Because of PN

Have you ever been very far away from home? ..Oh!!!!! I am very far away from home? Now I ‘ve been away from home almost 1 year….I do remember first arrived Uk How did I feel..Every thing is interesting and I was very excited ( that what I gonna do then after long flight)…I just told myself that “Ann !Please calm down).When I was in the airport (Gatwick) tried to find the way to the trainstation.During the time and so many time I took a small paper from my bag that was very important for me.. And I’d read it again and again to make sure that I could get to my destination safely.Even if I know it quite hard work for me .In this paper was e-mail which told me every thing to get get there….So firstly I took the train to London where is lots and lot of people (that I don’t know them) ...After that I had to take under ground to My destination . I couldn’t do the same thing that I normally did in Thailand ( that was sleeping on the bus or train) Even I was really tried.. Because of I needed to know where I was at that moment .Oh dear !!!I had to take one more train with my load of stuff…..From traveling nearly 24 hr , including cold weather …I almost cried ,but I didn’t .Because of the message from my paper….So I cut some past of them That It’s always stuck in my head and my mine.

“Dont worry about booking any tickets, as you can get them there.

Let me know what you want to do. You are more than welcome to stay, we don't have a spare room, but have an air bed we can put up for you in Rhiannon's room. I can give you spare keys and show you around the town after you have recovered from jet lag. and there is a park with animals a walk away. If you neeed to get to your homestay on 22nd (sunday) I can drop you at a station to get the train to brighton and explain all of that to you.


Here is my work email: ………………………………..

Take care and dont worry

Tara, Martin and Rhiannon xxx”



Finally I got her home with warm house and warm heart from three of them …I felt very very good.,I had slow life there. They cooked me Thai food,They brought me to see London at night .The day after they drove me to Cambridge ( such a nice place ).And lot of thing that Thay did for me .I am very really appreciate that. They are use to be our guest at PN. .If didn’t work at PN I don’t think I would meet them.Thank you PN indeed ,By the way Now I miss PN a lot ,I miss slow life in Thailand.
Actually I have a lot of thing want to write it down in here,but now I’ve got to bed coz I have to work tomorrow.Have a good night everybody(^_^)

P.s next time I will write about How nice when I worked at PN

Ann

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 :)

"Ponyo" on the cliff by the sea

Gibli's animation always give me an inspiration and imagination and I love all Gibli animation because it's talk about the environmental problem in the way of telling the children to love and live with the nature.

Ponyo (Po-nyo) is the new animation from Gibli, the story about a 5-year old Sozuke and a beautiful goldfish "Ponyo" the daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo quickly falls in love with Sosuke, so she uses her father's magic to transform herself into a human but the use of powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKcyNmwLwGI

Don't believe in 10-20 Baht trip around BKK by Tuk Tuk

Do you know why some people cheat to the other?

Whatever the reason is, I think it's not fair. We might poorer than someone else but it doesn't mean that the richer have to pay something more than it should be.

Many tourist get cheat by the shop which they was brough there by Tuk Tuk, well Tuk Tuk driver get money from the shop just to take the tourist to there, but if you buy their product the price is double from it should be. They're really good at push people to make a suddenly dicision and if you don't have time to think over, you will make a wrong dicision and they will get too much profit by cheating other.

Don't get me wrong, not every Tuk Tuk driver or every shop are that bad. I just want to tell you that DON'T go with the Tuk Tuk who said they will take you around Bangkok for the price just 10-20 Baht, it's TOO CHEAP!!!

Partnership

Partnership is always the key to drive the success for everything from family to career, here is the story I want to share with you.

Few days ago I was sitting in the taxi on my way to the meeting, the taxi driver was given the map of the destination and we discussed whether we should take the toll way since the traffic was pretty bad, he noticed that my thai wasn't fluent so he started to communicate with me in english. I was suprised as taxi drivers normally can't speak english in Thailand (even they do it's still not a proper english), so we started to have chat. He used to work for a thai ambassodor in New York for 4 years, at first he couldn't even speak a single english word. later on he was given a chance to study in a language school during the weekend, in 6 months he could communicate fluently in english. He told me during these years he didn't only learn english but also a service mind, he realized how frightening it can be when you come to an unfamiliar place where you can't speak their language & worst than that you got cheated by the people. A small amount of taxi drivers surely ruined the reputation of the whole industry with their greed, I am always skeptical & cautious about that as they can't give me any confidence, therefore I always pretend as a thai while sitting in the taxi ( how? I do speak some Thai so if we don't talk much to eachother, they wouldn't know where i come from). This taxi driver truly understand the needs of foreigners as he was happened to be one of them, before I dropped off we exchanged contacts and I told him that we will use his service as long as he is available. Everyday we have guests going to the airport and we need a reliable partner to ensure a safe and pleasent journey. Our partnership begins here.

Have a slow life!

Donald

Attn to beef lovers: Ko-Khun Beef

The beef you are going to eat here are delievered directly from their own farm in Pong Yang kham (Eastern part of Thailand). The most expensive part is the fillet: 200THB per plate which is nothing if you are from the 1st world country, with this budget you can barely afford to buy a baguette or 2 shots of expresso in Paris. I gurantee you will fall in love with it once you have the first bite; soft, tender, & rich in beef flavour. Other than fillet you can find almost every part such as tenterloin, sirloin, inner thigh & many others. Actually they serve eastern thai food so you will also find a wide range of spicy dishes such as cow intestine soup, papaya salad (very spicy), sticky rice, liver salad... you can have 2 ways to cook your beef: hot pot or hot pan, both are come with the hot charcoal pot. The place is not so comfortable but usual in thailand (open air is ok, but you are facing the hot pan with the burning charcoal), this discomfort can be compensated by a bottle of cold beer (with ice, that's thai way) and you don't need to worry about your pocket as the food is so cheap, cost you around 1000THB for 2 persons (assumming you are a "meat" person)

The restaurant is not nearby the town centre but yet not too far, if you are happened to be in PN and would like give a try just let me know as I may join you for the feast :)

Have a slow life!

Donald

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 :)

Permaculture : Designing for Sustainability

I found out about this project by accident when I was searching about WWOOF project around the world, I found this word "permaculture" and I was really attract by it, so I want to know what is it and want to share what I've found to you all.

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:

1. Implacable and uncompromising opposition to further disturbance of any remaining natural forests, where most species are still in balance;


2. Vigorous rehabilitation of degraded and damaged natural systems to stable states;


3. Establishment of plant systems for our own use on the least amount of land we can use for our existence; and


4. 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:

1. CARE FOR SURVIVING NATURAL ASSEMBLIES, to leave the wilderness to heal itself;


2. REHABILITATE DEGRADED OR ERODED LAND using complex pioneer species and long-term plant assemblies (trees, shrubs, ground covers);


3. 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

The first of PN walking tour

“If you start with a Brazilian living in Paris, a Spanish in Delhi, an American in Phnom Penh, a Japanese in Singapore, and a Swiss in Bangkok, you could make a good multicultural joke or a walking tour in Bangkok. I think we were the first and the number one fans of this Nornlen Walking Tours.”

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.

The next two days, they were still joined us in PN walking tour (the other route).

Save Our Planet!!!

According to our guest review in Tripadvisor.com about the waste of water and power that use everyday to wash towel and bed sheet which use only once. We’re trying as much as we can to safe the nature so our guest’s suggestion is very important to us because it might have something that we overlook.

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!!!

Noo

PN Gangs

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

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.

Receipe

Few days ago I asked our F&B gangs if they can file our 7 days breakfast receipes & the first draft (they though it's a completed one) has arrvived today..eventually, so I took a quick look and asked them to use one of the recipes to make the 1st revision, not the cooking part but the 'know-how' process or in otherwords the 'work flow' or 'Operation manual'. Receipe sound simple but it's a very important piece of work/art as it can help the us to acheive an expected result, or to perform a stable & consistent quality of work. It is not good enough if only you can make a very delicious chicken curry, you should be able to record the portion & quantity, write down every little steps and pass this skills to your friends & family, so next time you can ask them to make you the same dish while you are ready to create another new receipe, or another way round. You are going to learn a lot by teaching others.

Have a slow life!

Donald

Small is...

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).


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

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

Colleen and James

12th May 2009

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

Visited "THAIFEX-World of Food Asia"

Today we went to Muang thong Thani to visit THAIFEX fair. It is about fruit and vegetables free of toxic and canned food. Including kitchen equipment suppliers. But today the major that we saw Fruits and vegetables. The only one thing that we have to see “Find the best for customer” It is not easy. Because most of vendors they's not sending a few commands. The listen is they will be less in profit. That problem is quite difficult to solve for us. Because our hotel is a small hotel. The room has only 20 rooms. So, the order is to be less common. But we also find it much further, because we believe that it must be art! Another is to see and wonder is most dealers now focus on the more toxic substances and free health. This is gratifying. We spent 4 hours together to see and taste it to get information. Glance on the time. To return home… Today is considered to be worthwhile to see this because the view from the documents is much too many!!. And we must follow for each document as soon as finish…

PN Gang

Our hotel in WOM Japanese magazine

OHAIYO...Japanese traveler.

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

Smiling in the garden

Sawasdee Kha...

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.

Noo