Day 2 - August 6, 2018
"Explore the world by meeting new people."
“.”
What I like about meeting people from other country or other province is that we can see bits and bits of their culture from their words and actions. I feel like creating an imaginary Venn Diagram for the comparison of my own culture to theirs, not to degrade the other but just to see because it’s surprising how I find the middle portion of that Venn Diagram be filled. It’s like the world telling us we’re not totally different from each other.
Morning in Phuket
We spent the night in a hotel in Phuket because we will be fetching the other participants on the way back to Nakhon Si Thammarat. The hotel room came with a breakfast that’s why we were able to eat a great meal before trying the nearby beach. The beach was breath-taking: clear skies, deep greenish blue water with fine and light sandy shore. It reminded me of a place in the Philippines that I’ve been to recently, Baler, Aurora, which was also the “surfing capital of the Philippines”. With the strong but rhythmic waves, it was a very great place to surf all day long!
Crossing the South of Thailand
This day was a very long day for us because we traveled the south of Thailand from coast to coast. Here's how it happened (if you were not familiar with the map of Thailand, check the photo below). We landed in Phuket, west of Thailand. Then we would go to Krabi to pick up Dino Steven, and finally to Nakhon Si Thammarat to pick up Anggita, that's where the university is located also. So there, we drew a line from west to east of the south.
Airport - Hopping (HKT- KBV - NSTA)
By noon, we started our long journey to fetch the other two participants coming from Indonesia. Dino Steven arrived in Krabi Airport, while Anggita Maya Kurniyawati arrived in Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport around early dusk. It was a long day on our seat, but we were lucky enough to have very comfortable Thai-Inspired van with automatic doors, captain seats and bright lights. Regardless of that, the trip did not become boring because we were in the company of each other. We introduced ourselves to one another and had small talks.
Dinner in the Big Hall
In the evening, we arrived in the university. I was very fascinated on how big the university is. We were invited to a dinner where we met Ajarn Beau and Sir Frank from the IRD also. We were welcomed by the members of the Boot Camp currently handled by the university. We were given a chance to introduced ourselves infront of people who came from different countries including USA, Thailand, China, and many more.
