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Traditional Monk Ordination in Thailand

1. My exchange studies in Bangkok I studied in Chulalongkorn University as a graduate level exchange student. All my courses were

organized by the Finance program. The studies began in December 2016 and ended March 2017. Chula

didn’t organize much orientation. Me and another finnish Aalto-student were the only exchange

students in the program. I enjoyed very much living in Thailand and also visited many other countries

within Asia. This exchange study trip was amazing experience and I highly recommend Bangkok as a

destination. I met a lot of interesting people, also locals, and learnt so much about new cultures.

2. Preparing for the exchange Paper bureacracy for the exchange takes a lot of time and effort. You should begin it as early as possible

in order to prevent problems and have enough time for practical preparation during the latest month

before departing to your studying country.

2.1 Application to Chulalongkorn University I received the application materials in July 2016. Required documents: application form, copy of

passport, english-skills certificate, coloured picture, 2 recommendations from the school teachers, study

transcript. In application, you should tell which courses you wish to take in the school. However, you can

just pick some courses from Chula MSF website and registrate to different courses later in Bangkok. At

the application phase, you don’t have enough information to really choose what courses you can take.

English-skills certificate provided by Aalto will be ok for Chula. Don’t stress about it, you don’t need to

take IELTS/TOEFL test. I asked recommendation letters from the teachers of some courses I managed

with good results.

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Chula sent me the acceptance letter in October – several weeks late from the promised time. You should

ask to get the original physical acceptance letter because you will need it in visa application process.

2.2 Insurance Insurance packages for young people usually include max 90 days travel insurance coverage. You must

extend your insurance by buying additional travel insurance time BEFORE you start your trip. I used

Turva insurance company. It’s a good idea to meet some person from your insurance company and talk

about aspects of your insurance.

2.3 Visa and re-entry permit You must apply for the student ED visa. Using 30day visa exemption is not an option for study purposes.

You will find the required documents and information about visa application from the website of Thai

embassy in Helsinki. I’d like to mention again that you need the original acceptance letter from your

school and it takes couple weeks time to receive it by mail after you receive the acceptance to your

email.

In 2016, they did not permit the multi-entry visas for students so I had to apply for a re-entry permit in

the airport when I wanted to go travelling outside of Thailand. This is pretty easy and costs 1000 baht

every time. You need to take 1000baht and passport picture with you when you want to get the re-entry

permit. The process takes usually up to 30 minutes at the airport.

2.4 Vaccinations It’s crucial to manage the vaccinations early enough because some of them require several doses and

time before they become effective. Fill YTHS online form and they will contact you within two weeks. I

had many basic vaccinations already. I took Hepatitis AB and typhoid vaccinations and decided not to

take japanese encephalitis vaccination. I also didn’t eat malaria drug but protected myself from the

mosquitos by mosquito spray and clothes. You should talk with YTHS professional and use your own

judgement which vaccinations you want to take.

Vaccinations may be costly for you. Two doses of hepatitis AB abt 130EUR and two doses japanese

encephalitis abt 250EUR. Other vaccinations are cheaper. Vaccinations are much cheaper in thai-clinics

but it takes some time for them to become effective. So if you decide to take them in Thailand, the

protection will not be sufficient during your exchange trip.

3. Exchange studies Shortly summarized, Chula don’t provide appropriate orientation for graduate exchange students and

communicating might be challenging some times. However, many courses were pretty interesting.

3.1 Orientation and communication with Chula study services As there wasn’t many exchange students in Master of Science in Finance –program, we didn’t get much

orientation to the school. Student services were not introduced and we had to find services like gym,

library, dining etc ourselves. Especially the IT-services were difficult to bring into use.

If you need any information about general issues related to exchange studies, don’t hesitate to ask it

from the department, many times if needed. You will get the information if you can ask it. Anyway, I

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found dealing with them pretty inconvenient. Also, the information about course assignments was

pretty scarce.

The course schedule changed many times and this information was communicated efficiently since

these changes was published in the Line chat of the students. Other students were important source of

information. I recommend to try to mingle with other students in program even though they are not

very used to hang out with exchange students and are busy due to daily working.

3.2 Courses I could choose from several finance courses and 5 MBA courses but I decided to study only finance

because I had studied those MBA topics already in Aalto. MBA courses are 6ECTS/course and finance

courses 4ECTS/course.

The classes are organized mainly on weekends and evenings because most of local students are working

along the studies. I organized my studies so that I had my lectures mostly during the weekend. So I had

the weekdays free for small trips and other activities.

Workload of the courses is lower compared to Aalto finance courses except Market Microstructure

which was about similarly demanding compared to courses in Aalto. You must take pretty many courses

because they are only 4 ECTS per course. I did only 5 courses (20 ECTS), so I must to supplement my

exchange study module by one course in Aalto University.

There was approximately only one group assignment per course. Group working was many times very

frustrating because the groups were very big (5-8 students per group) and local students seemed not to

used to work in groups. Perhaps this was one of the situations where I faced cultural differences and

was be forced to challenge myself.

3.2.1 Corporate Governance – 4 ECTS The best course I took. It’s lectured by visiting professor from Copenhagen Business School. Class room

participation is required but you don’t need to study outside classroom – except one group work which

wasn’t very time consuming. The subject is very interesting and interactive studying methods work very

well! I strongly recommend.

3.2.2 Equity Analysis and Valuation – 4 ECTS I learned principles of equity valuation and different valuation methods for companies. In addition to

fundamental analysis, there was one class about technical analysis. The workload includes weekly

exercises, some quizes, one big group project and the final exam. Thus, this course is quite time

consuming. However, course is not very difficult.

3.2.3 Market Microstructure – 4 ECTS This area is something not lectured in Aalto at all. I learned how the stock exchanges operate and

differences between different types of trading systems. Moreover, the relation between bid-ask spread,

order types, volatility and trading costs are discussed. The other one of the two course projects was

done by using SAS analytics software. The SAS programming skills that you will learn during this course

might be useful when you start doing your master’s thesis. This course is pretty theorethical and

demanding but also interesting.

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3.2.4 Macro Issues in Finance – 4 ECTS This course is about macroeconomics. It is very useful to understand how the economy works in the big

picture. Impacts of monetary policy, government policies and different shocks in economy will be

discussed. The course is very theorethical. However, I found this course interesting. Workload is average

level. Grading is based on exam.

3.2.5 Alternatives and Innovation in Finance – 4 ECTS The course included many different topics within finance lectured by visiting business professionals. E.g.

mortgage backed securities, distressed assets investing, private equity, purpose-driven investing,

commodities, structured products and forex trading. 70% of the grading was based on one group work

which was not time consuming. Thus, the workload of this course was low. Some topics were interesting

but many lecturers were not pedagogically skilled.

4. Living in Thailand

4.1 Culture I liked very much to get familiar with locals. Thai people are so happy and playful personalities. Learn

some thai language and they will love you! For finnish person, smile of thais might appear unnatural and

artificial but I think it’s still more fun to live in a country where you are not considered crazy if you smile

widely for strangers.

Traditions are very important for thais. Elder people must be respected and the king of the country is

taboo. Especially the recently passed king Bhumibol is so important for thais that it’s impossible to

understand for foreigners. The most of the people truly loved him. Never step on coins and notes

because there is the picture of the king. If you go to movies, you are expected to stand and respect the

picture of king before the movie begins.

I had close thai friends during my stay, and I got the opportunity to visit traditional thai wedding and

monk ordination. I also had many times dinner with thai family and was in many places which tourists

are not used to visit typically. If you want to experience thai culture deeper, you should have close thai

friend to show the life for you. But if you spend much time with thai people, you probably don’t have so

much time to hang around with other exchange students. 4-5 months is surprisingly short period of

time. I’m still very happy I got to see more the traditional thai lifestyle and less exchange life with

western style partying.

4.2 Services Thailand is the most developed country in Southeast Asia. You will find good variety of services and

living is pretty easy. Sometimes things might happen slowly and things might get complex but you

should never show your frustration. Just relax and look happy in customer-service situations, so things

will be managed for you. Things that are used by all locals are usually cheap but if you want to buy

western style food or electronics the prices are same to Finland. You will find a meal with 1,5EUR easily

but a pizza is rarely under 10EUR. Taxis and all labour-demanding services are much cheaper than in

Finland.

There is many options for accommodation during your stay but you may not want to use too much time

for the search. I lived in Nonsi Residence which location is not the perfect. I went to school usually by

dangerous motor-bike taxi because the public transport is not easy to reach by walk. I think that this

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place is very overpriced. Personnel aren’t so nice than thai people usually are. The cleaning service stole

my payment cards and I heard a lot of other similar cases from other residents. The good aspect is that

you can easily get familiar with other exchange students. But I think you can meet exchange students in

Bangkok very easily even though you would live in some other place. For example, I-Sanook Residence

offers better rooms with better location for the same price(300EUR).

For my opinion, thai food is the best in the world. Especially, when I ate with locals, they ordered so

delicious dishes which we shared together. Unfortunately I don’t remember all the names of the foods I

enjoyed. It’s good idea to download some food delivery application like Foodpanda, so you don’t need

to go eat outside if you have to concentrate on your studies - or if you are just lazy to go out. Deliveries

are cheap in Thailand. I ordered all the groceries and drinking water from Tesco Lotus straight to my

apartment.

Siam Paragon, Bangkok

4.3 Safety For most of the time, I feel that Bangkok is safety place to live. I never experienced any pickpockets or

threatening situations on street. However, I’ve heard that during the night you might get robbed or

police may blackmail money from you. Be cautious at nights, don’t be too drunk, and my advice is to not

go partying into Khao San Road. Also places where is a lot of prostitution, like Patpong, are even more

dangerous to go at night. I still want to say, that I never felt myself threatened in Thailand.

Some people try to scam tourists and you should be aware of it. Tuk-tuks are extremely overpriced if

you don’t haggle the price down long time. I simply never accepted a taxi without using taxi-meter.

Sometime, I had to ask 5 different taxis but in the end I found someone who agrees to use taxi-meter.

Again, it helps if you have a local with you or if you even speak some word of thai.

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5. My experiences and tips for free-time

5.1 Places to visit in Bangkok Earlier, I mentioned you not to go to Khaosan Road. I think that people usually go there because it’s the

most famous place. It’s also more expensive, more dangerous and most crowded party place in

Bangkok. Me and my friends didn’t find it very pleasant place. If you want to go clubbing, I would

recommend Route 66. If you want something more chill, I prefer night markets. Local thais go to have

drinks and food in these places. I visited Train Night Market Ratchada and Chatuchak Weekend Market

many times and enjoyed a lot. There is also many cool skybars but most of them are pretty expensive.

Octave is not so expensive than Sirocco and Vertigo. We found very cheap skybar called Cloud47 but it

closed it’s doors in April 2017.

Go watch movies! The movie theaters of CentralWorld and Siam Paragon are luxurious and cheaper

than in Finland.

Take a boat trip in Chao Praya river in the evening. It costs practically nothing and the city lights look

beautiful!

If you are in Bangkok middle of April you can join Songkran, the new year of Thailand. This is an

awesome water festival. Some streets are closed from cars and people are just having water war with

each other. You can shoot anybody, even the police! This is so fun, if I will have kids in the future I will

definitely take them to play Songkran in Bangkok.

5.2 Places I visited in Thailand Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand. It’s very popular among backpackers because of the

chill atmosphere and numerous activities like elephant camps, cooking classes, trekking, motorbiking,

nightlife etc. You can reach this place by train or plane.

Kanchanaburi is a city in the west of Thailand. It has also chill atmosphere and great nature but it has

also interesting history during WWII when Japanese occupied the area and forced prisoners of war to

build a railway to Myanmar. More than 100,000 died for diseases and lack of food.

There is many islands where you can chill, see the nature, snorkle or go scuba-diving. I visited only Ko

Chang and Ko Samet. However, many people recommend going to Krabi and Ko Lanta or Ko Phi Phi.

5.3 Some places I visited outside Thailand Myanmar – see the historical temples of Bagan and beautiful nature of Inle Lake! People of Myanmar

are as lovely as thais but food is not so good. People are not used tot tourists so they stare at you, smile

and wave their hands. Don’t use too much time to see Yangon. Most of the big cities in the poorest

countries are just dirty, loud and boring. However, train trip around the city was nice.

Vietnam – We made a three day motorbike trip near the border of China. Starting from Ha Giang, “The

Extreme North Motorbike Loop”, is amazing chance to see mountains and nature which look like

straight from the LOTR movies. We also saw the culture of mountain people. No other tourists here!

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Enterntainment in the mountains. Meo Vac, Vietnam

Laos – Luang Prabang is a relaxing city with great restaurants and amazing waterfall nearby. Vang Vieng

is very special party town in the middle of nothing! Float on river with tractor’s wheel’s innertube, visit

bars by the river and have fun with other travellers.

India and Nepal – I travelled alone and this trip was something I would not repeat. Travelling in West

Bengal, India was difficult and people were not friendly to me. When I finally reached Darjeeling it

became better and it was awesome to see 4 of 5 the highest mountains in the world during the 4 day

trekking. However, there is not much western tourists and I felt little bit lonely because I didn’t find

other travellers. Indian food is good and it was exciting to learn culture. If I will ever go India again, I

would go some places where is more western travellers like Varanasi, Goa, Kerala or Sri Lanka.

6. Couple more words I was sad to come back to Finland and I miss Thailand so much. I will definitely travel some of these

places again. Of course, living in a less developed country also taught me to appreciate the good things

in Finland such as equality, freedom of speech, education and cleanliness. I think I also learnt a lot about

myself. I had unforgottable experiences and I can just hope I will have something similar in the future

again.

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Inle Lake, Myanmar

Holy cow, Maldah, India