Travel Diary #1: Krabi, Thailand - 7 June 2014 to 10 June 2014

This post was supposed to be published after I've concluded my trip. However, I've decided to post about my internship instead before I forget everything. My apologies for the delay. Now, this is my travel diary about my trip to Krabi, Thailand.

About Krabi

Krabi is a small town located on the west coast of southern Thailand and it is also the capital of Krabi province and Krabi district. The name Krabi is originated from the name of an ancient Siamese sword. Tourism is their most important source of income where visitors from many countries travel there. As of 2005, the town has a population of nearly 25 000 (The population is likely to be more than that since it hasn't update for so long). For more information about Krabi, you can search it on the internet. I won't say much because I have other things to say about my trip in Krabi.

This was my 3rd time visiting Thailand and in every trip, I would visit different places. The first trip was...I forgot where I went because I was around 4 or 5 years old when I first visited Thailand. The second trip was in Bangkok in 2012. And then, Krabi was my third trip in Thailand.

I'm going to post my experiences in Krabi from when I arrived to when I departed. So, here we go!

First Day (7 June 2014)

We arrived at Krabi Airport in the morning. There's an hour difference as compared to Singapore. When it's 11am in Krabi, it will be 12pm in Singapore. Before we could check-in to the hotel, we had to buy a ticket to take a taxi to our hotel at the counter. Our hotel is located in Aonang, which is quite a distance from the Airport so it costs around 600 baht (S$1 = 25.8 baht).

The taxi driver stopped halfway at a taxi station. At a closer look, there's a travel agency. My family didn't plan anything before we arrived in Krabi so that served as an opportunity to plan our guided trip. It took nearly half an hour to fully planned our 4 days 3 nights.  So our 1st trip for the day was the night market, a complimentary trip given by the guide there.

 We arrived at our hotel after planning our itinerary.  Upon checking in, we were served with juices and cold towels. That's what I should expect when staying in at a 4/5 stars hotel. However, as my parents completed the check-in process, we only received one hotel key card, that means only a room was prepared. The second room would be given to us shortly so I gave the first room to my parents while my younger brother and I waited. While we were waiting, we went out for lunch.

Our first lunch there was a seafood restaurant. I took a picture of the beach located outside the restaurant and it was beautiful. However, communication became a problem when it came to ordering our food. Although English can be used to communicate as many people in Krabi can understand, we've met a waitress who couldn't speak a bit of English. She had no choice but to seek help from another waitress for translation after she really couldn't understand.

Most pictures can be found on my FB but it's not for public viewing. You can also view these same pictures that I've posted due to limited space on the blog. I know you would start to yawn as you continue to scroll down as it would be a long post. I want to share this picture, particularly this picture for you to guess what the heck that dish was? I've posted on my FB status so here's the answer for that dish. The answer is...Salted Egg Chicken! When that dish was served, I gasped. I couldn't believe that it was a stir-fried dish instead of deep-fried which I normally eat at a tze-char stall in Singapore. What?! Really?! The Krabi version of Salted Egg Chicken. Different countries have different ways in presenting that dish. Honestly speaking, that dish was...too salty, alongside with Pineapple Fried Rice, Fried Morning Glory and Green Curry. Another unexpected thing was I thought there would be Phad Thai served but...they don't serve it. Disappointed but it's still nice to taste some of the dishes served by the seafood restaurant.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and the second room was ready. We stayed inside the room for hours before I went down to the gym. After the gym, we went to assemble at the lobby to depart to the night market in the evening.

Upon arriving at the night market, I felt like I was in Taiwan night market. Although there were no game stalls, there were foods stalls, clothing stalls and also performances to enjoy. There were tables and chairs for visitors to sit and enjoy their foods but unfortunately, we came late and all seats were taken and all we had to do was to eat while walking along the market.

 

Apart from the market, we visited the shopping centre/department store. As we entered, we saw a KFC dessert kiosk. A dessert kiosk that I had never seen for a long time in Singapore and by looking at their desserts menu, I shook my head. It was such a shame that KFC never offers cold desserts anymore except for egg tarts and chocolate cake. KFC in Thailand offers so many desserts that I would like to try each of them but then, I chose to drink their shakes, KFC Krushers. From what I know, those shakes were only available in Malaysia, India and Thailand. I'm not sure whether the 1st two countries are still selling it but based on what I've seen, those were the countries that sell it.

We went back to the hotel after walking around for more than 2 hours. That day was also the women's final  of the French Open so I watched it, witnessed the champion and slept.

Second Day (8 June 2014)

We started off our second day in Krabi with breakfast outside the hotel. My parents chose not to had breakfast inside our hotel which I didn't know why. Possible reasons were hotel didn't offer free breakfast vouchers or maybe wanting to try something special by going outside. So, we had American breakfast at Toto residences, a short distance away from our hotel.

After breakfast, we stayed inside the hotel for a few hours before assembling at the hotel lobby in the afternoon for another trip, island hopping.

We first went to Tup Island. I stood there, looking at the islands, the boats, the sand and the sea for that boring one hour and that's it, enough said. We moved on to Si Island and for the first time, I've tried snorkeling. Honestly speaking, that snorkeling experience was the worst and I almost going to end my life in that salty sea. I took off my glasses and wore the snorkeling equipment. I could see a bit when I was on the boat but when I went down the waters, my eyes started to feel the pain by the salty sea and I couldn't breathe underwater for long that I even struggled and went crazy. Drinking too much salty water was also the reason why I went crazy. Although I struggled a lot, I managed to go underwater for a few seconds and saw the fishes with my blurred vision. Still, it was the worst snorkeling experience I ever had. Would I try it again? I don't know, maybe, maybe not, NEVER AGAIN!

After snorkeling, the boat continued its journey to the Chicken Island. It really looked like a chicken, by the way. We didn't stop there and continued to travel to the Poda Island to have dinner. As mentioned by the tour guide, we were supposed to have a BBQ dinner. My first thought was there would be BBQ pits, ingredients, charcoal and equipment. However, when we arrived, I shook my head with disappointment.

BBQ dinner?! Where's the pits? NO PITS! Ingredients? Yes, in trays, already cooked! Buffet style? NO! You could only limit to 2 prawns, 2 chicken kebabs and 1 squid but unlimited usage of the sauce. I was totally cheated by the words 'BBQ dinner'! Well, I think too much and thought there would be BBQ Buffet...Sigh! Furthermore, we had to stand and eat. Even more...Sigh! As a result, that dinner wasn't really full.

After dinner, there was a fire performance by the guide. Well, it was fascinating but using the same tricks would make the audience yawn. I didn't yawn, to be honest, but I felt bored by it.

On the final island hopping, the boat continued sailing to the Phranang cave and some visitors had night snorkeling. Seriously?! You bet you can see anything underwater at night? I find it really useless unless you had something that you can bring it underwater that gives you light. The journey ended with a disappointment.

After an 8 hours island hopping, we had another dinner. Finally, I got to eat Phad Thai in Krabi! However, another disappointment was that I didn't get to drink their Thai iced tea. I drank my favourite iced lemon tea instead.

We went back to the hotel and I watched another final of the French Open, the battle between two men.

Third Day (9 June 2014)

For the 2nd time, we had breakfast at the same venue, trying new dishes that time. However, it was a race against time because we had to assemble at the lobby at 8.30am for another trip. Fortunately, we made it on time.

The first trip was elephant trekking. As compared to snorkeling the previous day, that was equally disastrous. My shorts was in the terribly wrong condition. One wrong move could lead to dropping of my wallet and phone so I had to quickly remove those valuables from my pocket, hold tightly and quickly put it into my bag. However, another crisis happened when another wrong move could lead to my bag dropping due to the hole on the seat. How stupid am I! I should've placed my bag in front of me. That 40-minute experience, I did it badly. I would've done better if I were to take elephant trekking the next time round.

The second trip was the temple and followed by hot spring waterfall. I only managed to soak my legs on their hot spring but where's the waterfall? Did you call that waterfall when it's a small amount of waters flowing from a low height? Also, it stated hot steam but there wasn't any steam from the waters! Don't believe it? See the next two pictures below. Maybe they were trying to say hot 'stream'.

After visiting the hot springs waterfall, the final trip for the day was the Emerald Pool. However, the directions to the Emerald Pool were really tricky. Just as I thought it was 800m away and I could see the pool in your eyes. Sorry, another 120m would get you there after seeing that signboard below. Can't you just put 920m to the Emerald Pool at the entrance? Oh, you go straight first and then to the right. It does make sense.

Finally, we've reached the Emerald Pool. I didn't go for a swim. I just went to soak my legs for the next 20 minutes.

That concluded the trip in the mid-afternoon and we went back to the hotel. My parents went for a massage while my younger brother and I went for gym.

At night, we went to the seaside to have seafood for dinner and watched the beautiful sunset.

After dinner, we went for desserts and I ate the Thai Lollipop which only costs around S$0.25.  Unfortunately, I've chosen the wrong flavour. The white one I'm holding....it's Sour Plum flavour. There are other colours but I didn't get to try so if you want to try it, go to Krabi and find one.

In addition, ice cream and pancakes were also added into our desserts list for the night. Those concluded our final night in Krabi.

Final Day (10 June 2014)

For the third consecutive day, we went to the same restaurant for breakfast. Similar to the previous day, I've tried their Banana Pancake.

After breakfast, we checked out the hotel and bid farewell to Krabi as we went to the Krabi Airport. That was the 4 days 3 nights experience in Krabi. The End. (P.S Continue scrolling down. There's an epilogue.)

Epilogue

On the 2nd night in Krabi, I've tried to order their Thai iced tea but the waiter said they did not prepare it anymore since it was so late. I thought I didn't get to try it until the final day at the Airport.
I finally got to try it at the Cafe after getting our boarding pass. It tastes great, by the way.

Upon arriving back to Singapore, I've text a message to my Liaison Officer for the submission of my log book. I didn't know he sent me an e-mail message until I read it at night. I thought I was going to be in big trouble if I cannot submit within that week. After a conversation with him on the phone and some text messages, I finally submitted my log book to him on the final day of submission. Close shave for me!

The End.

Internship at NTU: 17 March 2014 to 6 June 2014

I thought of posting my feelings about my 12-week worth of internship a day or two after the end of it but I went for a vacation the day after. Hence, I'm writing this after a delay. The post-vacation experience will also be posted here so will update soon.

Back to the topic. I'm a 3rd year student and have to undergo an internship at a company which is course-related. Different courses have different durations. Some may only take 6 weeks while some may take 24 weeks (6 months or half a year). For me, as a Civil Engineering student, 12 weeks of internship is a must. The purpose of this internship...I think I do not need to further explain its purpose but basically it's just want you to be work ready and experience the working life.

Before the Internship

There are different possibilities in which your internship company is decided. It could be your school deciding it for you or it could be you choosing one of the companies listed. Mine was the latter ones. Students have to log in to the portal and there will be a list of companies which they can choose from, up to 3 choices. I chose a R&D company which only offered one place and ranked it as my 1st choice choice. Then, I chose a university as my 2nd choice and another construction company as my 3rd choice. As you have noticed my title, I have posted to a university, NTU or Nanyang Technological University.

Once I knew my posting, I received a log book which looked like this.

Inside the log book, you will have to fill in your particulars. While you are having your internship, any tasks you have done have to be written down. Here's an example.

Apart from that, you will also need to sign your attendance sheet every time you come for work. Any absenteeism will have to be supported by medical certificates. 1 day of absence without approval = 3 days of leave. Once you cannot achieve 90% of attendance, good luck to you! You will have to experience your internship again.

Before the internship starts, there is a seminar which the rules of the internship must be understood and adhered. A letter has to be written to send it to the supervisor of the company, which I struggled as it's been a long time writing that.

When I knew I had to work at NTU, I thought of doing research works and laboratory works but things didn't out that way when the actual internship came.

During the Internship

My working place is near my house, so I only need to take a bus, 179 or 179A. 179A is the express bus service which they skipped all the bus stops at the residential areas, including an MRT station until it reaches the university. It's only available during their term time and things didn't turn out well when it's outside term time. More details below.

I knew which bus to take, which stop to alight.

However, I encountered a problem in which I turned out to be an idiot on the 1st day of my internship. I alighted at the bus stop and saw that building.

Block N1 was my working place. I had to find a Transport and Geospatial Laboratory which is located inside Block N1. As I entered, I walked one whole round and even asked for help. Finally, I found the lab, 1 minute late from 8.30am, the actual working time. On my 1st day, I really didn't know where to exit after my work and again, I walked one whole round and finally found the same bus stop sign until the next day when I found out that...

The lab was located one level above the building after I climbed up the long fleet of stairs from the bus stop. All I have to do was to enter the building and climbed up from B2 to B1 and there it was.

THE LAB!! What was I doing the day before? It was located above and I walked one whole round around the building. I've wasted my time doing that!

Back to the first day at work, there were more than 2 supervisors in the working area. Each supervisor is separated into two groups, the bike-sharing group and the traffic data collection group. I've chosen the latter one because I hate to do interviews and surveys so that group was a no-no to me. My supervisor is a PhD candidate who will be supervising me and the other intern for the Underground Road Systems project. All I have to do for the next 12 weeks...Traffic Data Collection in the lab. It's kind of a monotonous job and would continue over the next 12 weeks but fortunately, I was allowed to surf the net, YouTube, Facebook or whatever during work, provided that the tasks given by them must be completed.

That was my working station. For the next 12 weeks, I would be using the computer to do data collection works. That was the 2nd computer which I have used as the 1st one turned out to be hanged and malfunctioned all the time when it came to the 5th week.

Every week, I have to submit a weekly report on what I have done. Because of the fact that I'm quiet and shy, the average number of pages that I typed for a report was 2. The longest one was 3 (It was supposed to be 4 but my supervisor stopped me from doing that). After that, my supervisor will give a grading. Strangely enough, for the 9 weeks that I have been as an intern, I've gotten an A.........minus. It made me feel like scratching my head all the time. I've never seen an A.........minus for a long time. There's no A- in the grading table. If at the end of the attachment I still got an A-, how would the Liaison Officer (LO) grade me as? A, I think so. Fortunately, for the next 3 weeks, as the supervisor was away, another supervisor took over and graded me an A. So, it's final, it's an A!

As mentioned previously about the 179A not operating outside the term time. What happened for the final 3 weeks was I was late almost everyday, but not that serious, it's just around 2 to 7 minutes. I had to take 179 which is a longer route, covering the residential areas and the MRT station but I feel that it's much more convenient as I can alight at the residential area instead of the bus interchange in which 179A does for skipping all the bus stops outside the university.

Apart from the bus went haywire outside the term time, my lunch went haywire too. Previously during term time, I have many places to go, food courts, fast food restaurants and even a western food bistro. However, The western food bistro closed down before the term officially ended in which I only went 3 times. One of the food court which still operated after term time also closed down. Initially, I thought that it was just to have some spring cleaning or something but it's officially CLOSED DOWN!

Frankly speaking, the foods that they have offered were cheap and delicious. It was just sad to see that closed down during the last week of my internship. Hence, for my final week there, I had no choice but went to eat fast food below the food court. I don't know whether there will be another food court replacing them for the students there to eat. I really hope so. That was just a shocking disaster for it to happen.

At the end of the internship, I used up my time-off and knocked off early. How did I achieve time-off? Although the 12-week internship was like an office job, I did go out for a site visit. I went to the ITS Centre but...again, it was an office job. My job was to transfer all the traffic video files into DVDs. It was monotonous but by doing 3 days of that gave me 4.5 hours of time-off. I didn't use it until the end of the week.

I wrote Thank You cards to my supervisors and received a testimonial from the director of the lab to mark the end of my internship.

After the Internship

It was sad to say that I didn't get to do laboratory works or field works during the internship but I felt that I have gained knowledge and experience from the internship. The job that I have done was course-related but the fact was that I haven't learn Transportation Engineering yet. By knowing first-hand on what was it about, I started to get interested by it and hoping that I can do well and maybe pursue into that field.

The internship was an enjoyable experience but I have one thing that I didn't accomplished. Communication. I didn't talk to my supervisors and the other interns during the internship. It only applicable when I have completed my task or when someone asked me. I feel that I should have taken the initiative to speak to them before they speak to me. That is my weakness. It may take time to accomplish but it's better not to ignore it because communication is the key to know more about people and work cannot be accomplished when there is a lack of communication among your team members.

I would like to thank my supervisors for teaching me and giving me some knowledge about Transportation Engineering for the past 12 weeks. It was a pleasure in meeting those people during the intern period.

Once again, Thank You!

Crazy TV Show Fan #1: Wheel of Fortune

I love watching television shows, particularly variety/game shows. Back in 2008, I wrote in my Blogger profile 'Favourite TV Shows: Variety Shows'. Yes, that's what I wrote back then and even left it on the blog before I closed my blog temporarily. When I re-opened it, I found that how lame was my profile. Lame, absolutely lame! Therefore, it's time to improvised and turned into 'Random Blog' which you see it right now.

Back to the topic. I've seen a lot of variety/game shows throughout my life. BUT! This particular TV game show was one of my all-time favourites. Guess what? I've been a fan of this show for 17 years!

Source: gameshows.about.com

'Wheel! Of! Fortune!' Hearing that audience chanting the name of the show, I know my show has started and never want to leave the TV screen for the next 30 minutes.

Back when I was 3 years old, I was staring at the TV screen, looking at that big wheel spinning round and round. When I looked at it, I found that it was an interesting show and started to like it. Because of that, it's been 17 years since I started watching. First, it was the big wheel that attracted me. After that, I watched on the alphabets, words and phrases, and also listened to how the hosts, contestants and announcer speak. Apart from school, Wheel of Fortune is the show where I learn my English.

I didn't want to share this post at first because I don't know why, I find it very embarrassing to share with people. I always thought that not many people in my country would know that show.  When someone asked me what kind of games do I like to play? I would only answer 'Word games' but I didn't go on further to say 'Hangman' or even 'Wheel of Fortune'. Word games are the only games that I like to play because I like to think, wanting to solve the partially-filled puzzle. Although there are other games that I like to play, word games still top my list.

Ever since I liked watching Wheel, I started to search for more information about the show.

Wait! I started to watch that show on TV since I was 3 years old?! How could that be? According to the information that I've searched, Wheel has aired in many countries, be it their own adaption of the show or the American version of the show. Under the 'Singapore' category, it stated that it only started airing since the 19th season (2001 - 2002) and also it was the Mediacorp days. I find it misleading and I wanted to edit it out. The US version of the show started airing on Singapore television way before Mediacorp was formed in the early 2000s.

My first time watching Wheel on TV was in its Season 14 (1996 - 1997) on TCS Channel 5 (Pre-Mediacorp days in the 1990s). I could remember that it aired weekdays at 6pm and was followed by the Singapore version of 'The Pyramid Game'. After Pyramid was cancelled, Wheel became the only English language program that I would watch. After Season 14, the TV station continued to air new seasons of the show, from seasons 15 to 19 (1997 - 2002).

In 2002, Singapore decided to have its own version of Wheel. Hence, I think the US version has stopped for a while to make way for the Singapore version. Instead of airing weekdays, it aired Wednesdays to Fridays. Instead of airing it at 6pm, it aired at 9pm, before the news started. The dollar values on the wheel were too cheap, prizes back then were not in favour and car was only offered in the first tournament while the rest of the tournaments were cash. After that, it's history until US version of Wheel was back for its historic 20th season.

After the 20th season of Wheel was aired in Singapore, the TV station did not acquire more seasons. I felt disappointed at that time and clueless on why did they never bring in new seasons. As I watched other shows, I thought that airing Wheel in Singapore might be difficult until that day came in 2008.

In 2008, the TV channel itself improvised their programming and Wheel was brought back again. That time, it aired its Season 25 (2007 - 2008). However, it made me even more clueless on why they didn't air seasons 21 - 24 (2003 - 2007). Anyway, as long as Wheel was back on air, I could continue watching. Instead of airing weekdays at 6pm, it aired Tuesdays to Thursday at 7.30pm. And what made it so ridiculous, due to Beijing Olympics, the show stopped airing after 22 episodes. After the Olympics, the show never continued, which made me angry and upset. Fortunately, the show continued to air in late 2008/early 2009. Season 26 (2008 - 2009) was also aired after the end of Season 25. After that, it stopped airing again until 2013. Again, it skipped another 3 more seasons to Season 30, which is currently airing it now.

I don't know why they skipped some seasons. Skipping the seasons made audience clueless on what happened to those changes. I can believe, for sure, not many people will know how the 'Wild Card' works which premiered in Season 24, why the 'Mystery Wedges' turned from $500 to $1,000 which was changed during Season 22, what is the purpose of 'Free Play' (Season 27), where's the 'Free Spin' (Retired after Season 26), why are there '1/2 car' tags (First introduced for 1 week in Season 28, became permanent in Season 29) and most importantly, why does the announcer voice change? (Previous announcer, Charlie O' Donnell, passed away in November 2010 which was a few weeks after Season 28 premiered and it was replaced by Jim Thornton who became permanent in Season 29).

As a fan, it doesn't stop at watching the show. I got their handheld games,computer games and also a Nintendo Wii video game, specially purchased from an online game store where its headquarters is in Hong Kong.

Airing the US version of Wheel in Singapore did have 'skipping' involved and when it does, I would always look for the latest updates on how the game works right now. I may not be the best in knowing the history of my favourite game show which was first started in 1973 as 'Shopper's Bazaar' than people in the United States, I may be one of the best in knowing that outside the United States based on my years of experience watching Wheel.