Fly High

Hi everyone

Posting from bangkok, yeah i'm back



I dont have that much though since i'm working on my bloody research study.

But I felt like it was the appropriate time to drop some picture of my flight from paris to bangkok via Abu Dhabi.



I took Etihad, and trust me, this company rocks. I'll come back to that in another post.



Here are just few pictures I took from the sky and at the airport


Enjoy!

My Holidays plan in SE Asia

I'm about to get into the Final exams period. It's gonna be A LOT of work.

but after the rain comes the sunshine and in my case the sunshine has the colors of holydays.



I already have a plan for the 3 weeks (roughly) I'm gonna spend in the region.

I have a friend coming from France and we gonna hit the road together.


So, we will start by Cambodia. Direct flight to Pnom Penh (PP) which will be used as our base camp. From there we'll probably visit two or three interesting cities that are not more than 5hours away by bus.

Of course Sihanouk ville is on the radar.

I have a phillipino friend who's living in PP for quite a while so we have shelter and he will tip us on the hot spots.

It's gonna be fun.



Next step is thailand.I havent really visit the country because I didnt have time.

Starting from Bkk we will head North to Chiang Mai and eventually Chiang Rai.

There are a lot of things to see in these two cities so we will probably spend around 4 days in the region.
Sukhotai is in the way so we may make a stop there in our way to Chiang Mai

From Chiang Rai we will either fly or take the bus to Laos.

The first stop will be Louang Phrabang. I have been told that it's a wonderful place, so will check by myself.

Then we will go to Ventiane, the capitale. Plan to stay there a couple of days.


Finally we will make our way back to Thailand.

Udon Thani is the first stop. But we wont stay there for long.

Though the end part of our trip is unclear, I think we will take a flight straight to the South.

And who says South in Thailand says BEAUTIFUL BEATCHES.

I still cannot make up my mind between Ko Lanta (for French people: Yeah the island of the reality TV show "Koh Lanta") and Ko Samui.

If you have any tip please let me know.



Well writing that trip plan cheers me up.

Sounds a lot of fun. Cant wait to be there.



But for now, lets take one thing at a time and start by the exams part.


I will find the time to blog somehow (or not).


Oh btw, if you have any remark, tip or comment on the schedule, please let me know.

Trip to Cambodia: Part I

I just came back from this amazing trip in Cambodia.

I dont have the time to blog about it in details so I've decided to divide this story in many parts, here is the first one.


I went first to Siem Reap which is the closest to the Angkor sites.

Siem Reap is quite a touristic city. Which means that the city life revolves around the tourism.

This fact has some importance on the way people behave as well as on the prices of goods and foods.


First thing, you have to find where to stay. We stayed at the "Popular guest house" which is actually quite popular, at least among backpackers.

The price of the rooms is very fair. A bedroom for two (two beds) with ceiling fan will cost you 8$. We pay $9 because we were three. Thats just $3 each.


The next thing you need to do is to decide by which mean you will go to Angkor. You have the choice between renting a bike (DIY method), take a tuk-tuk (usually for the day), take a taxi (virtually nobody do that) or rent a car.


For the tuk-tuk the price range is $5 to $10 each depending on how many you are.


Then you can go to discover the city. Just walk around and you will see a LOT of open-air mini shops. They are trying to sell you everything you might expect them to sell.

Bottom line: NEVER PAY THE PRICE GIVEN. You bargain, the harder the better.

The more items you take, the lower the price/unit is. For example, we get altogether 6 T-shirts for $1 each instead of the original $3 "price".


The funny thing is that they ALL trying to sell you EXACTLY the same things.

There are 8 or 10 books, and everyone is trying to sell those (there are actually photocopies but with the cover which really looks like the real books one). Same thing for the T-shirts. It's amazing really!


One thing which is not so amazing but which is nevertheless surprising the first time is that a fair percentage of sellers do speak french.

It was at first quite disturbing since we, french-speaking people, usually switch to french when we dont want others (especialy sellers) to understand whatever we say.


I wanted to speak of the food, but I'll dedicated a post on the food in Cambodia.

On part II, I will speak but essentially show you the pictures of the Angkor site itself.

Football match and cultural differences

So today I did have my first football game.

We are running a kinda mini-olympic games in AIT.

I'm the international team, and unfortunately most of the other teams are country-based.



So we were just practicing.

It was probably the most frustrating football practice I've ever had in my life.

To best describe it, I think that I can say that they were playin LIKE they have no will to win or score whatsoever.

I emphasise the "like", because they do want to score and win, it's just that they dont do anything that may let you think that they do.


It's kind of hard to describe.

For example, people do a lot of short, not precise passes when they are in the defense zone.
And in the middle field, they tend to kick the ball away in a doomed attempt to pass it, even more unprecisely to the strickers.


The thing here is that you are not supposed to do any kind of NEGATIVE CRITICS or actually the slightest NEGATIVE REMARK.

And when I say negative, it means everything that is not clearly positive.

It isn't specific to any specific country culture, since almost all the southeast and south asian countries were represented in the field. So I guess it's a commonly shared cultural trait in the region.


Trust me, it was kind of hard to deal with these cultural difference.

Eventually, you say to yourself that it's just a game, no matter what it looks like right?


I'm well aware that any kind of words, that are perceived as negative ( I insist on the "perception" part) can caused unexpected behavior.

The most annoying part(at least for me) is that, if you don't pay a close attention, you probably wont realize it.

You will just notice that the person you are speaking to has changed his/her mood, and sometimes you won't understand why.



I will probably face these kind of situations many times in the future.

I'll let you know how I do.

Studying in a Real International School

As you may know I'm doing a Msc at AIT.
The really cool thing with AIt is that it's a real multicultural environment.

It's not so common actually to find a school which is so focused on attracting international students.
Until now the overwhelming majority of students come from Asian countries, especially south Asia as well as, of course, Southeast Asia.
I knew very little (I dont want to say nothing) about Asia. So it's pretty exciting to have this opportunity to learn so many things from different countries.



Of course I'm just talking with individuals so the best I can get is a rough idea of theirs cultures and habits. But still it's very interesting. I'm gonna blog about each country I will get a chance to know (even roughly).



When it comes to school matters, well, let's say that compare to France, it's black and white.

I'm taking 3 courses in the School of management, which are actually courses for the MBA program.

Two of them are really great. Many of the students have already some experience. Average is 4/5 years and this makes the classes very interesting.
It's totally different from France, people here are hard-working and motivate.



I think that when you are paying 20000$ (which is also the tuition fees of my Msc) you want to do the best use of your money. Even if some are on a Scholarship, they are really aware of the price of their studies as well as the uniqueness of this opportunity. Some did even take a bank loan to pay for their studies.

I'm really glad to have left behind the French School of Management atmosphere of laziness and I-dont-care-the-class-sucks-anyway.



Add on top of that the variety of culture and mindsets, and you come up with a very fertile mix.

When you have a case study to do, people come with many different ways of looking at problems and it's pretty cool actually to discuss and share these different points of view.



I do have the feeling to actually learn things. I mean useful things that I think would help me in my future jobs. It makes a big difference both in the way I work and in the way I think.



I didn't mention the quality of the professors who are damn good. Again they come from Finland, Germany, India, Nepal etc. They are really into open discussion, interactive class and close interaction with students. It's really awesome.



I don't think I'll be able to go back to a standard Engineering or Management School in France (except maybe for an MBA).



Oh! Also I'm starting to think that having to pay for studies do have some advantages related to the implication and commitment of the students.