A bit clumsy and a bit crazy (actually, not sure about 'a bit' part), I'm your average Environmental Engineer working in US, looking for better opportunities while enjoying the east Asian culture.
Although the post is one week late, that means I got to visit this place on last Wednesday, but this place does need a bragging.
Also known as Khlong Tha Dan Dam, this dam is situated in Nakhon Nayok. Since we went there directly from Ayutthya, I have no idea about the time required or the distance from Saraburi (or Ayutthaya as a matter of fact). All I can tell you is that in a minute, the pics will speak for themselves and that no bus goes to this area. All you can hire is a rental car. But if you’re in above three areas mentioned, this place is worth a visit. Read more here.
Surrounded by hills, the roads are too curvy (and fun until and unless you’re not driving). You can feel the atmosphere from a large distance. And when you reach there, it’s like the world has been divided by that bridge (the dam) – one side you’ve a vast ocean and other side a beautiful valley. One cannot describe the change in mood and feelings inside as we roll from one side to the other. We went when it was cloudy, so it reminded me of starting of winters in India. We were wearing summer clothes though.
The winds are different too. Since it was a holiday, many people were there – many indeed. But call it weather or call of the winds, it was just peaceful. The noises were getting dissolved in the serenity of the place. All you could feel there was relaxed. Seeing so many people, I was expecting a lot of ruckus and I don’t like that. But I was wrong indeed.
Also, on foot, you’ve a limit of distance you can walk on the bridge. You’ve to take a special bus for whole round and the guide keeps telling you things. It could be good but we didn’t take that so I can’t tell you much about that.
More about the place which we didn’t do. So they are just points to let you know. I cannot provide much information on those either.
You can do mountain biking there. You can hire bicycles but I don’t know the price. I did see many people do mountain biking and before the hilly area starts, there are a lot of shops.
There are many water falls near the place – Sarika waterfall being the one of those for which I remember the name.
We could see the motorboats too, so I’m sure there is a provision for that too.
Now the pics –
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We just went there out of the blue. If you want to give time to everything around, do keep one day for it. We just couldn’t find time for nearby places. And it has way for Khao Yai also (which was the first place I visited as a tourist in Thailand and I haven’t posted review for it) which mostly has Italian styled famous parks or streets and waterfalls in and around the Khao Yai national park. So if you’re planning a trip for here, you can as well take out 2-3 days and enjoy the beauty and different experience this whole area has to offer.
Side Story 1 – I need to post about Ayutthaya too, soon. Otherwise it’ll become pending same as my Khao Yai trip. Not that I’ll not post about it. But it will take time to be immersed in the same feelings again. I hope I get time to visit the place again with some new places in the side.
Side Story 2 – Now only four Sundays are left and me and my friend, who is an employee here, are planning extensively for the rest. She has been here for like more than one year, but she hasn’t been able to go out much and I want her to cover as much as she can before I go. The other person is never interested in planning. All I hear as an answer is “I have no problem. You can plan for wherever you want to go.” I have stopped asking him now and hence, there have been many places where he couldn’t go including the above one. Oh well! It was my above mentioned friend’s colleague who took us and she was with her family. She couldn’t accommodate more people anyway.
And today’s song is not going to be an MV but just a track from EXO’s album –
Some two months ago, I had this strange experience. What happened was, I was asking the word for “home” from a Thai person and got confused with the ending of the word. The word is ‘Baan’. I just wanted to know if it is ‘Baal’ or ‘Baan’. I didn’t ask the Thai lady if it was Baan or Baal. I said something like this – Is it Baa ”n” or “l”? And the guy was sitting in the same room listening to us. The conversation from then on went as follows:
Him: They can’t perceive how you are saying. You shouldn’t ask like this.
Me: Why? They do have alphabets right?
Him: But still they won’t get it. Theirs is a different language and they just can’t understand like that.
Me: But ‘क’ (reads as ‘cu’ as in ‘cut’ in Hindi) will remain that only, right? It will be in English also, Hindi also and Thai as well
Him: But still
Me: Arey? Ok, tell me this. If a Japanese person comes to you and say ‘か’ (read as ‘ka’ in ‘kappa’ in Hiragana), you’ll think ‘ka’ (as in k+a in English) only right?
Him: That’s because I know English, they don’t.
Me (Still desperately trying): Then they’ll think in Thai alphabets..…
Him: They don’t have alphabets like that.
Me: How do you know? Do you know the alphabets?
Him: Because they can’t perceive it.
Me: Your thinking na, I don’t know what to do with it. (Was it a little harsh to say?)
Me to lady: Tell me, is it Baa ‘n’ or ‘l’?
Lady: Baan
Me to him: See? They got it.
Him: I wasn’t saying that.
Me: But I was saying this only. I don’t know what you were……
Him: Don’t argue on everything……….
……. And the door slams.
It was our time to go home and Thai people start saying “go home, go home” almost half an hour before the prescribed time. I still don’t know his side of story and I’m not asking you to judge the guy. Just that the fact that a language was being underestimated for not having some trivial capability infuriated me. Have you gone to their mind and see how they think? Come on!
Ok, I’ll admit. I did feel pretty bad afterwards thinking if it was mistake on my part. May be. May be I was wrong. While thinking of the things over again, I found out why I did that. The languages are the only passion I have in my life. Language learning is like my first love. I surely, don’t give that much time to actual learning but I get pretty excited on the thought of another language or culture (and Indian people here, my friends, get pretty amused on seeing my face suddenly light up when they talk to send me to South Korea and Japan, even when I know that they are joking).
Another such encounter happened sometime back. Thai has same thing for ‘r’ and ‘l’ as happens in Japanese and Korean. They have only one alphabet which lies in between “r” and “l”. Now, they sometimes use proper “r” sound and sometimes proper “l” sound as and when they feel comfortable. That’s how they have been living and using it. I was asking the meaning of word “aloy” (meaning delicious in Thai) from my mentor when another person (not the same one as above) says “It’s alright in pronunciation but it is wrong otherwise. The spellings are “a” “r” “o” “y” and hence should be pronounced like that.”
FACEPALM.
Tomorrow you’ll say since in English, “g” is pronounced both as “g” in “got” and “g” in “rage” and Hindi has two different alphabets for the two different pronunciations – ‘ग’ for first one and ‘ज’ for second one, hence, the English language is wrong.
I just don’t understand, how can someone be so ignorant and rude to consider the whole language itself to be wrong or inadequate. People, that is their problem and their easiness, how they understand things. It is enough to communicate. Please, don’t disregard others’ language. They are one of the most important part of the culture and at least I can’t bear this behaviour. But I’m helpless too. I can’t do much in that regard can I, besides defending? But that may be difficult too, especially when they are my seniors. But such things, I can’t take out of my mind. I don’t know what to do anymore……
Side Story 1 – Right now, I just don’t want to do anything besides learning languages. I want to immerse myself in that. I did do pretty good last week. But as my internship is nearing its end, I am getting a little more load and little more stress of going back and appearing for interviews. But, even still I want to just learn my languages and do nothing else.
Side Story 2 – I wanted to write a post about the place I got to visit on Wednesday, but I’m still waiting for the photos. And it was such a surprise thing. I had no plan for that holiday. Suddenly my friend called at 8 am and asked me if I could get ready by 8:30. It was such a hassle but we did get to go. But, guess I’ll have to postpone it a little. Even this post is a little late. I was preparing another manga review when the second story happened and I just felt the need to write it out.
This week, we prepared book for beginners who knows Hangeul though.
The book is suitable for elementary level learners.
Book Info.
Fast & Fun Korean for Short – Term Learners 1
Author : Kang Seung-haeVersion : English / Japanese Book page : 176 pages Supplement : MP3 CD
ISBN: 9788959958290 (8959958298) Size: 210x297mm
About This Book
Designed with the short-term learner of Korean in mind, 「Fast & Fun Korean for Short-Term Learners」 is a 3-volume quick mastery textbook series that introduces everyday vocabulary and concrete situational dialogues practical for living in Korea.
The first volume of the series, 「Fast & Fun Korean for Short-Term Learners ①」, provides a solid framework from which even those who have no previous experience with the language can learn basic Korean with minimal effort.
• Essential vocabulary, grammar patterns, and dialogues chosen based on their real-life…
I used to get very frustrated whenever I used to see new comment in my spam and it wasn’t related to the post at all (mainly ads for their products) while I used to jump in joy seeing one more spam comment in my stats. But now I’ve come to realize the importance of such things. They do two things for me –
1. At least you visited my blog and took pain to comment on my post, even if it was mere a copy paste from somewhere. I’m very thankful for that.
2. Since most of the comments are in Japanese and I’m lacking material to make my kana reading stronger, I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for providing me the opportunity to help me in that field. Although I cannot read Kanji (yet) but I’m sure, they will help me with that too, in future.
Now coming to the person who has been commenting for SEO every alternate day, I cannot install a plugin since I’m on WordPress.com and not WordPress.org. I want more views to my blog too. But I can’t help you with that. But since you’re visiting my blog every other day, I take this opportunity to thank you for worrying about your plugin my viewership more than me.
That being said, for once I decided that I would let the spam comments of above two types on this post show up. But now I’m thinking if I should do that or not. I’m still confused, so I’ll postpone my decision. But I’ll once again thank you.
I’ve been getting lot of topics to write lately, that I can’t resist blog posting. And when I really really want to write, I run out of ideas! So ironic! Anyways, I’ve been reading short stories now-a-days to improve my reading and speaking skills. And because I come across a lot of new words, vocabulary part is a bonus.
Although, many a times, it is really really difficult. I sometimes just throw the papers in frustration. But in the end, I pick them up again and start from the beginning. Since, I won’t be able to learn the stories in two or three readings except the words I already know, I can go to the same story again which I’ve already read.
It has been pretty hard for me to find stories online so that I can print them and read them, and sometimes I feel webtoons would be much better for entertainment and reading for Korean. But my schedule involves remaining glued to my laptop screen as long as I’m awake. Most of the work I do is on my laptop. If not, I’m watching dramas or MVs. If I’m revising flash cards, then it is my mobile screen. Too much strain on the eyes! (Ah! My eyes are already going bad. I don’t know when the optician uncle would be able to find my no.) That’s why, they are becoming a total no no. So I found out some and got them printed – for now, one in Japanese and one in Korean.
In this regard, news articles can do too! But stories are way more interesting. Last time I got an article printed and it’s still there in my bag, eating dust! (I’m sorry dude.) I haven’t even touched it (yet). I’m posting the stories link for Japanese stories, they are a few in number. Korean is only one though. I’m still searching and if I get some more, I’ll add in this post
Side Story 1 – When my cousin went to China, I was so envious. Now my mentor is going to Japan. JAPAN! I’ve asked her to bring me souvenirs and I’ll try for books. That reminded me, I was searching for big book stores in Bangkok and there are plenty and at those places where I’ve already visited. I never noticed them *Facepalm*. If I had noticed them earlier, I would’ve spent my money on buying books instead of clothes. TT_TT (Now I’m a poor person)
Side Story 2 – I’m using company’s waste papers for my printing. Here, they generally print on one side and the waste papers are either shredded and then sent to recycle or less important things are printed on the other side – much later. This time, after audit, there were many papers which were deemed to be waste but now I’ve found out the way to use them. Even for my writing, I’m using those only. (One more way to save money, yes!)
Today’s Song – After such a long time, I’ve found an idol group which solely is dominating my playlist. Yes, you guessed right. That is EXO. I already said that I am totally drooling over their charisma would be getting involved with their songs later than the variety shows. Now, not one day passes me without watching the MVs. I wake up and first thing I do is watch them before doing anything. And last thing before going to bed is their songs again. So, today’s song will be –
Update 22/12/2013: Aigoo!! Why didn’t I see this when I was in Thailand? So many worksheets are there and I was searching for them. Anyways, there are a lot of stories here and much more apart from that. So enjoy – http://freshkorean.com/free-resources/
I read the synopsis and I knew it was going to be a sad movie. But they put it as a comedy. May be, may be this one has a happy ending? With this heart, I started watching it. It started on a very serious note. Will it be of my taste? Should I just stop here? But still I continued. I had heard a lot about it, so I was going to give it a chance. And the comedy part indeed started. I was happy. I had had a bad day today and it was all dissolving in the fun I was having. At the same time, a lot of thoughts were running in my mind. And then the time came. The sad part – the reunions, the deaths, breaking of bonds, facing the realities. I couldn’t stop my tears from flowing, mixed with the feelings I had experienced earlier in the day and which I had not been able to let out, yet.
Why does life becomes so cruel for some? Why doesn’t life give opportunities to those who really wish to live? And people keep wasting their lives over some petty issues, ultimately taking this precious gift away from themselves. Don’t they see the misery of such people? Why is the true face humanity so ugly? Not just these two countries, on which the movie or the webtoon to be more precise is based. Right now, how many people may be facing the same condition ? I don’t know. But this movie did set me thinking much more than this. And probably, the thoughts will keep haunting me forever. But would I be able to do something about it? I wonder…….
I may have said this before too, but it takes me time to like a song. The song which I don’t like today may become the only song in my playlist tomorrow. And then starts the journey to explore about the concerned K-pop group. Same thing I’m experiencing this time. And the group’s name is EXO! Although I’ve heard only one song – Growl, but these handsome boys never fail to enchant me with their dance and looks. I’m becoming like those crazy fan girls!!! >.< I have watched the MV again and again over 100 times! I like their dance…….
But they haven’t appeared on many variety shows in Korea which I generally watch and many of them have not been subbed yet or I couldn’t find them. TT_TT I once again finished everything in 3 hours and now I want more. It’s fun! Learning the names and faces through such shows. And a faster and effective way for people like me who can’t remember easily. I’ve done the same with other idol groups too especially bigger ones – SuJu, Girls Generation, Shinee, f(x), DBSK (I know I know, they all are SM groups and last three are not that big but I’m writing other names too!), KARA, SS501, 2PM and I love it!
Anyways, they look so cool in MVs and are sooo cute on screen acting all silly. Then will come other songs (I know I go opposite to what is normally done but I can’t help it, can I?)
The book is suitable for upper elementary level learners. (TOPIK level 1)
Book Info.
Master Korean 1-1 Basic English version
256 Pages, Book size: 188 x 254 mm, Supplement: 1 MP3 CD
ISBN-13: 9788927731054 ISBN-10: 8927731050
An Introductory Coursebook for Conquering Korean for English Speakers!
The First Volume of the Master Korean Series (English)!
* Systematically organized to prepare you for Level 1 of the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK)!
* Fun activities using task-based teaching principles!
* A variety of exercises and rich visual and audio materials!
* Korean cultural information necessary for communication from a learner’s perspective!
*** Book Characteristics
The Master Korean series is an integrated set of coursebooks designed to help the reader fully master the Korean language…
The Joys and Worries of an East Asia Lover 