My weekend in Bangkok, part 1
It's not always that you get to travel to a foreign country on your employer's dime.
Last week, I went to a teaching institute in Bangkok. My supervisor asked me to go because of my interest in and experience with educational assessment. We're trying to better align our assessment tools with our curriculum, and since I wrote my master's thesis on that very subject he thought that I would be a good candidate to go to this particular conference. How could I say no?
I flew out of Guiyang airport Thursday night on a Hebei airlines 737-800. The seats had at least a couple of inches more legroom than I'm used to on a 747 or A320, though I'm not sure if that's due to the plane itself or the airline's configuration. The Hebei staff were uniformly professional and courteous, and I wouldn't hesitate to use them on other flights.
One of my seat mates was a Chinese primary school student who was happy to practice his English with me and tell me all about Thailand. His parents work there and he goes to a primary school in Bangkok. He showed me some scenes from some of his favorite Chinese horror films, and I taught him the rules of Solitaire. I usually despise talking to other people on flights, but I'm glad I made an exception in this case. It made the four-hour flight a lot more interesting than I anticipated.
I arrived in Bangkok at 1700 local time, breezed through customs and got a local, 8-day SIM card from one of the major Thai telecom companies. I spent less than $10 US and ten minutes to get a fully functioning local phone number and data plan. If you're spending any amount of time in a country it's almost always worth it to get a local SIM before you leave the airport. Data roaming charges are ridiculous at best and usurious at worst.
I picked up a taxi and got a first hand taste of rush hour traffic in a city of nearly 9 million people. My taxi driver was great, keeping things interesting for the nearly 90 minutes it took to get from the airport to the hotel.
My employer put me up in the Compass Skyview Hotel, and I'd recommend it if you can afford it. It's centrally located, has a beautiful rooftop bar with stunning views of the city, and a couple of great restaurants for dinner. The staff were thoughtful, friendly, and thorough. I wouldn't recommend the breakfast buffet. It's a bit too expensive and a little too western. There were plenty of other places to get a tasty Thai breakfast within a block.
Stronge and Associates put on the conference. Led by a man named James Stronge, their focus is on improving hiring, instruction, curriculum, and assessment in teaching institutions. I've been to quite a few of these kinds of things in my 13 years of teaching, and I've developed a healthy cynicism about conferences and professional development opportunities. There are exactly two that I can remember were worth my time and money. Now it's three. This one was professionally done, full of useful information and knowledgable speakers, and did not once make me feel like I was wasting my time. I hope I can attend one of their conferences again. I'll drop a link to their site here, in case anyone's interested in knowing more about them.
Stronge and Associates
The institute lasted until 1630 each afternoon, and I had the rest of the evening to see Bangkok. I mostly kept to the Sukhumvit road, the longest highway in Thailand. In Bangkok it's the center of a bustling commercial district and has plenty of side-streets branching off it that are full of restaurants, bars, and nightlife hot spots. It's an exciting place to be, and I think I'll come back when I don't have professional obligations during the day.
I had plenty to do and to see, and spent a few hours each day finding places to drink, eat, and watch people. I took at least 200 pictures that I'll have to go through and edit. I'll do that soon and put those in the next post.
Last week, I went to a teaching institute in Bangkok. My supervisor asked me to go because of my interest in and experience with educational assessment. We're trying to better align our assessment tools with our curriculum, and since I wrote my master's thesis on that very subject he thought that I would be a good candidate to go to this particular conference. How could I say no?
I flew out of Guiyang airport Thursday night on a Hebei airlines 737-800. The seats had at least a couple of inches more legroom than I'm used to on a 747 or A320, though I'm not sure if that's due to the plane itself or the airline's configuration. The Hebei staff were uniformly professional and courteous, and I wouldn't hesitate to use them on other flights.
One of my seat mates was a Chinese primary school student who was happy to practice his English with me and tell me all about Thailand. His parents work there and he goes to a primary school in Bangkok. He showed me some scenes from some of his favorite Chinese horror films, and I taught him the rules of Solitaire. I usually despise talking to other people on flights, but I'm glad I made an exception in this case. It made the four-hour flight a lot more interesting than I anticipated.
I arrived in Bangkok at 1700 local time, breezed through customs and got a local, 8-day SIM card from one of the major Thai telecom companies. I spent less than $10 US and ten minutes to get a fully functioning local phone number and data plan. If you're spending any amount of time in a country it's almost always worth it to get a local SIM before you leave the airport. Data roaming charges are ridiculous at best and usurious at worst.
I picked up a taxi and got a first hand taste of rush hour traffic in a city of nearly 9 million people. My taxi driver was great, keeping things interesting for the nearly 90 minutes it took to get from the airport to the hotel.
My employer put me up in the Compass Skyview Hotel, and I'd recommend it if you can afford it. It's centrally located, has a beautiful rooftop bar with stunning views of the city, and a couple of great restaurants for dinner. The staff were thoughtful, friendly, and thorough. I wouldn't recommend the breakfast buffet. It's a bit too expensive and a little too western. There were plenty of other places to get a tasty Thai breakfast within a block.
Stronge and Associates put on the conference. Led by a man named James Stronge, their focus is on improving hiring, instruction, curriculum, and assessment in teaching institutions. I've been to quite a few of these kinds of things in my 13 years of teaching, and I've developed a healthy cynicism about conferences and professional development opportunities. There are exactly two that I can remember were worth my time and money. Now it's three. This one was professionally done, full of useful information and knowledgable speakers, and did not once make me feel like I was wasting my time. I hope I can attend one of their conferences again. I'll drop a link to their site here, in case anyone's interested in knowing more about them.
Stronge and Associates
The institute lasted until 1630 each afternoon, and I had the rest of the evening to see Bangkok. I mostly kept to the Sukhumvit road, the longest highway in Thailand. In Bangkok it's the center of a bustling commercial district and has plenty of side-streets branching off it that are full of restaurants, bars, and nightlife hot spots. It's an exciting place to be, and I think I'll come back when I don't have professional obligations during the day.
I had plenty to do and to see, and spent a few hours each day finding places to drink, eat, and watch people. I took at least 200 pictures that I'll have to go through and edit. I'll do that soon and put those in the next post.
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