Hints & Tips

Sawatdii Kha!

I wrote this entry last weekend in Phuket but I was unable to post it then so here it is now. At the moment I’m in Cambodia so finding time and an internet connection hasn’t been too easy. After a week or so in Cambodia I’m heading to Vietnam for another week. I’m returning to Finland at the end of December just in time for the New Year’s.

That’s me at Angkor Wat temple in Agkor, Cambodia.

Phuket

These last few weeks have gone by unbelievably fast, partly because I’ve pretty much spend the last few weeks in our hotel room doing reports and studying for tests. I think it’s paid off though, because I feel I’ve learned a lot and did pretty well on our final exams this week.

We had our last exam (the hardest one in my opinion – intl. business) on Friday and in the evening we all had dinner at the school and said goodbye to the faculty and to each other. Great food and good company, so it was a really nice evening. I think meeting and studying with people from different backgrounds has been probably the best thing about studying as a exchange student. That, and the sea and the sun. Talking about the sea, I did also manage to find two days to complete AOWD (Advanced Open Water Diving) and see Shark Point and the King Cruiser Wreck.

I think that this experience has improved my understanding of the Asian culture (you really have to experience it first hand to get it) and in addition to all the new friends and souvenirs, I will take with me valuable life experience and a bunch of great memories.

Hints & Tips

Asia Exchange provides a lot of information about living and studying here, so I’ll just try to give hints and tips, hopefully somebody considering coming to here will find it useful.

Transportation

The basic rule about transportation here is; if it has wheels you can get a ride on it. The best way to get around Phuket is by motorcycle – or rot mootoosaj in Thai. They’re everywhere. I didn’t rent one, but many did and nobody had –serious- accidents. If you don’t feel confident about driving one, you can always take a motorcycle taxi which is pretty cheap and good solution for short trips. Tuk Tuks can be also found easily (not the three wheel kind, but the Phuket kind of Tuk Tuk), they’re pretty expensive if compared to the meter taxis in Bangkok and you always have to agree the price in advance and do some serious bargaining. There are also private taxis which tend to be as expensive as Tuk Tuks. The price depends on the time of day, the weather, the position of the stars – so it’s always good idea to ask around for a decent price and not say yes to the first one. On a good day you can get from Kathu to Patong and Phuket Town for about 150-200 baht, depending on how good of a haggler are you (and how well is your Thai). The way back is always more expensive for some reason. The buss is also pretty easy and cheap if you’re travelling day time to Patong or to Phuket Town from Kathu. The bus fare is 20 bath, about 0,4 Euros. To get on a bus just wave to the driver and he’ll stop and pick you up. Also if you’re walking in Kathu people tend to ask you if you need a ride, especially if you’re wearing the school uniform, which just shows how friendly the Thais are (just remember to use common sense here).

Food

The food here is great and cheap. Thai foods cost about 30 baht in Kathu and western foods about 100. If you eating at Sizzler, Hard Rock Café or some other western restaurant it’ll cost you from 200 to 500 baht (not including the drinks). Still, it’s a lot cheaper than eating in a restaurant in Finland. J Across the street from Baan Maksong is Thum Pizza which is where we ate practically at least once a day. Thum makes great food, has cheap prices, fast service and a good menu to choose from. You should try different restaurants and foods and you’ll get a pretty good idea about the food culture here even if you’re not taking the Thai cooking course.

Some Pad Thai made by Finns

Accommodation

We’re staying at a Balinese styled hotel, Baan Maksong, which is situated very close to the university.. There’s a pool and a restaurant and a spa, the staff is friendly, the rooms are comfortable and cleaned twice a week. The only down side really is the lack of own kitchen (there’s a fridge) and the rooms are for two persons. You can check out the hotel by googling it. Other places near the University include Delight Village which rents houses, a really cool little village with a great pool but you should use caution as some have had stuff stolen there. A cheaper option but still close to the University is the Baanbanyon (or something like that). They rent rooms for longer stays. Some of the exchange students are staying at Patong, Rawai and other places. Especially if you have a motorcycle you don’t really have to live in Kathu. Asia Exchange provided a lot of information about the accommodation possibilities so it’ll be easier to decide where to stay. I would recommend however that you don’t sign contracts for more than a month, since you might change your mind about where you want to live when you get to know the place better.

My room

Stuff to do

Spending free time in Phuket is not hard. Going to the beach is always a good option and if it happens to rain, going to the movies or doing some shopping are good ways to spend time. You can also go go-carting, bungee jump, ride elephants, do kayaking or rafting, see the Big Buddha, bowl or play mini golf or - my favorite - scuba dive. The only thing that limits the possibilities is time.

Travelling

We’ve also tried to travel as much as possible when we’ve had some free time from school. The best time for travelling though is in the beginning or at the end of the exchange program. Don’t book return flights home immediately after the final exams (unless you really need to), you might want to relax for couple of weeks in Krabi for example. It might also be very hard or impossible to change flight dates for later (especially near Christmas). Travelling from Phuket is really easy since the island has its own airport with cheap flights to Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong etc. Air Asia is probably the cheapest airline around. You can also go by bus to various places, but remember to dress warmly because of the air-conditioning the busses are usually freezing cold.

I was in Singapore couple of weeks ago and I definitely recommend visiting the city just because it’s so different from KL and Bangkok. It’s wealthier and the style of city is more western and that definitely shows. We stayed at a really cozy feeling guesthouse called the Sleepy Sam’s pretty close to all the sites in the city. We spend one day entirely in the Singapore zoo (I really liked the Night Safari thing there), did some shopping (although the prices were a little bit higher than in Thailand), had Singapore Slings by the river and just walked around the city. There were Christmas lights and displays everywhere which felt pretty bizarre since Christmas = Snow, Dark & Cold in my mind. Almost made me miss home. KL and Bangkok are definitely worth visiting as well and many of the students also went – or are planning to go - to Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam and/or Laos.

Singapore (by the river)

View from the Observation Wheel in Singapore

Singapore Zoo

Prince of Songkla University

The University is very nice with modern, air conditioned class rooms. It was the first university in southern Thailand and there are approximately 3000 students in the PSU campus. The teachers we had were very professional. I found the teaching method very different to Finland where we have lectures with up to a hundred students and very few assignments and no quizzes at all (and no attendance requirement). At PSU teaching is more personal with a lot of group work and quizzes in addition to the mid-terms and final exams. It might sound hard but it really isn’t and the professors were pretty easy on us exchange students.

We could choose total of four courses for the semester, but many chose less so that they had more free time. I found the International Business and Human Resource management the most interesting. On the business course we did three case studies (about child labor, the pharmaceutical industry and a marketing assignment) and several small quizzes in addition to the final exam. It was a pretty demanding course but I think I also learned the most on that course. The HRM course also included a big group assignment; we created a company and applied the stuff we learned to it. What was really nice about HRM was that we had the chance to visit the hotel our teacher was working at. I also found the Thai language course very beneficial and the teacher was really nice. The International Economics course didn’t go much beyond the principles of economics so in retrospect I probably should have chosen the Strategic Management course from which I heard some really nice comments. Other options this semester included International Finance, Thai cooking since there weren’t enough participants for the marketing and tourism courses. All in all, there’s something for everyone in the course selection offered by the school.

I hope you’ve found this useful and if you would like to know more about anything, write a comment and I’ll try my best to help you.