Friday, September 18, 2009
Maechaem : my battery was fully charge here
What will you do when your battery of life is exhausted, you have no power to work or even to talk with anyone but with my duty I have to meet a lot of people so I went for a holiday to charge my battery.
My friend and I went to Chaingmai by bus then we transfer to Jomthong district by a small bus for 2 hours and took a truck (Song Thaew) for another 2 hours to our destination call Maechaem.
We stay there 3 days 2 nights, it's rainy season so all the mountain and the rice fields were all green. We rent motorcycle to go around the town and all the place we went is full with history and so pleasant. The people is so kind as you can touch in the country side of Thailand where people still pure.
In early morning we could see the fog on the hill, the air are pure and I breath in as the deepest as I could. In the late morning and afternoon we visited a lot of beautiful temple with hundred years of history. In the evening we went to had a massage then dinner with Mae Kumpor home stay and I request my favorite dish which was so nice.
Now I'm back to work with full battery, but I have plan for my next journey, not for fulfill my battery but for learning the others experience.
Nuu :)
Friday, September 4, 2009
"Ponyo" on the cliff by the sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKcyNmwLwGI
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Don't believe in 10-20 Baht trip around BKK by Tuk Tuk
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Partnership
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Attn to beef lovers: Ko-Khun Beef
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Funniest MV on earth
I think it's very funny.......
Reason 1: they didn't wear trainers while working out (that's dangerous)
Reason 2: The song is called "Hold my tears while saying goodbye" but the MV has nothing related to the lyric
I can't hold my tears while watching these guys, that's so silly and has absolutely nothing to do with PN. What I need is to have a laugh, why so serious?
have a slow life! Donald :)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Permaculture : Designing for Sustainability
Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human environments, was created in 1978 by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist and David Holmgren, his students. The word "permaculture" is a contraction of "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture."
Bill Mollison explains why freeing land for wilderness matters even for those who think only people matter
"Even anthropocentric people would be well-advised to pay close attention to, and to assist in, the conservation of existing forests and the rehabilitation of degraded lands. Our own survival demands that we preserve all existing species, and allow them a place to live.
We have abused the land and laid waste to systems we need never have disturbed had we attended to our home gardens and settlements. If we need to state a set of ethics on natural systems, then let it be thus:
- Implacable and uncompromising opposition to further disturbance of any remaining natural forests, where most species are still in balance;
- Vigorous rehabilitation of degraded and damaged natural systems to stable states;
- Establishment of plant systems for our own use on the least amount of land we can use for our existence; and
- Establishment of plant and animal refuges for rare or threatened species.
Permaculture as a design system deals primarily with the third statement above, but all people who act responsibly in fact subscribe to the first and second statements. That said, I believe we should use all the species we need or can find to use in our own settlement designs, providing they are not locally rampant and invasive.
Whether we approve of it or not, the world about us continually changes. Some would want to keep everything the same, but history, palaeontology, and common sense tells us that all has changed, is changing, will change. In a world where we are losing forests, species, and whole ecosystems, there are three concurrent and parallel responses to the environment:
- CARE FOR SURVIVING NATURAL ASSEMBLIES, to leave the wilderness to heal itself;
- REHABILITATE DEGRADED OR ERODED LAND using complex pioneer species and long-term plant assemblies (trees, shrubs, ground covers);
- CREATE OUR OWN COMPLEX LIVING ENVIRONMENT with as many species as we can save, or have need for, from wherever on earth they come.
We are fast approaching the point where we need refuges for all global life forms, as well as regional, national, or state parks for indigenous forms of plants and animals. While we see our local flora and fauna as "native", we may also logically see all life as "native to earth". While we try to preserve systems that are still local and diverse, we should also build new or recombinant ecologies from global resources, especially in order to stabilise degraded lands.'
Bill Mollision, Permaculture: A Practical Guide for a Sustainable Future, p.6
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The first of PN walking tour
That’s what Enric – a Spanish living in Delhi wrote on his Facebook.
Our first walking tour was very fun and full with solo travelers who live in different countries. We took them to the places that local people go and walked to the temples and end at the Golden Mountain. They was not just enjoyed our tour, moreover they was talking a lot and get along well, so after the first day of PN walking tour, they were not solo traveler but a new friend.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Save Our Planet!!!
Now we have new policy and we need your help to safe the planet!!!
In every room have 2 cards, one hang on the rack with the information that if you want to help us safe the nature, please hang your towel on the rack which means “I’ll use it again” but if you need it to be changed please leave it on the floor or on the bed which means “Please exchange”.
Another card is for the bed sheet, if you feel that your sheet need to be changed daily, you can leave a card on the pillow each morning. Housekeeping will be pleased to accommodate you.
Please decide for yourself and definitely for our planet!!!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Memory: Appetizers
You booked your air tickets and there is 2 months to go. You are very excited about the upcoming trip, you are about to devote your time on the itinerary, spending hours of researches about the places to visit, eat & sleep.....
1 month to go, your mind is full of pictures about the place that we are going; imagining about the things that you will encounter: the people you will meet on the journey, the place that you are staying, the street, the smell of food, the one who is going to share the moment with you....
Tomorrow is D day, you will sleep little tonight as you are too excited about this long awaiting trip, you will set more alarm clocks to make sure that you will wake up on time.
Today is here, you are feeling a little tired but that's not the same as usual, you are energized and your mood is at the peak, nothing is as good as this. From the moment you shut your door, carry the suitcase and wait for the cab or coach to the airport; arriving the airport, check in and pass through the custom control, wonder around the duty-free shops or grap a drinks. Although you can't wait to take off, but you are still very much enjoying it as your holiday is already began!
Time to take off, if lucky enough you would have hundreds of movies to watch in front of you accompanied by some refreshment & snacks. After the meal you might take a nap..... and then a breakfast; Your pilot tell you that the plane is 30 mins away from the destination and not long after the plane land smoothly. Now is the hard part- you are impatient about the queue at the immigration, the baggage control as you can't wait to get out of the airport. Finally you are at the arrival hall and you are heading to your first destination. On the way you get to see a bit such as billboards and low rise housings but nothing much.
After a long trip you finally get there.
Most of our PN people have never been to other countries so they may not know how it's feel, but after telling this story they know what they are meant to your journey, we are your temporary home. As your 'temporary' family members, they will give you a warm welcome and take care of you, make sure you have a good start for this unforgettable memory.
Have a slow life!
Donald
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The singing bird woke me up.
5.30 in the morning, I heard the birds singing out side. Is this place really in Bangkok? I asked to myself.
10 minutes ago I was so sleepy but I can’t sleep because I’m working in the night shift which finish at 7 am but the beautiful voice of the bird woke me up and remind me how wonderful this world is.
When I was young I lived in the country side in south of Thailand, in front of my house is a wide rice field. Me, my brothers and some other friends always run and play there. We really enjoy the rice field play ground when it’s in rainy season because we can also catch the fish, the field crab and frog in the rice field to make some delicious food and eat with the rice that our parent had grown.
Sometime if it was rain I would sat on the bench in the front of the house and looking out to the rain and after it stop raining I would look up in to the sky to see the rainbow. That was my precious time which gone by.
Now I’m sitting in the crazy Bangkok but lucky me that my office is green and peaceful. My life is going slowly by the tempo of nature, however my heart still calling to go back home and one day, one day I’ll be home.
Joy of work
We have closed our kitchen (except breakfast and beverage) for almost 3 months already, one of the reasons is because we need to find suppliers with more consistent supplies for both quality & quantity. I have been searching for new organic food suppliers & manufacturers these days as PN is about supporting local produce. Things are not complicated if you know where to find, but it take some efforts to do the research if you don't have any connection in the field. So far we have found serveral organic vegetable suppliers, a fruit supplier & a organic cheese manufacturer. I see this as an acheivement because everyone have learned a lot things in the process, so far we have visited the dairy farm to see our suppliers- the cows, and soon we will visit the farmers from the organic mushroom farm, later we will go to the cheese factory to see how they make our cheese (their milk is come from the royal project) & take a look at the fruit wholesale center where our fruit supplier select fruits from all over the country, sound fun isn't it?
Everybody in PN learn something new through works, & that's how we find our joy.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Receipe
Friday, May 22, 2009
Small is...
A)Let it be as I only want one glass so I can focus on the beauty of the glass, taste the sweetness from the water, look at the bubbles & reflection, look at the motion, enjoy the fullfillment of thirst......
B)Get more glasses (you need to buy and maintain them).
I remembered PN was once published in the TIME magazine and the title was called "small is beautiful", and not long ago P Rose also mentioned about our local tour should be "small is beautiful", then I started questioning: 'what kind of "small" is that?'
A while ago I finished reading the book "A day at El Bulli" which inspired me to think further the importance of 'small', this 50 seats restaurant only opened 6 months a year, which is equivalent to approx. 8000-9000 seatings altogether (50 x 180 days) but the booking request is stunning: 2million. This excellent team can do as much as they want with the 2million requests but instead they choose to stay 'small', I eventually understood what kind of 'small' that P.N. should stand for.... In terms of size we are small for sure (our rooms are small indeed), capacity is small (>30 rooms) but the real 'small' in P.N. means 'detail', when we have small nos of guests and staff(not so small for 30 rooms) there is much more time for communication and understand each other; we can improve our facilities and systems more carefully as we don't have another branches, so there is only one to look at. A beautiful piece of architecture is composed by many many small details (or a bad one has no details but only defects), if we just look at one detail it seems very simple, but how do we have time to look at them one by one? you do if you stay focused, everytime it will give you something new and inspiring(P.N. is different to me everyday).
A cup of good night tea is detail, A presentation of the breakfast is detail, A 'smiling' PN logo is detail; A passionate PN staff is detail; A home-made soap is detail; A hand painted fish on the table is detail; A decision on choosing a good dairy supplier is detail. A happy guest is detail. They are everywhere so we are determined to turn every defect into detail. Although small but beautiful!
Again..
Q: A glass is filled up by drinking water and the rest spill out (assume you can't control the source), what should you do?
A)Let it be as I only want one glass so I can focus on the beauty of the glass, taste the sweetness from the water, look at the bubbles & reflection, look at the motion, enjoy the fullfillment of thirst......
B)Get more glasses (you need to buy and maintain them).
My answer is 'A' obviously.
Have a slow life!
Donald
Monday, May 18, 2009
COMMUNICATION!
It took me some time to squeeze out this blog as i am a very poor communicator in writing, but it's the only way to improve my skill in this case... Every time when I try to write something about PN I just can't stop browsing other people's blogs to see how they 'write'. For me this blog is about showing how PN people live, work and think, but why do we do that? Since you (whoever is reading) may live miles and miles away from PN and have no idea what we are like apart from the still pictures, I believe this online platform allow us to explain as much as possible due to the fact that PN is not a hotel, a hostel, a guest house, a shabby place (named by some of our unsatisfied guest) or a home away from home.... PN is your friendly host which gives you direction when you don't know where to go, look after you when you are not feeling well, feed you with good food when you are hungry, prevent you from getting cheat by those bad vendors, make friends with you & listen to you, and finally make sure PN is what you need in Bangkok, if not we are more than happy to recommand you to other nice hotels or give you a full refund (you just need to fill a form and we will give you back the refund instanly). At the end we hope you to leave with a happy memory- that's the only thing we want from you :)
Have a slow life!
Donald
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Colleen and James
Around 6pm, I was working at the reception room, I heard someone sang an English song, it was an old man voice but sang with a young heart, his name is James. His daughter Colleen was sitting next to him and laughing with another 2 women which is the masseur who gave them a great massage.
I went out to ask him to sing an Australian song (because he’s from Australia).
And he sang,
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled,"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me".
Then he ask the masseur to sing with him, P’Pleng one of the masseur sang an old Thai song about a woman who waiting for her lover to came back as he promise her, and P’Pleng told James she will wait for him to come back to Thailand again. We was smiling and laughing together. Colleen said it was a really good choice to take her father here, it was a wonderful holiday for her and James.
It was great to have you two here with us as well. I wish I could hear James sing a song again and don’t forget to say hi to Australia for me :)
Noo
PN Gangs
Friday, May 15, 2009
Visited "THAIFEX-World of Food Asia"
PN Gang
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Our hotel in WOM Japanese magazine
This is WOM free magazine in Japan that published about our hotel a few months ago.
I'm learning Japanese but still can't read the long article, so if you don't mind please someone tell me what does it said about us?
Keep on smiling
Noo :)
http://www.wom-bangkok.com/info/i/36.html
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Smiling in the garden
Do you like tree, I love tree and the colour green.
When you feel tired because of some problem in your life and you need to cool down your mind but if you don't have enough time to go somewhere faraway you can just look out to your courtyard or sit under the tree, close your eyes and take a deep breath in and out.
I did that when I need some power to go on and I don’t have to go far away, in my work place which surely PN, I can just sit, relax and listen to the song and sometime is ancient Thai song, all atmosphere make me feel like I live in 200 years back into period of time.
Sometime something make me upset, but I can smile to my lovely guest, not because I have to but because I love to. When people smile, you can see in there eyes that it’s from there mind or not. Smile can make you feel better, when you feel sad, put the bad thing on side and let’s smile together.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Mail from Suzanna
Monday, April 27, 2009
William and Chantel : a newlywed
The day I met them is the day they were leaving PN and Thailand, I saw his Thai language tattoo on William's arm, so I asked about it...
His tattoo is "The journey of our life, 08/04/2009 Thailand", the 08/04/2009 is the day he and Chantel got married.
William told me that they just got married on the island in Krabi, and went to honeymoon at Koh Lanta and other island in Krabi, then came to stay at PN for 2 nights and went shopping in Bangkok.
I gived him my email and asked them to send me the wedding photos, William said he will send me the photo, but I haven't get it yet, so William if you've read this I'm waiting to see the photos :)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Pink Taxi
Yesterday evening, when I was sewing a sarong, I saw Lar one of my colleague ran after a guest, she asked me to run with her to find the taxi coz the guest was left her bag in the taxi. I ran over Lar and get to the main road, we saw a lot of taxi but we don't know which one, all we know is it's a pink taxi.
We came back to the hotel, Lar called the police, I called Ruam Dauy Shauy Gun, and Tukta another staff call FM100, I asked the guest, what's in the bag and her husband told me that it got cash around 10-20 thousand Baht with a camera, a mobile phone and her passport. Her husband tried to call to her mobile but no one pick up.
We wait for about 15 minute and we hadn't heard anything from the radio or police so Tukta took them to the police station at Khoa Sarn Road. Half an hour after that they came back and went up to their room.
We've heard nothing from anywhere.
Noo
I'm living my slow life
I've been working at Phranakorn Nornlen for 2 days now. I'm learning the job at Front House, how to do paper work, explain to our guest about our service in the hotel, suggest the guest where and how to go for sightseeing in Bangkok.
But in this morning, Khun Donald let me helped in Food & Beverage to serve breakfast for guests. This job reminded me of waiting job in Melbourne and I enjoyed it than Front House job coz I don't like paper work, although I have to know how to do it, If I need to run my own small hotel in the future.
Today while I was working, all I heard is the beautiful song from the CD player, it was quiet like I stayed in the country side. The theme of this lovely hotel is "Slow Life", the atmosphere is like that, a peaceful place in a crazy city, when you walk out the gate you will see many people with their busy life but when you get into this hotel, your life is slower and easier than ever.
I'm living my slow and lovely life.
Noo
Friday, March 13, 2009
What does PN mean??
Let start ….P = Phranakorn ,It is this airea that we are. N=Nornlen,In Thai language means relaxing or take a nap some thing like that.So 2 words with together means This place for relaxing .Is it correct?( ask our guest that stayed with us).That is just only meaning of the name.Then I will give you PN mean in my feeling.PN is my second home and family.Start from building and asmosphere .It ’s so nice and peaceful especially at night with the light in small garden so beautiful….I started fall in love this place when I started my work also.This is the most of my favorite place in Bangkok (because I came from country side).PN is a small house but very very big wormth.During the dayI often have gone to the roof 2 times /day.Please follow me I will bring you to the roof.In the morning I’ve gone to see the organic vegetable farm (greany) make me feel freshy in early morning.Then played yoga on there(in front of Buddha view ),the have big bed that suitable . Not just only me do that some time I saw our guest play yoga on there too.After finished I meditated atlease half an hour .So all of activity in the morning make me ready to work with happiness all day.In the evening at night if you go to the roof(7 -20pm) you will see the fantastic view of a very big standing Buddha and Rama 8 bridge with the light.(golden color). Most of time here make me life with slow life really.
When I finish my work I always hang around here and relax(Nornlen).Because here peaceful.By the way people here also nice both of staff and guests.It like magnetic that make all smile and happy.From above I would like to tell everyone that PN have a plenty of peaceful and happiness. If you would like to find somewhere bring you to have slow life please come to visit here .Welcome you with smile and sincere always.
Although after next Wednesday I will not stay here ,but I still would like to be a small part of here forever…..So …Thank you P’Oke P’Rose P’Donald and all of staff here.This is the best English school in Thailand for me……Will miss everybody and come to visit here when I come back to Thailand….I Promis
Ann