Bye Bye Puppy:(

This is a short one…dedicating to my dog…

This dog of mine was born unexpectedly from Som-Jook, a dog that my mom forgot to gave her birth control procedure which was quite unusual. Anyway, her name was Som-Cheng (Som means orange in Thai..so they both are different types of orange). She was an only puppy, no bro or sis.
Due to the first time pregnancy of Som-Jook, it was quite tough to deliver the puppy and my mom wasn’t home during the time..so Som-Cheng turned out to have this huge funny looking bellybutton, haha!

See how big her belly button is?

Eventhough I wasn't at home as much to be so close to Som-Cheng, but whenever I came to my parent's, she always recognized me (maybe becoz she saw me when she was little) unlike her mommy..always barks at me and acts like I'm a stranger everytime I go home!

You probably don't think my dog is cute but people always find their own pets cuter than others anyway!

Oh I forgot to mention, we have so many dogs at our house and they are not like expensive pure bred or anything. They are just normal Thai dogs and 2 poodles. I personally think why spending a lot of money on the pure bred dogs while there are still plenty of dogs that people don't want, you know? My mom always adopted those dogs from people instead of buying dogs. I think it has 2 benefits, 1)You give those dogs home and 2)You don't have to waste money, I don't know which benefit my mom was more interested in, probably the second one, LOL. Although we have been through so many deaths of our dogs since we raised so many generations of them, it's still sad everytime when a dog passes away. And it's worse when they die young as puppies.

Some close-up look at Som-Cheng :)

So my mom called me the other day that Som-Cheng had died...from heartworms. My mom was so busy that week and didn't take her to the vet :( My mom felt very bad about it but there's nothing we can do now.

Me (shitty as usual) and my puppy..

I don't know why I feel so connected with this dog compared to others at home. Maybe because I played with her more than others lately, oh well, goodbye my lovely and playful Som-Cheng..it's so sad that I didn't have much time to spend with you but you will standout in my pet memory and I hope the other dogs won't get jealous! hehe..

Phitsanulok Trip: A Break From Upcountry Life

After 2 days of staying in Khirimat town, Sukhothai province, the idea of going away on the weekends popped up in our heads. Since some friends of ours are doing internship in Phitsanulok by the Naresuan University, why don’t we just go visit them?? It’s only 1 hour bus ride from Sukhothai city to Phitsanulok anyway!

On a bus to Phitsanulok, yay!!

It was a great relief to be out of the boring town. We were so excited to go to Phitsanulok. The bus from Sukhothai Bus Terminal to Phitsanulok is leaving every 30 minutes, so it wasn’t bad at all. The ticket for Sukhothai-Phitsanulok bus is 39 Baht, air-con ;)

Still, no matter how happy and relieved I was, I couldn’t help noticing and feeling irritated with the upcountry people again. Why? My friend and I arrived the bus terminal around 5.40pm or so, I asked the ticket seller, or people from the bus company or whatever what time would the bus to Phitsanulok arrive. And they were all like, “It’s coming soon!” I was like, “around what time?” They replied, “soon soon.” Goddd so irritating, the reason I asked was that I wanna know when so I could just prepare for it, u know? Maybe I’d go look around first and come back for the bus or something. But people here are so no care about the time at all. They just basically expect u to keep on waiting and waiting? Well, I guess I should be thankful enough that they still have clocks on the wall that still working…

You wouldn’t believe how 2 provinces next to each other could be so different. Sukhothai is just so boring and upcountry while Phitsanulok is …civilized! We were excited just to see 7-11 shop and malls! The pizza company restaurant!! OMG Sukhothai just made us appreciate these little simple things in life!
Anyway, our friends went to meet us at the bus terminal in Phitsanulok. We went to dinner at a nice restaurant by Nan River, it was great. Then we went to the night bazaar. Yes, yes, I know the night bazaar is nothing and just same old same old stuff but hey! I was in the upcountry Khirimat town for a week, remember? SO this is quite a treatment for my culture shock, hehe.

The night bazaar in Phits, not much different from the other ones really...

Apart from the stuffs sold at the night bazaar there, the price was also not different from the ones in Bangkok, so I wasn’t that impressed and didn’t buy anything but a pair of earrings, hehe.

Me and my gals at the night bazaar :P

My friends, Ning & Nu on a trishaw:)

It was quite late by the time we finished the night bazaar tour. Well, it was around 9pm and I think it’s late by rural standard because the city buses were out. So we had to get a tuk-tuk taxi from Phits city to Naresuan University, the campus that is an hour away from the city.

My friends are having internship there at a pharmacy store. Their accommodation was nice, just like normal apartments provided for students in the university. There was lots of food to eat, internet shops, 3 convenient stores that open 24 hour including 7-11. The apartment my friends stayed was like all-girl apartment sort of place. Air-con, TV with cable, normal shower and…BED!! Ohh I missed sleeping on the bed!!

It was even pleasant to just stay there and relax. I got up, watched TV, went down to the internet shop so I could update my blog, checking emails and so many food selections to eat. In the evening my friend’s parents drove from Bangkok to Phits becoz they missed their daughter so much that she was away for a week and having a hard life in Sukhothai. Which was really cool to me so they could drove us back to Sukhothai and we wouldn’t have to deal with the bus back.

On Sunday before going back to Sukhothai, we stopped by at the famous temple in Phitsanulok called Wat Phra Si Mahathat aka Wat Yai. It has the famous Buddha statue, Phra Phutthachinnarat.

Outside the chapel..

Wat Yai is located at the foot of Naresuan Bridge on the city side of the river. This temple was built in 1357, during the reign of Phra Maha Thamma Racha I or Phraya Lithai.

Phra Phutthachinnarat is considered the most beautiful Buddha image in Thailand. The unique feature of the statue is the flame-like halo, a symbol of spiritual radiance. It was a bronze statue when it was made and in 1931, King Ekatotsarot (King Naresuan’s younger brother) commanded a gold coating of the image, making it very outstanding against the dark background.

There is a saying that your trip to Phitsanulok will not be completed without visiting this temple to pay respect to Phra Phutthacinnarat. So if you are interested in visiting beautiful temples in Thailand, you definitely should not miss this one.

Apart from the rule that you can’t wear shorts to visit temples in Thailand (at least), this place has another particular rule which is that you are not allowed to take the photos of this statue while standing inside the chapel. You can only do it while sitting inside or standing from the outside.

Kate’s mom, Kate and me in the chapel...

Usually when u go visit the temple, there’s no fee or anything, only boxes that would accept the donation from visitors but check this photo below, it quite surprised me that for Thai people, you can donate as much as you like but for foreigners, you gotta pay..

It might seem normal for you guys, but it’s quite strange for me becoz, even though, I don’t go to temples that often, but the other temples don’t have this admission fee I think..(except the Emerald Buddha?)

I guess this temple is quite tourists oriented, according to the admission fee, the ‘monk chat centre’ and soooooo many souvenir shops..hehe.

The souvenir shops in the temple area

The stuffs you’ll find at the souvenir shops are mostly the same stuff for tourists you can find anywhere. Lots of shop selling wooden toys and decorating stuff and a few shops selling food product type of souvenirs..

As for myself, there was a wooden toy that interested me. It was a cubic type of toy. It’s quite different from what you had in mind that was popular years ago, though! Let’s see…

The wooden cubic toy when I first got it. Still in the plastic wrap, see??

When you play; take it apart like this…then try to put it back in a cubic shape again!

After hours of struggling…I gave up...

But don’t worry! They have the answer paper for you, even though it’s quite difficult to read.

This is an amulet shop…

Are you interested in this amulet?? It’s 500,000 Baht!!!

A scenery you can enjoy while driving back to Sukhothai..

Before going back to the hospital, we stopped by in Sukhothai city to have lunch first. This restaurant is by the road to the historical park, it has noodles and pork satay and the name is “Jay Hae”

The sign of JayHae, a restaurant selling “Sukhothai Noodles”

This restaurant is quite cute becoz the decoration is Thai-styled wooden house. Too bad the food was so-so, nothing memorable…

Kuay Tiew Tom Yum (Spicy soup noodles)

The Pork Satay Stand…

So that was our first time to Phitsanulok..we went back there again to visit our friends on the next weekend..but this time we had to take a bus back..it was quite a bitch!
Since we were not keen to Phitsanulok (and still aren’t), we got to the bus terminal in order to catch a bus back to Sukhothai. The people (or touts rather) in the bus terminal were telling us that this bus would go to Sukhothai and was leaving soon…so we got on..

This time it’s a shitty non air-con bus..yikes!

And then again, they said the bus was leaving in 5 minutes…after we got on it….it took like 20 minutes to depart…typical…(and it was 28 Baht, in case you are interested…)

Check out how ghetto it is, hehe

We’ll try to survive on it, haha!

After what seemed to be like a life-long journey, we finally arrived at Sukhothai bus terminal…

Kate at Sukhothai Bus Terminal, all tired from that ghetto bus..

That ghetto bus wasn’t just enough yet for our trip back to our place. We had to catch a song-teaw from the terminal to the hospital, the Khirimat hospital. So we needed to take the Sukhothai-Kampaengpet Song Teaw and get off at Khirimat.

And the Song Teaw was just..worse…….after waiting and waiting even though the song teaw is full already..it took forever to depart..made me wonder if the driver was having a hard time taking shit in a toilet or something.

This is the upcountry Song-Teaw…

This is a view from the inside, it was dangerous!! People were packed in it and some standing at the edge…who would be responsible if accident occurs?? Aside from that, the girl sitting opposite to me, she seemed younger but she has a baby already, which is kinda normal for upcountry people actually, anyway, she was breastfeeding her baby right there on the Song-Teaw. I was quite amazed..not the breastfeeding part..but....with her..TITS!

I know it's normal that a breastfeeding mom has big tits..but the strange thing about hers was that the nipple area ..the darker color area of your skin around the nipples...was so huge!! It was around..2 inches diameter or something!! My friend and I were like...shy instead of her...I don't think we can breastfeed in public, especially with the tits she has, like that..

And no, guys, I couldn't take a photo of her and her tits! SORRY! DUHH!

So that was my bitchy ass Phitsanulok trip blog..thank you for reading this far :)

Internship in Sukhothai Part II

Yes..the rant still goes on...
This hospital isn’t accredited yet. The guaranteed waiting time for receiving medicine is 12 minutes (BNH hospital is 5). They don’t even turn the air-conditioner on all the time due to the saving energy policy! What about drug stability? Sukhothai is hot as hell, the room temp is probably 30-40 degree Celsius.

The PharmacyRoom

The work mentality of ppl here is also different. Since it’s a governmental one, they don’t care about customer service. The service is just slow and still not organized. Like the pharmacy room for example, the staffs here seem to not care much about hurrying to giving medicine to patients. One patient came to the counter to get medicine by giving her queue card then she had to wait to be called. Instead of getting her queue card and print the prescription and labels for the medicine, the pharmacist and pharmacy technician who were sitting right at the counter were just looking at one’s cell phone, talking how cute the screen she just downloaded and sharing the file to another’s cell phone! My friend and I were so amazed! It’s just like they had no guilty feeling and shame that they kept the patient standing there and waiting for them to finish their silly business which shouldn’t take place in the working area during working hour at all. Or do I have too much of the service mind?

Another example is they don’t restock the drug shelves that much. They just let them empty and restock when it’s time to get the drug for that patient who came to get the medicine. It might seem like a small little thing that u think it doesn’t matter. But in term of service time guarantee (which this hospital says it’s 12 minutes), I think this little small thing does matter. If u check the drug shelves and restock them regularly, u wouldn’t have to waste time going to the stockroom in the back then the patients don’t have to wait unnecessarily longer! I wish I’m in the HA (Hospital Accreditation) committee or someone in the admin authority, I would just tear this place apart!

The front of Khirimat Hospital

Another critical thing (which just made my friend cried today) is the food problem. There are only 2 food places for us to eat and one small shop in the hospital. It’s such a bitch to get food especially in the evening. And one of the food place is closing for a week, moreover, all the hospital staffs have lunch break at the same time..just imagine.

My friend, Kate, waiting for the damn food...

Since there is only one food place open today, so many people waiting for food including the patients, when we ordered there were still a table full of people that had not got their food yet. So we told the cook that we changed our mind and cancelled our orders. The old upcountry bitch was like, “what? You can’t wait?” I was like, “that’s right, I can’t wait” You know, that’s just one big difference thing about upcountry people and city people. The upcountry people are just slow and not even aware of the time value. Why? Becoz there aren’t as many things in their life to do as the city ones. The cook today was just cooking the food slowly, didn’t write down orders, chit-chatting and playing around with friends. It’s just like the word “hurry” does not exist in their vocabulary.

One more thing I just encountered the other day, my friend and I were sitting down at the table eating our food. There was this poor-looking-with-shitty-cloth middle-aged guy sitting at the next table. He just finished eating his food and guess what?! He spat right there on the floor to his left which was our table! Even though he spat to the ground but HELLO?? Spitting?? In the restaurant?? It’s even barbaric and uncivilized enough for Thai people (lots of Thai males, to be more precised) to spit on the streets (which u’ll see a lot wherever u r in Thailand if you pay attention to things around u as u walk) but at the restaurant where people sitting and eating?? OH GODDDD!

The popular vehicle around here

My friend’s calendar counting down to the last day.

One thing that cheered me up a lot is that I can borrow a bike from a pharmacist here and ride to town to find something to eat and just for having something to do, even though my ass got all sore from riding it, hehe.

There aren’t many stuff in town. There’s no 7-11 also, only a few minimarts that open until 9pm or something like that. People here told me that there aren’t many restaurants becoz the locals usually cook their own food.

The internet place that I go sometimes, 15 Baht/hour.

The Khirimat Town..reminds me of some Cambodian border towns or something.

Old-styled wooden police station.

This is the creepy house I found in town.

Well, if u guys are interested in trying some new experience, tougher than Survivor show..maybe u should come and stay here for awhile :)

Oh I forgot one thing, this is the only pleasant thing we found at the house…the KITTENS!!!

We found 4 kittens at the back of our house. The pharmacist who lives here told us that they have no owner. She is a cat person but she can’t officially take care of them. She just let them stay outside and gives them food.
The kittens are sooooooooooooooo cute, they cheer my friend up a lot becoz she loves cats very much. At least she won’t be too depressed from staying here.

This photo is taken from our room, the kittens like to hang around the window a lot:)

Kitten soup, our next meal..LOL

Internship in Sukhothai: Part I

Internship in Sukhothai..a life style change.
Well, I made a mistake by choosing to come here for my second internship. At first, I thought Sukhothai is a nice city to stay (for 5 weeks at least!) since it has a tourist attraction, Sukhothai Historical Park aka the ancient city.

Sukhothai Historical Park aka The Ancient City

The glorious Sukhothai period 700 years ago, ruled by the king, Ramkamheang, the astonishing ruins, and also the “World Heritage” as it was announced in 1991. So yeah, that was the reason I chose Sukhothai, hoping I might have some fun, it’s gotta be somewhat a tourist town, I might be able to see some hot white boys and such.

...And I was wrong...

Welcome to Khirimat Hospital, welcome to the world of boredom.

We (Kate and I) totally forgot that the hospital we chose is just a community hospital in Amphur Khirimat, not the Sukhothai city. In fact, it is 22km away from it. Besides, the Sukhothai city itself has nothing either. Yes there were tourists..but the town is just quiet and boring as I mentioned in my previous blog entry.

The road sign from Khirimat town

The Khirimat hospital is a 30-bed hospital. Most of the patients here are farmers and villagers. The hospital is not even in Khirimat town, it’s a little further away with nothing around it but the road and the field. Life wouldn’t be too hard if there’s public transporation for me to go places. But guess what! The song-teaw that would go into town will just come whenever, u won’t know when it’s gonna come. Usually it takes 30mins to an hour to wait for one. And it stops running at 6pm…so if you don’t have a vehicle, you are trapped.

At least there is a bus stop..only that there’s hardly that comes..

There are houses for people who work in the hospital, which are free, you just have to pay for the electricity. But honestly, I’d rather pay the rent than to live here. Since there is no house that is unoccupied, we had to share with 2 hospital staffs…we got a room.

Well, it was a storage room before and it is still now becoz the stuffs are still in the room. There’s no bed, no air-con, no TV and no internet!! (I can only use the net in the pharmacy room which is fucking window 98 or borrow a bike and go to the only internet café in town.)

It was a big change for me and my friend. I can’t live without internet and she can’t live without TV. So here we are.You have no idea how depressed it is during my first week here. I just freshly got back from a trip in Penang, staying at hotels and such..and now I’m stuck in this upcountry bannok place. The first internship at BNH hospital I got to use my English, dispensing medicine to foreigner and now I have some problems understanding what the villagers say.

The only pharmacists who can stay and work here are either the one with no ambition or any goal in life. I can’t stand it. There is no way I can live my life like this. You work from 8.30am to 4.30pm. Maybe OT some day until 8.30pm or then play badminton. So yeah, u get up, work then play badminton with colleagues then go to bed. WTF?!!

Badminton, the only activity you can do

I have to admit I’m too selfish to sacrifice myself working here. But actually without these boring people, the poor villagers here would have no one to cure them, right? So yeah, u have to be either too nice or too dumb to wanna work here.

Well, guess I can’t complain that much, even the hospital director’s house is like this.

Actually, I’m not picky about the living situation. I mean, I can live without bed..but not without a shower. At least there’s a shower here..but still inconvenient.The pharmacist who live in the same house, she loves nature too much. Too many plants..and that means you create the entire ecosystem. Plants..then bugs, then frogs and other amphibian species come to eat bugs. And don’t forget the mosquitos, I hate getting mosquitos biting my ass when I take a dump..but there’s nothing I can do, I have to suck it up.

It’s such a drag to take a shower each day. I’m not used to with this. I always hate amphibian, frogs, toads since I was little and I still do now. When the rain stops, I have to deal with this. Baby frogs in the bathroom…oh my god I hope they are not gonna jump to me.
That’s just not enough, although there’s window screens preventing the mosquito..the bugs can still get in the room. If it rains today, there’ll be millions of bugs coming to our room tomorrow. There were just so many of them in the room, crawling on our bodies and where we sleep and the bugs smell, too! We were so depressed and upset with life. I basically cried during the first 4 days here. So we have to do something to make out life situation better.

This is the solution to our bug problems.

This is the backyard, what a heaven for god’s creatures!

Have u ever seen a kitchen like this? It’s just unpleasant to even cook. There’s no sink, u just have to wash the dishes in a bucket.

The ceiling..makes me feel like harry potter in the cupboard under the stairs.

This is the only “wardrobe” we have.

The Ghetto Towel Hanger

Well, luckily I brought my laptop to entertain myself. We try to find ourselves something to make our living situation better.

For example, my friend’s makeup zone made out of stereo box.

Kate is watching movies…

A guy from a Korean series, “Love Story in Harvard”

I have to look shitty becoz I’m living in a shitty place:P

So that's the first part of my Sukhothai internship blog, I still have more to bitch about..hehe...