Trip ke Bangkok

Saya baru sahaja pulang dari Bangkok. Saya berpeluang ke sana untuk menghadiri Bengkel Mikro/Nanoteknologi (Southeast Asia International Advances in Micro/Nanotechnology 2010) bertempat di Montien Hotel. Jadi, saya ingin berkongsi pengalaman dan tip sepanjang saya berada di Bangkok.

Lapangan Terbang Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok
Rakyat Malaysia tidak memerlukan visa jika berada di Thailand kurang dari 30 hari. Tetapi, sila pastikan informasi terkini di laman web Kementerian Luar Negeri Malaysia. Di lapangan terbang ini, terdapat sebuah surau di Tingkat 2 dan di depannya terdapat sebuah kiosk yang menjual makanan ringan yang halal ditanda dengan label حلال. Perkhidmatan internet tidak ditawarkan secara percuma. Internet tanpa wayar perlu dilanggan dengan membeli kad pra-bayar.
Sebuah kiosk kebab halal dan surau juga berada di balai pelepasan, selepas melalui pemeriksaan passport. Jadi tiada masalah untuk sembahyang dan makanan halal di lapangan terbang.

Makanan Halal
Untuk mencari makanan halal di Bangkok tidaklah begitu sukar. Banyak juga produk-produk yang dijual di pasaraya, 7-11, Family Mart yang disahkan halal oleh badan bertanggungjawab di Thailand. Hanya cari produk, seperti mee segera, roti atau biskut yang ditanda dengan cop halal seperti di bawah.




Di kompleks membeli belah seperti Platinum dan MKS juga terdapat restoran halal. Sebagai contoh di MKS, terdapat sebuah restoran masakan India, Indonesia dan Thai yang halal di ruang makan antarabangsa di Tingkat 5. Di Platinum pula, ada sebuah penyedia makanan Thai di medan seleranya.
Saya juga berkesempatan menikmati masakan tempatan di warung muslim, pasar minggu Chatuchak.
Kadangkala terdapat penjaja muslim yang menjaja makanan di atas troli bergerak di tepian jalan. Troli mereka ditanda dengan حلال atau dapat juga dikenali melalui cara berpakaian mereka, bertudung bagi perempuan dan berkopiah bagui lelaki.
Jika anda susah untuk menemui makanan Halal di tempat anda menginap, pergi sahaja ke stesyen BTS "Nana". Turun sahaja dari stesyen tersebut, anda akan terus nampak pelbagai restoran India/Pakistan muslim di kawasan tersebut.
Umumnya, bagi saya, isu makanan tidak menjadi masalah di Bangkok.

Surau
Kemudahan ruang sembahyang disediakan di beberapa kompleks membeli-belah. Setakat pengetahuan saya, Siam Paragon dan Platinum menyedia ruang sembahyang dan ditanda dalam direktori lantai mereka.

Bahasa
Seperti yang sedia maklum, bahasa utama di Thailand ialah Bahasa Thai. Tulisan pula menggunakan skrip Thai. Di kawasan tarikan utama pelancong, papan tanda di tulis dengan alternatif huruf roman. Ejaan huruf roman pula tidak menggambarkan sebutan yang betul dalam Bahasa Thai.
Tiada satu huruf roman pun yang tercetak di atas nota wang mereka. Saya pada awalnya bermasalah untuk membezakan duit syiling baht dan satang kerana semuanya ditulis dengan skrip Thai.
Peniaga di kawasan pelancongan mungkin boleh sedikit berbahasa Inggeris. Tetapi sekiranya berada di pasar terapung atau pasar tempatan, mereka langsung tidak boleh berbahasa Inggeris dan menu makanan atau apa jua ditulis dengan skrip Thai. Jadi, gunakanlah apa jua skill komunikasi yang anda rasa berfungsi :)

Pengangkutan
Kaedah pengangkutan yang paling mudah ialah mengunakan BTS (setara dengan monorel di Malaysia) atau MRT (tren bawah tanah seperti PUTRA LRT. Tuk-tuk atau kereta beroda tiga juga agak popular dan murah berbanding teksi. Yang menariknya, terdapat perkhidmatan motorsikal, sesuai untuk seorang pembonceng sahaja. Topi keledar tidak disediakan.

Bangkok, bandar yang dinamik dan unik. InsyaAllah jika berpeluang, saya akan ke sana sekali lagi bersama keluarga di masa hadapan.

tikus dan tetikus

Sekeping kertas empat segi sama untuk seekor tikus kertas.
Cara melipat di sini--> http://en.origami-club.com//animal/mouse2/mouse2/index.html

moving service from hokkaido -> worldwide

A friend of mine and her Japanese bussiness partner are offering moving service from home to port, from Hokkaido to whole over the world, as the website claimed :)

Here is the website --> http://www.ace-solution.com/

The service is suitable for foreign student/worker who plans to return to home country for good.

They also sell used cars for those who are interested.
I myself bought a second-hand cute Kei-car from them, and it was no hassle since she can speak English, Malay and Japanese. Everything was clear. Just quote your budget, car specs and they will search for the matched one.

10mths medical check up and polio vaccination

Yesterday we went for Iman's medical check up at Kitaku Health Center.
As usual, communication was the big problem. However the kindness of the staffs diminished the communication barrier.
At first, we register our attendance at the entrance, hand over the boshi techo and waited to be called.
After having some "chicken to duck" discussion about our baby development, our baby weight and height was measured. She was over 9 kg and sixty something in centimeter (I am having bad memory to remember numbers). A little bit heavy for a little 10mths girl :)
Then we met the doctor to have more detail on her body condition and so on.

I thought the polio vaccination will be given in the same session. But it was scheduled in the other time. We asked the staffs and they said the polio vaccination will be ONLY on October and May. They kindly give us the schedule for October and we were lucky that one of the session would be in the afternoon, yesterday. So, we went out to have lunch and returned back in the afternoon.

The polio vaccination was given in liquid form to be drunk by the baby, not through injection. After the vaccination, the baby should not eat or drink anything for 30 minutes. One of my friend's baby vomit the liquid immediately after drink. She was detained for detailed examination. I don't know what happened next, since we just went home immediately after the vaccination. Iman did not showed any rejection toward the vaccination. yokatta ne..

The second polio vaccination would be the next May 2010. Just don't miss it.

visa extension

Next month my visa will be expired.

What I did
1) went to International Student Center (ISC) to get advise.
2) gathered the necessary documents
- Alien Registration Card
- Passport
- Enrollment certificate （在学証明書） - ask the faculty office
- Academic record certificate 　（成績証明書）- ask the faculty office
- Student Card
- Financial proof - in my case I have a letter from my scholarship supporter
3) went to Immigration Bureau (Odoori Nishi 11, 7th Floor) and filled the necessary form
- they checked all the supporting documents
- the officer asked me to write my name and address on a postcard.
- the postcard will be mailed to the written address to inform the status of the visa extension.
- I received the postcard after two days and went to the immigration office on the next day.
4) brought the postcard to the immigration office and collect the visa
-with passport
- JPY4,000 for the revenue stamp per application
(buy it from Seicomart at the underground floor.)
-I got two years visa extension starting from the expiration date.
5) went to ward office to update the information on the Alien Registration card.
6) went to faculty academic office to inform them that I have already extended my visa.

Since the process takes time (a week or more), it 's advisable to start the paperwork within 2 months before visa expiration date to avoid any "unknown effect from the sky". Usually, the process cannot be completed in one time visit only depending on specific individual requirement.