Sunee Grand Hotel Health and Fitness, Water Park Ubon Ratchathani. Thailand.

I went back to the Sunee Grand Hotel and Convention Centre, which I blogged about and there are plenty of pictures of the restaurant and reception area and then the rooms that are on offer there.

Today I was back to check out the Health Club & Spa and also the pool which is all up and running. The hotel has been running a free promotional period for all people to try out the facilities.

The hotel pool is now open and can be accessed by members of the Health Club and of course hotel guests. There is also a daily rate. The pool area isn’t anything amazing. The pool isn’t huge but is good size. The garden is taking hold and the water features also act as filtration systems as well.

The decking looks very smart being deeply stained, but I was surprised with the plastic tables and chairs. There is a bar area that will one day be utilized I am sure. You can order anything from the pool deck.

As far as hotel pools go for Ubon this is the best I have seen. This pool is mainly going to cater for the Health Club members and hotel guests as there is a special area for the kids and families to go and play. There will be more on that in a minute.

The Health and Fitness Club, all I can say is that it is absolutely beautiful. You walk through the main doors and are met with a strikingly decorated reception area where you can sit and relax while waiting for your massage or to take part in one of the classes on offer.

I would have loved to have taken some pictures but there were many people there and I wasn’t going to start shooting pictures of the general public. I will return late in the evening one day soon and hopefully there will not be any people then. This area is a real gem and probably a little to comforting as if you are planning on working out it may take your enthusiasm away.

Also offering a Thai massage at the cheap price of 200 Baht is so tempting, going and being pummeled and have all the knots removed from your body sounds better than sweating and working out.

The gym or fitness centre is small but has all that is needed to do a top quality workout. This too was too busy to take photos of today but will also do this in the near future. The machinery in the gym is top quality; the hotel has spared no expense at all. There are 4 running machines, a heap of stationary bikes and also skiing machines. There are weight machines where you can work all body parts and also some free weights in dumbbell form. The weights start at 5kg, going to a whopping 30kg.

Although small the fitness centre is quality. The price for membership is what will be considered expenses by most here in Isaan. A 3 month membership is 4,000 Baht or 45 Baht per day, this is under $2 dollars Australian. If you pay for a year it is 12,000 Baht and this works out around 34 Baht per day. This is cheap when you look at prices back home and also Bangkok.

But then again the Sports School here in Ubon you can get 3 months membership for 2,000 Thai Baht, it is a huge gym, lots of free weights and machines as well. Also there are running machines, stationary bikes and so forth on offer too.

Now back to the water fun for families and kids. This is looking from the Health Club pool deck, it is a huge slide.

Above the City Mall Shopping Complex is the Sunee Water Park. Ubon Ratchathani had nothing like this before and this will be with time a real winner with families and kids. Maybe the price will be a deterrent and for small kids it is 80 Baht entrance weekdays. If you have a few kids this will be expensive for a family.

But as a special day or treat I don’t think you would find a better place to go on a warm Isaan day. There are plenty of places for all size kids to go and play in the water and also there are plenty of water safety attendants to watch your children.

The big draw card is the slides. There is a lower slide for littlies and a higher one for bigger kids and adults. My friend who is scared of heights managed to go down this slide, twice so it cannot be too daunting.

This is a great addition for Ubon, the entire complex is. The Conference Centre which is huge is already being utilized by companies and is getting plenty of bookings now. The hotel is still in its infancy and growing each day.

If you are looking for a hotel in Ubon Ratchathani and don’t mind paying a little more than other hotels offer in Ubon then do stay here. The service is very professional and the hotel is pretty much immaculate. There is still some construction taking place but this is minimal now.

I am just looking forward to the tenpin bowling alley being finished.

Don’t forget you can view all pictures in bigger sizes just by clicking on one and going to my Flickr page.

Brunty

Wai Khru Day Practice Thailand 2009.

On Friday just gone, our small primary 1 to 3 classes had to go to our lovely hall to practice for Wai Khru Day that is coming up on the 11th of June. Wai Khru is usually held on a Thursday as this is the day of Brihaspati, Vedic god of wisdom and teachers.

Wai Khru virtually means to pay respect to teachers. At the start of the new school year, all schools across Thailand hold this ceremony to honour the teachers.

During the morning a special ceremony is held for the teachers. Early before school starts monks could even attend the school to receive merit from students. I am not sure what is completely planned as of yet as I haven’t enquired.

I will take pictures this year of all the small things that are usually overlooked. There are so many small arrangements of ornaments and flowers that have special meanings.

The first Wai Khru Day I attended I hated it. School children were crawling on their knees to me and then bowing at my feet. I felt horrible that the children were doing this.

Now after being through 4 of them and number 5 approaching I am more than happy to participate in the day. I have researched the day and know what all the things mean, from the flower arrangements (different flowers mean different things), the Wai Khru chant the students do, to how the Buddhist altar is set. This has made me much more appreciative of the day.

Anyway, that Wai Khru Day is coming and how much practice the students will do is unknown. I do hope it isn’t too many periods. I didn’t lose any periods the other day thankfully and hope this is the same for the coming weeks.

Brunty

Misunderstandings in Thailand, Nothing New.

The other day I reported that I was taking part in being an advisor for some students who were in an English Project Competition.

We only just started this mid last week. We first agreed on the topic for the project and then we did a mind map on where we would go from there. Each student was given some part of the project to research and we also started to make contact government departments we would need to speak to. Also we started making interview questions, and so on.

So after a week the students had been making progress and we started to map out what needed to be done next week. Then on Friday I was informed of something that just wasn’t possible.

It went like this, “Jason we need to English project book by Monday to send to the judges.”

I replied with a very nice, “you have got to be bloody joking, right?”

No they weren’t. It was again lost in translation. This happens all the time in Thailand. Things are never explained properly. It can be very frustrating but it is Thai ways.

I was originally told that we had to go to a city called Korat at the end of June. Even this deadline was going to be a real push but I was prepared to help out a lot and I was sure we could make the deadline. If I was told that the paperwork for the project had to be submitted in a week from starting I would have told them I couldn’t do it as it just wasn’t possible.

I was then told that the students should continue with the project and submit it for next year’s competition. This could be a good idea but will be up to the students if they want to do this. Also the students are in primary 6 and may continue their secondary studies in another school. Have to wait and see.

If I had a dollar for every time something wasn’t explained properly here in Thailand I would be a millionaire, a few times over.

Brunty

World No Tobacco Day, Isaan Thailand.

Another week of school has flown by. The week went well and today we had a surprise, the yearly “No Smoking Awareness Campaign.”

This takes place around the same date each year as the ‘World No Tobacco Day’ and some of the older students have to take part in the day as part of a class. They make signs to put up around the school and also there used to be a march, but this year this wasn’t done. Maybe this will be on Sunday when the actual day is.

I was reading figures just yesterday; they stated that 4 people a day die from directly related smoking illnesses here in Thailand. There is apparently 18 to 20 million regular smokers in Thailand, with the majority being male.

A hospital in a Thai city called Kalasin said that it used to get about 15 people per year seeking help to quit smoking. Now they get 3 people a day or over 1,000 people a year trying to kick the habit.

There were also figures from a Thai quit line, it said that receive 800 plus calls a day from people asking for help and tips on quitting. Some of the addicted smokers are as young as seven apparently.

The highest rate of smoking was found in the Northeast, where 23% of population smoked, followed by 15% in Bangkok. Everywhere I go here in the Northeast I see very young Thai guys in groups smoking. I don’t see the fascination in smoking. Here a senior teacher is offering advice.

Apart from the smoking campaign, at the EBP programme we have been conducting a small quiz in the morning. Our head of the department asks a foreign teacher for a question each morning to offer to the students.

This morning an ex Englishman Mr. P, had to jump onto the microphone and test the students’ knowledge. After a good lead into the question he asked “Name 3 cities in England?”

At first there was no movement. Students were conferring with each other but know one stood up. A hint was offered that “if you follow football, you could name 3 teams.”

Soon a student had made his way to the microphone and offered his 3 answers. One was Manchester, Liverpool and Arsenal. He was a winner.

And to celebrate No Tobacco Day there was one of our school bands belting out tunes at lunchtime. This wasn’t too bad as I wasn’t teaching the primary classes who were studying but I felt for the teachers who were.

Brunty

Mosquito Wars, Isaan Thailand.

There are two animals I really hate in this world. They are ants and mosquitoes. Ants just infuriate me, most the time they are running through the kitchen because of our own stupidity. You leave out something sweet and here in Thailand it doesn’t have to be for more than a few minutes before you have an army in operation.

I hardly get any ants in the house anymore. I place good old talcum powder around the window frames of the kitchen and also on any ant trails you might see from time to time and they disappear very quickly.

As for mosquitoes, these flying pests make me go into a rage. I see a mosquito in the house and I end up chasing it, hunting it down like a bloodhound chasing a fox.

When I first moved into my current house there were no mosquito screens. The first thing I did was source out a business that made screens. I then spent weeks, no months telling my lovely Thai family that we now close the mosquito doors to keep the mosquitoes outside.

We still get the odd mosquito of course in the house. It would be impossible to not have the odd one fly in when opening and closing the doors. It is the ones that hide in your bedroom and then come out of hiding when you turn out the lights and fall into a deep sleep.

Last night, I went to sleep about 11pm. Miss Noot didn’t finish work until midnight and would have returned home about 12:30am. I didn’t hear her come home or wake when she climbed into bed.

I did wake, at 4:30am though. It wasn’t because I couldn’t sleep or my alarm had gone off. It was because a fuc$en mosquito had flown into my ear and the Bzzzzzzzz noise jolted me out of my dream.

I grabbed the little flashlight on the bed head. I turned it on but my eyes were just a blur. I sat on the edge of the bed for a minute and then hopped up and turned on the light.

This of course woke Miss Noot and she then enquired to what the hell I was doing. When I explained a mosquito had woken me, she rolled over and went back to sleep. My head was still groggy so I went to the toilet and then returned to find the mosquito.

Finding a mosquito in a bedroom shouldn’t be too hard, should it? Well I sat there for 5 minutes and nothing. I shook the curtains, waved a t-shirt under the computer desk but nothing stirred.

Then I caught a glimpse, I sprang into action but the black flash was gone. So I sat down again on the edge of the bed. Now this went on and on. I would catch a fleeting glimpse of the mosquito and jump up to follow it and then it had vanished into thin air.

After 20 minutes, Miss Noot stirred again and told me to get the mosquito spray. I couldn’t use the spray as it stinks for too long. It was tempting but I was determined to squash the bastard of a thing that had been sucking my blood.

In the twenty odd minutes of playing cat and mouse, I noticed about 5 huge bites had sprung up on my arms. Now I was steadfast to squash this mozzie.

Again I made sightings and swooped in to squash the mosquito in the palms of my hands to only lose sight of it or miss it all together.

At just after 5am I thought about giving up, until finally I sighted the bloodsucker fly up high toward the ceiling. This time I locked my radar in on it and charged after it.

After 30 plus minutes of ducking and weaving I finally made contact, after 3 or so attempts. A big ‘whack’ and there between my palms was what used to be a mosquito. Mostly though it was blood, my blood the bastard of a thing had sucked out of me.

I hopped back into bed, and eventually got back to sleep for what only seemed like ten minutes before my 6:30am alarm went off.

I have now been before my computer for a few hours and haven’t sighted a mozzie. I hope that there isn’t one hiding as I am going to sleep now, 8:30pm as I am getting up at 1:45am to watch the Champion League Final between Manchester United and Barcelona.

I am barracking for Man U and predicting a high scoring game of 3 or more goals. I am looking at 2-1, 3-1 Man U’s way. I will have to wait and see how my prediction goes.

Brunty

All is Well in My Isaan Thai School.

There hasn’t been a lot to report the last few days. I have been busy, well busy enough at school. The classes are settling in well and they seem to understand the rules that have been set down.

I have been pretty ruthless with the kids, the students who have been doing well, trying hard in class are being praised and receiving small awards or prizes. The students who have been lazy, failing to submit homework, disrupting classes have been doing extra curricular work in their lunch hour.

This doesn’t affect me as I have many extra worksheets already printed for these students, I just grab the folder they are in and hand them out.

I don’t give instructions for the sheets. I give sheets that are well below the student’s current level. Say if the student is in primary 6. I will give them a primary 3 student’s worksheet.

The students can try and help each other, I don’t mind at all. When they have finished the sheet, if the work isn’t to standard they do it again. Any mistakes are circled and they then have to correct the mistakes. When the sheet is error free they can leave.

A student joins me for 3 days for the first offence, 5 days for a second offence and so on. A letter is sent home to their parents, telling them that their son or daughter is being punished at school and what this is for as well.

The parent signs the letter and it is returned. After 5 of these letters are accumulated, the student then starts to have grade reductions. So if a student gets a low grade because of reductions in grades, the parents cannot complain as they have signed every letter.

It isn’t until you have issued a few of these letters that students understand you are serious. I have students who plead for a second chance after writing their name on the board informing them of their fate.

I never back down, you cannot do this. Even if there are tears and pleads of, “my mum or dad will kill me.”

They should have thought of that before, not after committing the offence that caused the letter to be issued.

When I listen to other teachers say, ‘How am I going to get the kids to sit down?’ or ‘How am I going to get the students to be quiet and listen to me?’

I couldn’t be in the class thinking this. I have to know that the kids are going to listen to me. When I say sit down and listen I mean it. I am a control freak in the classroom.

Teaching is a really hard trade. It can be very stressful if you let it. I remember being stressful many years ago but now this hardly ever happens. Maybe twice a year I stress out and start looking at the calendar for the dates of the holidays.

I have also taken on the task of being an advisor for some young primary 6 students partaking in an English project competition. This does mean a lot of extra work for me, helping them source information on the topic I advised them to do.

Now we are just creating a mind map of all we want to do and in what stages. Making appointments to meet people and then travel to interview them. It is in its infancy but will start to really take off in the next few weeks.

Proof reading all the paperwork that the students will create and then help them set it out into book form will mean many hours on the computer with them.

I have never done this before, and it is about time I did give something back to the school, well more to the students. The 3 students doing the project are excellent students; they study hard and have also been a pleasure to teach over the years.

I will update on this project over time and how the students do. If they progress they travel to all parts of Thailand and I would go with them as I am their adviser. It could mean a few days off school here and there and also seeing different parts of Thailand and being paid at the same time.

This sounds good to me.

Brunty

Yamaha Motorcycle Show and Thai Promo Girls, Thailand.

I ventured to a Yamaha Motorcycle Show here in Isaan Thailand. I had posted about the modified Yamaha motorbikes with elaborate paint jobs and accessories and the small drag racing circuit that punters could try.




Some of the bikes on display were pretty amazing. I had never seen anything like this. This is a replica of the character, Predator. this is from the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The detail on this bike was faultless. I was really impressed. I can’t believe that this bike is actually raced.

There were some serious looking drag bikes, this looked fast. The aero looking shape and big tyres made me think this.


If there was a bike I could have ridden, it would have been this one.





Now at any of these shows, there are always promotional girls. Thailand has some of the sexiest promotional girls I have seen. On this day they weren’t here though.

I am sorry and not being a pig. I am no oil painting, I know. But these promo girls were average for promo girl standards. I think a Yamaha owner’s wife maybe chose the girls as a man would have picked more carefully.

Again, I have a head like a smashed crab and a body of a bruised pear. I am hardly one to judge. But to me Yamaha really lacked in the sexy promo girl stakes for the day.

Brunty

Yamaha Motorcycle Show Isaan Thailand.

This afternoon I ventured to a Yamaha Motorcycle Show being held near my home. I am not feeling 100% at the moment as I am coming down with a cold. But this wasn’t going to stop me attending the show.

Now this was one thing I hadn’t seen before at any other motorbike show I have been to. It was a drag strip. You the punter could jump on one of the Yamaha motorbikes and speed off down the road.

At the start there was the usual drag racing stuff. There were the staging lights to get the racers underway. Also a digital time board was on show for spectators to see who had the fastest time.

From the start until the finish it took a good drag racer just over 6 seconds. There was a huge runoff area for the draggers to stop the motorcycles after the finish but some couldn’t help to lock the brakes up. I didn’t see any crashes, and the racers had to wear a protective jacket and also sign a waiver form as well.



On show of course, other than the racing were some motorbikes. Here are some on display. There were of course Thai promotional girls but they will be shown tomorrow.


Some of the custom made racing bikes were hotted up. This bike seemed to have a Nitro kit on it. It looked the real deal. I wouldn’t want to ride this bike and use it.

This design was interesting. It seems to have been stretched to make it longer.

Apart from having bright colours on your bike, you need lots of stickers. This was a little beast of a thing.

Now this bike is apparently for offroad. On the front wheel it has the freestyle pegs you see on BMX bikes for people to do tricks on. Maybe it is a stunt bike.

This was a true trail/road bike cross. It was very different.

This is Yamaha’s most popular bike. It is called a Fino and is endorsed by many popular Thai stars.



Taking advantage of the day were of course some traders. Young Thais love to hot their bikes up and there is an array of items you can choose for your bike in Thailand. I am sure there are laws to what modifications can be done to bikes but I don’t think they are enforced too often.

Now if all the excitement and displays had got to you, you could sign up for a new bike straight away. You sit down and did the paperwork and put down 200 Baht to secure your new bike. I think I know why the repossession rates of motorbikes are so high.

There are a lot more pictures but they will be uploaded over the next few days. I am now going to have a sleep; this is a record for me at 7.30pm on a Saturday night. I will take a few tablets that will hopefully help knock me out for a long, long sleep.

When I wake up again tomorrow, well I hope I do. I will be feeling a little better than I am now.

Brunty.