have written lots lots of my traveling diary but they're all on my emails. My photos are kept on 2 websites which, unfortunately, one of them were totally deleted after I had nearly 100 albums with it. It was cancelled because I didn't want to pay for the annual fee (It was free for long time) and I don't bother to upload them again on the new website. So my photos are scattered and slightly incomplete in cyber world. Eventhough I have it in complete version on my harddisk drive but it consumes A LOT of time to upload all of them again. I will probably arrange some of them in place and I will start my blog, not again but from now on.

This is probably going to be weird to start writing this as my diary. I have stopped doing it for 5 years. If I remember right, February 2004 is the month I have given up writing a diary. Yet, I write lots of emails to friends and write postcards or letters in between. I guess I just love writing. I'd love to express my feelings, my opinions, my silly and brilliant ideas in alphabets! And I have written diary in English more than I did in Thai. Can you believe that? I can say so because I'm now 30, hehe....but still I need to learn more to be a good writer. I may become an author some day if you can live long enough to wait for me to achieve that day! lol

I may not be a good entertainer but I hope I can make you smile or laugh or cry or think hard some time som how.

Thank you for reading Namrin on the Blog :-)

Namrin 18th January 2009

I'm a newbie

Dear readers,

I have thought for a very very long time (more than 7 years) to have my own blog. However, today is my first day on blogger.com and now I don't know what to do, where to start, it's just my blog doesn't look exactly like what I want so I don't know what I should do first. I feel lost LOL! Now I'm writing here to see how my post will be like. And I hope the more I write, the more I know how to manage this blog.

This is actually my 2nd blog because the first blog isn't like what I thought after I posted the photos. I'm not so sure that I can do a lot here because it seems to have fewer functions than my first try on the 1st blog. Anyway, if I can work on my mainstream well here. You will definitely see me update it again and again, and again.

After this blog is built to be in a shape, I will publish this and I hope to hear from you no matter you like it or not. All comments and advices are welcome :-)

Thank you for visiting "Namrin on the Blog"
Namrin

Namrin in Japan for work and leisure

I'm in Japan again for work and leisure. However, the time is limited so not much to entertain myself.

One day is what I have and so, I took a day trip to Nikko with my Japanese friend, Hiromi. I met Hiromi in Sydney as a classmate. Hiromi visited Thailand 2 years ago and I was her guide taking her around BKK and Pattaya. Now it is her turn to take me around. It was great and Nikko is beautiful. It's the most perfect autumn I have ever had. You can see that leaves change their colours. I brought own my sunshine as usual.

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202008/Tokyo%20and%20Nikko/

See ya soon.

Namrin in Pattaya for foam party and more

Hello,

I'm back. Actually this album should my SCUBA diving trip that I did in July but occasionally, I make an express way for my own favour lol. Surely next album will be underwater photos with sharks and more! Pls stay tune!

There are quite a lot of photos as it is 2-day activities. The main purpose to come to Pattaya this time is to go to the foam party at Hard Rock Hotel with Ploy (my friend who lives in Pattaya). Sound interesting, huh? But before we explore how the foam party like. Let's go through the story step by step.

I don't know what happened to my life but this is the second time in a month that I had to wait for my friend for a very long time. How long? It's only one and a half hour. The worst record was 2 hours and a bit!! My question is why it had to occur within a month? I try to think that it's time to pay back for myself being late a bit here and there to other people (if you believe in Karma). Colin, Ploy's boyfriend, drove me to Pattaya. Thanks Colin even though I had to wait for quite a long while but I'm not angry. We arrived at noon and went straight for lunch. After that, Ploy told me that she and her elder sister would like to go to the temple to release some fish and birds back to nature. It's a good deed Thai Buddists do. I don't know whether I have ever really done that as I'm not practically religious. Anyhow, I joined Ploy's sister and her sister's friends. I felt great after doing a good thing! We bought eels, a few types of fish and frogs or toads and free them in a big pond in a temple. I hope they are all fine and won't be fished back to the market :-)

Next stop, we passed the Silver Lake which is a grapes farm. They sell the grapes' products here and also built a resort for people who travels to Pattaya. It's mountaineous with a huge lake and nice flower garden. I didn't feel like I was in Pattaya which is a beach city. It's like I'm in North of Thailand, hahaha. Nice views with some pretty girls there!!

Then, our main activity is here! We went to Hard Rock Hotel where they hold the foam party every Saturday. It was really crazy and fabously fun. Dress Code: swimwear, bikinis, spaghetti tops, shorts, you get the idea, don't you? I don't remember how long we were in the foam pool but seemed like a few hours. It closed at 1AM and that was the time we left, hahaha! After the foam pool, we jump into a swimming pool to get rid of the foam from our bodies and then played water basketball with other hotel's guests. I did score one but Ploy, Colin and P' Kay (Ploy's friend) didn't see it! Oh, NOOO!!! That was my impressive shot! How could you guys miss it?? D'oh!! lol

It rainned in BKK and other provinces around but it didn't rain in Pattaya throughout this weekend. Told you I bring my own SUNSHINE! LOLOLOL ;-) It was great weather and kinda too hot actually. I woke up late after a long night. After lunch, we went to the go-kart circuit. This is also my call, lol. Something I fancy doing in Pattaya :-D To be honest, I'm not a master driver but you know the thing that you like doesn't need to go into the same direction as the thing you are good at. i.e. a big football fan doesn't have to play football brilliantly, right? Just like that :-D It was a great excitement when driving on the circuit. And when you hear the sound of go-kart engines, I just can't imagine how it would be if this was Formula 1 racing.....Feel good! I was not quite racing with my friends. There are a few other people driving in the same round too. And I have to say wow! They were fast and furious. Two are Westerners and 1 are Thai guy and one of the girls in our group, she drove very well too. Those were on a race lol. Ploy, Colin, I and if there were a few more, we just leisurely drove LOL but still didn't have time to enjoy the view of the trees and the pond. Everything seemed to be quick and I needed concentration, and we were so close to the ground!! And that is exciting and challenging you can feel!

That's all for now. Coming up next...let's go under water (go under me-Nam!! hehe :-P)

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202008/Pattaya-Foam%20party/

SCUBA diving in Koh Tao: 16-18 Aug

I drop the diving story. I decided to not write the story about my SCUBA diving trip in Koh Tao. The reason is that I wanted to write about a friend who joined the trip but it's gonna be quite negative so I think I'd better not mention it. LOL! The trip was great as you see the from photos. And that's the important thing you need to know because if you have a chance to dive, don't miss Koh Tao.

Now I'm just lost and don't know what to do with this blog. I have to say I don't like the column "My Photos". It's good to have it all set in this blog but I can't manage the photos in the way that I want. I can't even re-organise or re-order the photos. That's my major disappointment. So I'm thinking about leaving this blog to another one which I'm not sure it will be like what I want or not but I will try. So if you see me here again, either it means the new one is not better or it is my last message on this blog. We will see...

I don't know whether you will have a chance to read this. If you have, thank you.

http://www.thoughts.com/Namrin/photos

http://www.thoughts.com/Namrin/photos/browse/cid/6358

http://www.thoughts.com/Namrin/photos/browse/cid/6674

Namrin with her friends-Koh Tao

Hello, everyone.

Due to a business call, Aom, my Thai friend decided to go back to Bangkok 1 day earlier. So you see, taking a long holiday leave in Thailand is not easy somehow. Sigh!

Koh Tao??? The first time when you think about Koh Tao, you think about turtle. The second time when you think about Koh Tao, you talk about SCUBA diving. The third time when you think about Koh Tao, you talk about snorkelling. The forth time when you think about Koh Tao, you think and talk about turtle, SCUBA diving and snorkelling. hahaha!

Those are what Koh Tao is all about. It's not your islands if you look for sandy beach. It's rocky beach here. But down under it has very nice underwater plants and animals that you will love to see. Further but around Koh Tao, there are many famous diving spots for SCUBA divers where you have a chance to see whale sharks or blue sharks.

Unfortunately, it's now very difficult to find turtles here. Koh Tao literally means Turtle Islands because this islands is famous for the place that sea turtles came to hatch their eggs. But now, I'm not sure whether it has become only a tale yet. Never heard of people talking about it for a loooong time.

For my own unlucky bit, I lost some photos because of sun exposure. The ones that can be used are in little blue tone. I used the half auto/half manual camera with waterproof case but I didn't know how to remove the film from the camera's case LOL. The photos underwater I posted are only parts of a film. If I could change a film, we would have more photos. We found a very big interesting fish down there too. But I don't know the name and didn't have a film left to take its photo :-(

Our schedule of that day is simple:

Got up in early morning. Picked up by a van that took us to a pier in Koh Samui

Light breakfast and got on the ferry. This boat is better and bigger than yesterday's one. It has air-con and hundreds of seats. You can tell this is a little longer distance.

Departed to Koh Tao
Arrived at 1st snorkelling spot: Go snorkelling

Lunch on board
Due to unpredictable weather (from past 3 days), we didn't go to Koh Nangyuan for our own safety:-(

Traveled to 2nd snorkellin spot: Go snorkelling
Then, headed back to Koh Samui

Tomorrow is the last day of my Gulf of Thailand trip

Namrin
PS. Actually it didn't rain that day. It's a shame we didn't stop by Koh Nangyuan. Therefore I have to go there again next year. lol

28 July 2008
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202008/Thailand%20trip%20with%20Japanese%20friends%2017-31%20July/Koh%20Tao%2028%20July/

Namrin with her friends-Angthong National Marine Park

Hello, everyone.

Back to the beach. This was another day Aom and I travelled together. We went to Angthong National Marine Park which I think this is the biggest National Marine Park in Gulf of Thailand. Angthong National Marine Park consists of 42 of islands around.

There was a funny thing we observed when we arrived at the ferry. Actually it's rather pity. From the very first photo you may see that there were some Thai wearing office outfits on the boat. I and Oam thought we got on the wrong boat but later when more tourists (mainly foreigners) came on board, we knew we were on the right boat. One person from the office outfit group asked me what's there at Angthong Islands. I explained from what I knew. And then, we found out that her group were having the seminar but none of them had been informed that the trip to Angthong is the beach trip. So women wore cut-shoes or high-heeled shoes and men wore leather shoes. And of course, none of them have brought their swimwear! OH! How terrible! I guess the organiser who managed this seminar was not the boat otherwise he or she would receive complaints from morning until afternoon! hehe

I have to say this day trip is not the best for people who loves snorkeling because the snorkeling sites they took us are too sandy. Perhaps you can have a good snorkeling at the other sites but you would need a two-day trip I guess. However, if you are a beach lover, you will love it! We hit a very nice sandy beach at the main island-Koh Woa Ta Lab. Unfortunately it was cloudy so the photos may not be so great. But it was only cloudy really and nothing more. The sky didn't dare raining when I was there! It's all in control! HAHAHA!

As this is the Marine Park, 82% are sea but it also has rain forest area too. Unfortunately it rained a night before so it was too dangerous to climb to the top of Koh Woa Ta Lab. However, we took risk to go up for a bit to get some photos for you guys LOL. How nice I am!! And that was our first stop.

Our second stop was at Koh Mae Koh. I guess it means Mother of islands for literal translation. For about 10-15 mins of climbing up to get inside the mountain. Here Koh Mae Koh welcome you with a breathtaking view of locked sea or lagoon inside the mountains. In Thai, we call it Talae Nai. It was very beautiful! It's like the green lake rounded by mountains. I can't really describe more so you'd better check the photos below :-)

27 July 2008
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202008/Thailand%20trip%20with%20Japanese%20friends%2017-31%20July/Angthong%20National%20Park%2027%20July/
Namrin

Namrin with her friends-Koh Pha-Ngan

Hello, all.

You may notice I don't say my Japanese friends in the subject because my Thai friend joined this tour too:-) I'm so proud to be a guide for my Thai mate! Manisa or for short, Aom, is my long-time friend since undergrad life. Actually we went to the same high school too but I didn't know her well at that time.

Some of you may need to learn a few Thai words. I hope you still remember; Wat = Temple
New words of today are
Koh or Ko (G sound) = Island(s)
Khao or Kao (K sound) = Mount or Mountains
Haad (similar to 'hard' sound) = Beach
And more importantly you should be able to say "Sawasdee krub" for men speakers or "Sawasdee ka" for women speakers. Sa-was-dee = Hello

Only Oam and I stayed at Koh Pha-Ngan. Before and during this time, Wakaho and Masa wanted to try Phuket so they were on their own for 3-4 days.

Our plan:
Thursday 24th
20.00: The VIP bus leaves the South Station to Koh Pha-Ngan


Friday 25th
12.00: Arrive at Koh Pha-Ngan.
We met a Western travellers who said that the storm is coming for next 5 days. I and Aom's faces were pale. To break the silence, I told Aom and said "don't worry, Aom. I bring my own sunshine. We are gonna be fine."

13.00: Check in at the bungalow

14.00: Lunch
I thought the beach was rather quiet. I told Aom that tonight it would have a half moon party I thought it was gonna be more crowded here. It seemed so different from the full moon party. And I told Aom that the beach we are staying, Haad Rin is the most famous beach of Koh Pha-Nga beacuse they hold the full moon party here. But the half moon party will be held in a jungle.

15.00: Beach time....take a nap, sunbath, read, play games, etc.
It was cloudy at first but finally the sun came out!) Like I said, I brought my own sunshine hahaha!

19.00: Dinner time

20.00: Go for Thai massage

22.00: Meet up with other travellers and the hotel boy drove us to the half moon party

23.00: Sitting boringly! It's NOT in the plan!!
Aom said this party was pretty quiet. She thought it's because of rainy reason. I told her I had no idea. We set the time that at midnight we would go back to the hotel. The floor had too much space. We didn't know where ppl were!

24.00: Midnight. I and Oam are leaving the party but apparently hundreds of ppl just arrived.
What the ??? And Oam and I laughed. So the party started midnight! It became packed now but since we were too early so we were tired! We got back to the hotel. Okay, I'm a terrible tour guide! But next time, I won't miss it! hahaha


Saturday 25th:
10.00: Breakfast at the bungalow
Oam and I observed one thing. We are the only 2 Thais at this bungalow if we don't count Thai staff!! We weren't sure we were still in Thailand LOL! On the bright side, good time to practise English! hehe

11.00: Sightsee at Haad Rin Nai which is the other side of Haad Rin (Nok) where we are staying.
Oh MY GOSH!! We were little shocked when we saw the beach because the beach is dirty. It's not full of human garbage but natural garbage. Lots of rotten branches, leaves, some dead shells, etc. The beach is longer than Haad Rin Nok but it was narrower and less clean. Luckily I didn't choose to stay here. We walked further to see the ferry pier. This is the place we would take the ferry to Koh Samui in the afternoon
Walkd back to our Haad Rin. Nicer but it was very cloudy now.

12.00: Prepare to check out
Oops! Heavy rain. Rain likes cats and dog. Is that the correct expression? We had to wait for nearly 2 hours before it became shower. We had late check-out!

15.30: Get on the ferry
As it was still storming, the waves were big. The ferry was turbulent so I was kinda have seasick. Thank Buddha! We haven't had lunch so nothing came out from my mouth. The other side of our seats there were two young Western ladies putting their head down. I spoke to Aom to look at them and said that they shouldn't have done so, they would throw up. After 30 seconds, they vomited on the ferry!! Yuck! I glanced at them and I had to turn my face away quickly because that stimulated me to do the same thing. I put my face up- I needed some fresh air! Help me!!

16.00: Arrive at Koh Samui
After a slight seasick I had, I got refreshed after stepping on the islands again, the pearl of the Gulf of Thailand, Koh Samui.

17.30: Check in at the hotel

19.00: Pick up Wakaho and Masa at the pier and had dinner

20.30: Come back to the hotel and go to bed

Tomorrow Oam and I will have a day tour to Angthong Islands National Park:-) Pls stay tune!

25-26 July 2008
http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd191/namrinb/Photo%202008/Thailand%20trip%20with%20Japanese%20friends%2017-31%20July/Koh%20Pha-Ngan%2025-26%20July/