Siam Niramit Journey to the Enchanted Kingdom of Siam

The fascinating journey of Thai culture  is not just spectacular but truly entertaining. The Siam Niramit show, adjacent to the Thai National Cultural Center, on Rachadapisek Road. The Siam Niramit show is segmented into journey motifs-into the land of religion, culture and the consciousness of life after death. The concept that their offering in this show is full of excitement and magnificence. The ways they combine  technologies in creating the effects are mostly surprising. At a glance it reminded me of the performance of The Legend of Kungfu Show at Red Theater in Beijing, China.  Comparing the both shows, from the story side, I've better like the one that they perform in Kungfu Show rather than in Siam Niramit. Perhaps it might be just because most  the Thai culture especially about their daily life is nearly same with what we have in Indonesia as we are in the same region in Southeast Asian and  most of the countries have similarity in culture. Far more I also found the similarities when they performed  the judgment in the Hell in Buddhist perspective with the ones that we have  in Islam perspective. However, the whole scenes in the show are entertaining and wonderful. Don't miss it when visiting this country to spend time  relaxation instead of going  to Thai massage. The ticket for this show is around 1400-1500 Bhat (depend on the agent) and if including dinner it is around 1700-1800 Bhat. Cheers and enjoying your time in Bangkok, the fascinating city. 

SAC-ERST Thailand, 13- 15 February 2011

The Southeast Asian countries may have different cultures, but these differences can bridge with one cause – quality education. Each nation in Southeast Asia has its own way of pursuing and maintaining quality education involving research, science and technology, which can be shared with its neighboring countries. These learning experiences can be roled models for every stakeholder in the education to adapt and modify to suit cultural environments.
   
SEAMOLEC, as one of SEAMEO centers, has served all Southeast Asian countries in developing education sector, particularly in open and distance learning and through collaboration among educators and educational institutions in the region. SEAMOLEC has been developing an education network for Southeast Asian countries, called SEA EduNet. This network is very potential to support school partnership among Southeast Asian countries.

Southeast Asia Conference on Bridging Culture through Education, Research, Science and Technology is a meeting of educators from countries like Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. This event is envisioned to be an avenue for sharing experiences and forming alliances in education, research, science and technology among dedicated and committed Asian educators and researchers. The coverage objectives of the conference are to build collaboration between schools in Southeast Asian countries; to improve quality of learning through collaborative study and efforts in education; to provide pathways for teachers to do collaborative research as well as to share knowledge, culture and values of best practices in the educational partnerships among educational institutions inside or outside Southeast Asia. During the conference, some activities conducted to meet the objectives which were including: Workshops to learn on-line tools in doing research towards empowerment of educational institutions; Sharing country experiences in education; Disseminating of  research outputs in education, science and technology; and Appreciation of  cross-cultural values and concerns in the partnerships among Southeast Asian Institutions.

The conference was held during the annually yellow orchid  festival. This festival was only conducted in Chantaburi Province once a year in February and this kind of orchid is forbidden flower and quite expensive one and just available in Chantaburi Province.

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School Partnership Indonesia-Thailand

Again..for 5 days I have to lead the delegates of secondary schools headmaster in the workshop of school partnership Indonesia-Thailand. Actually this not the first time for the secondary ones. I have been conducted the same workshop on 2009 but just some schools were following up their collaboration with their counterpart. This time there we 32 secondary schools from Indonesia and 27 schools from Thailand get involved in this workshop. Frankly, this workshop relatively better than the vocational one since most of the headmaster and the representative of both side are quite good in English and so they can communicate well. The way they present their own school profile also was quite interesting even finally it toke time than we thought. Having new friendly friends from the local committee as well as from the participants are always interesting for me. However the whole workshop conducted successfully and there were some of TV station and newspaper also during the opening ceremony and having interview with the Secretary General of OBEC. We wish the best then for the collaboration in the future. For more information about our workshop, please visit us at http://indothaipartnership.wordpress.com

Just a Moment Before Went Back

Finally we closed the workshop on 31 at noon. Finally we can go back home, and just a moment before leave to the airport, we had a chanced visiting Tanjung Pesona Beach which is just 25 minutes from the inner city to refreshing our self after the hard work in workshop. The beach here is quite different with other beach in Indonesia. It is more natural and with a different texture of white sand with other beach even comparing to the beaches in Bali.

Even just for some minutes here, i can feel so relax and enjoying the fresh air and the sound of waves. I intend to go back here such as to Parai beach or Tanjung Pandan beach in Belitung that have more wonderful view and more convenience for vacation.

Just wish have a chance for vacation here and try to relieve from the hectic life soon.

Share Knowledge in Babel

On 28-31 December 2010 I had a work in Bangka Belitung island to teach some of teachers of PAI (Pendidikan Agama Islam) in schools. The workshop was about integrating ICT in teaching and learning process. This workshop collaboration between SEAMOLEC and Ministry of Religion. The reason why the target is PAI teachers just because they usually just have a little chance in following some workshop conducting by the Ministry of Education for example, especially not much of them are familiar with computer technology, far more with the application inside that can be used as the medias in teaching and learning. In this opportunity we invite 30 teachers from 3 sub-province of Babel. 

One the unique thing that we did in this workshop that we were not only just gave them knowledge in enhancing teaching and learning with technology, but we also gave them one Netbook for each. We hope that they can explore more in the near future.

For some people creating powerpoint or a blog might be just ordinary things, but not for these teachers. But for most of these teachers even didn't know how to use computer, powerpoint, internet and far more blog to integrate in their teaching and learning process. This chance is one of the best chance that they ever had. 

We hope that with this kind of workshop can encourage more teachers to enhance the quality of learning using computer technology in the future, especially in the remote area of Indonesia.

My Second Home

Feel comfort is the best thing that i ever had since i get involve in this family. My second family which is in a different country and different culture. This family is my second home where ever i go abroad. We have so many things in togetherness. Everytime i go there, we have so many laugh and activities. Accompanying Co Hang when teaching at home is one of the best experience that i ever had. Having Thanh who always try to have talk with me in English is the thing that can make me laugh. Knowing Nhi more with her activities and her thought is something that become my habit during there. Many laughs with sisters even we have a limitation i language, but i have Co Hang who always ad for as my translator. I am starting miss this family if i am not go there for months. And i always thanks to God that i found my second home there. Wish that i can meet them soon....

Calypso Cabaret Show

Tonight we go to Calypso Cabaret Show which is performing lady boys at Asia Hotel Bangkok. Just want to know how is the famous cabaret show in Bangkok and finally i understand why it is so great. The player are so professionals and it is more than an ordinary lip sing. They do that professionally. They really know the lyric and the way sing it so perfect. The story are also great which is consist of many aspect in life such as criminal, corruption, love and culture that coming from many countries such as Korea, Japan and Latino. The song that they provide in more than one hour performance are so great. And far more the Lady Boys look like more women than women it self. So amazing how they change their self become like that and they even can live and earning from their weakness become something that full of arts if we can see it with another point of view without seeing their weakness and far more judge them for their choice to live like that. With 800 bath you can watch the beautiful art performances of lady boys. Here are some of clips and pictures that we can take during the show.