The Conference: AcEBs Bangkok 2012

Monday 16 July 2012

The morning session started with the registration of participants and here is the the committee in charge of registration. Roslinda, Hassan, Nehzat, Ridwan, Fahmee and Nik Farhana.  

After the registration, we sat down to hear the three keynote speeches. 1. Prof. Emer. Dr. Aleya Abdel Hadi from Egypt, 2. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jamalunlaili Abdullah from Malaysia and 3. Prof. Dr. Vimolsiddhi Horayangkura from Thailand. This is the main hall and I took the photo very early before the participants came in.

There were tea/coffee breaks and fresh fruits were always served lavishly. There were pineapples, papayas, rock melons, water guava........

 Also, there were watermelons and more pineapples.......mmmmmmmm yummy........

After keynote addresses, the conference were divided into 3 parallel sessions because the conference had to accommodate 100 paper presenters.

The Conference Dinner   

After conference we were invited to the conference dinner and delegates were encouraged to wear their national costumes. It started with the welcoming speeches, three in all. 

The turnout was very good. The food was delicious, there was a show of local Thai dances and a live band.

As I am a Board Member, I was given a token by the conference committee and I particularly like this floral arrangements of jasmine and other flowers.

Young, beautiful and graceful dancers.Who can blame the men for watching these mesmerizing dancers without batting their eyes?

I was happy to meet new friends from Indonesia.

The committee members from Malaysia and Thailand singing a song together.

With my room-mate, Che Bon.

The conference dinner was fun and very enjoyable. We had impromptu singers from both camps. And it was a good stress reliever for all.

 Tuesday 17 July 2012

The second day of the conference saw me as a chairperson for the 11 am session, the one after the coffee break. This is Kamolporn 1&2 room and there were 6 paper presenters.

Below is the presentation by Dr. Jana Spilkova from Czechia on "Lifestyle Changes and Risk Behaviour in Czech Teenagers". 

This presenter is from the University Islam Malaysia.

 The lady in the pink scarf, Roslinda is presenting her paper on "Newly Built Public PaediatricWwards Increases Government Expenditure on Healthcare".

The Q&A session grouped all the presenters in front of the room and each presenters had a chance of getting questions from the floor. 

In the afternoon session I eagerly waited to hear from the Egyptian participants titled "Change of Local Culture After the 25th Revolution and its Imoact on Environmental Awareness".

  

As the normal practice goes, the Q&A session was monitored by the Chairperson, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shenglin Elijah Chang (Taiwan)

Finally after 2 days of conferencing, 3 keynote speeches, 100 paper presenters, 4 scrumtious tea/coffee breaks, 2 wonderful lunches and one enjoyable dinner, the Dean of Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, UiTM Shah Alam, Malaysia announced the conference officially closed. 

The conference was a success due to the hardwork of the committee members from Malaysia and Thailand especially the hard work of Prof. Dr. Mohd Yusof Abbas, UiTM and Dr. Nopadom from KMITL, Bangkok. As a participant I am fully satisfied with the running of the conference and I extend my congratulations to all committee members involved. 

AcEBs BANGKOK 2012 (Part 2)

Sunday 15 July 2012

Morning has broken...........in Bangkok from our hotel room's window. I prayed the Subh prayer at 5.30am. The Sukosol Hotel provide the direction of the Qiblat for the convenience of Muslim guests.

Another convenience of the Sukosol Hotel for Muslims is that there is a halal restaurant attached to the hotel. Its called "Spice and Rice". The breakfast buffet spread was good and had many choices of dishes.

After the committee finished a brief meeting they grouped together to go out and buy some gifts for the conference. I joined them and we followed Salt and Tony leading the way to the Phaya Thai BTS station.

It was a good experience for us because we get to experience the mass rapid transit provided in the city for the Thai residents and visitors. Its so easy once we get the hang of it. Its cheaper that taking the "tuk tuk" or the taxi.

I'm with Che Bon, my room-mate who is a lecturer with the Dept. of Park and Amenities under the same faculty. And the moment she's on study leave doing her Phd research.

Some of us went to Mabukrong or MBK while others go to Chatuchak. Below is the exterior and interior of MBK complex.

Later in the evening the Board members of the International Scientific Committee were invited to a dinner and there were quite a number of us from all over the world. There were 8 from Malaysia, one from Indonesia, 2 from Egypt and others from Thailand. The picture below is my Faculty's dean, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Masran Saruwono (left) with Dr. Adrian from USM (right). Notice the wood sculptors on the table. They are just so beautiful.

Some of the Board members chatting with each other.

This delightful artistic display of our dessert is called tiramisu expresso delight or something.....

After dinner we convened to our Board meeting to discuss any issues regarding the paper assessments and others.

The meeting ended with hot drinks and sandwiches. And then the Board members were given the conference pack consisting of the conference T-shirt, the programme book, 4 backdated Jabs and Ajebs journals and a thumb drive (with the proceedings in it).  

ASEAN CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL -BEHAVIOUR STUDIES AcE-Bs 2012 BANGKOK (Part 1)

This conference organized by the Centre of Environmental-Behavioral Studies in the Faculty of  Architecture, Planning and Surveying, University Technology MARA, Shah Alam,  Malaysia is held every year since 2010 and this year was held in Bangkok. The actual conference started on the 16th July and finished on the 17th July. The following day was the post-conference tour. This year's conference was also co-hosted by King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, Ladkrabang (KMITL) in Bangkok, Thailand. I went as a Board Member of the International Scientific Committee and also as co-authors for 4 paper presentations.

Saturday 14th July 2012

My husband sent me to KLIA very early in the morning as my flight departed at 9.10am. After our Subh prayers at the musollah in the airport we had breakfast at McDonald's.

The floor below is where the passengers had to go through the immigration for the international departures. 

Although we do not normally eat at fast food outlets, we liked the McD's big breakfast because its convenient and filling.

I looked all ready to go to a conference. 

So its bye-bye time. I was feeling quite sad to leave because my son who had been in UK for 6 years was coming back home for good and his flight back to KLIA was 6 pm later that day. 

The flight took about less than 2 hours. The landing was quite bumpy but all was well. This was where we claimed our baggage but our friends lost one of their baggage. We were told that it was left behind in KLIA!

The people behind me were part of the conference committee. I decided to go along at the same time with them because I felt safer with familiar faces around me. There's Ridwan who was waiting for his baggage (which did not come out until the end) and Roslinda posing naughtily behind me. 

Then there's other committee members like Nehzat and Hassan (Iranian post-grad students) and Zalina with her husband Salim. There were many other committee members who comprised of lecturers and post-grad students. Some brought their spouses and children with them. After finally settling in the van we head towards Bangkok and went to find Muslim restaurants in Nana Street to buy packed lunch to bring to the hotel.

And you can see the very packed packed briyani chicken I bought. I ate only half of this and gave the rest to Fahmee and Fauzee who finished the rest of the rice and the chicken.

The Sukosol Hotel is very nice, looked new, refreshing, delightful and welcoming. 

I just can't help but sit in this chair. Its shape is so unique.

The interior of the hotel was decorated with lots of flowers, antique cupboards, porcelains, beautiful drawings and sculptors. The bedroom is very comfortable for two as I was sharing the room with Che Bon who is a much younger lecturer than me. She arrived much later that night.

I truly love the mattress of the beds. Its not too soft, its firm but not hard. Very good for people with back-ache. Later that evening we were invited to a welcoming dinner at a Muslim restaurant, Sofea. They served Thai halal food. 

Prof. Nopadom was giving a welcoming speech. 

The tom-yam was a wee bit too sour for me. But the rest of the food was yummy.

The Thai group sitting at my table consist of one Phd Dr., one Phd candidate, 2 senior Phd students and 2 junior Phd students. Due the language barrier the conversation was quite limited. The Thais are brilliant people but because the medium of learning is mostly in Thai, we cannot have a deep conversation with them except for a few like Dr. Witchitra who speak good English. Let's see if I can remember the names of those sitting at my table. The Thai people have long names so they use short nicknames for the benefit of foreigners. Next to me was Mee, then Dr. Tu, then there's Salt who is so friendly and helpful, then there's the big and quiet Peter, then there's the shy Oil, and last but not least is the ever so helpful Tony. Next to Tony is my friend Yati.

The next day is a preparation day for the committee but since I am not a committee member I got the whole day free except for a Board dinner and a Board meeting later in the evening. I will post more news in future postings.