An elephant at a sidewalk restaurant in Muang Surin

An elephant at a sidewalk restaurant in Muang Surin

Dear Son
in NYC, USA

An elephant at the sidewalk restaurant in Muang Surin or Surin City, Surin Province, Thailand. For Surin is the city of elephants, and famous for Thai jasmine rice, and ancient Thai silk.

Picture - Map of Tha Tum, north of the Surin City

The following information is from online advertisement - Any visit to Thailand will be incomplete without a visit to Ban Ta Klang Elephant village in the province of Surin. The village comprises of people from the ancient tribe of Kui, and they have been rearing these gentle giants for hundreds of years.

There are about 200 elephants live in the village, with about 8,000 baht per month of subsidy for mahood or owner of an elephant in the village from Thai government. This is an effort to keep elephants and their owners from bringing these lovely animals to wandering around in the streets in Bangkok, which is quite harmful for both animals and can cause tragic accidents.

Ban Ta Klang Elephant village is about 1 hour of drive from Muang Surin, or Surin City. and about 500 kilometres from Bangkok.

Dad at Home
Aree Samphan
Bangkok, Thailand

Traveling 7 hours Through the Night to Surin

Traveling 7 hours Through the Night to Surin

Dear son,
in NYC, USA

Friday, February 26, 2010

At 19:00 hrs, February 25, 2010, Mom and I joined Na Nui and Na Pued (Aunt and uncle) for dinner at a Japanese restaurant at villa Market shopping Mall, Phaholyothin Road, near our home.

Then you Mom, with Na Chan drove me through the heavy traffic to the bus station. At 21:00 hrs, I got the bus from Mo Chit Station to Surin.

It is not a usual time of traveling to travel through the night time and to arrive in Surin as early as 4:30 am of the next day. But life is something for a change.

Picture - Air-conditioned bus, called VIP, with 30 seats, while regular one has 44 seats

Picture - View from within the bus, I took the picture from the last row of seats in the bus.

Picture - Midway stop at the restaurant, with 30 baht value of food coupon, with 20 minute break, travelers can stretch legs, go to restrooms, do some shopping at convenient store, and refill gas for their vehicles.

This time I got the last ticket of the VIP 30 seater, which means the last row and the worst seat of the bus. There are about 10 rows of seats in the bus. It is known that the best seats are somewhere in the front and middle rows of the bus. But the last row will not be good seats. It is up and down, rolling to the left and then to the right. I sit at the back row which is about a foot higher than all seats of the rest of the bus. It is not for sleeping.

Picture - I took the picture of the "Open Air Restaurant", in the dark of quite early morning, at the Surin Bus Station. It is not the Paris Sidewalk Restaurants, but give me good feelings.

I arrive at the Surin Bus Station, quite early as 4:20 am of February 26, 2010. I took this opportunity to sit at the open air restaurant, have a cup of coffee, with 4 pairs of Chinese croissants (called locally Pa Tong Koh), 2 half boiled eggs, and Chinese hot tea. All at the cost of 32 baht or USD 1.00. Then I walk about 200 metres to the Petchkasem Hotel to check in. Then I will go to bed and sleep till whenever I wake up. It is good feeling having light breakfast at 4:30 am. It reminds me of the last scene of the movie by starred by Jack Nicholson, “As Good As It Get.”

Son, during this winter in New York City, take good care of your health. Clean everything in your bedroom including floor, bed sheet, blanket, etc. Cleanliness is very important for good health, and watch out for the H1N1. Have good exercise, have healthy food – less calories, more vegetables, fruits, fruit juices, and with adequate meat of various kinds. Manage to sleep well. If possible, look for spare sleep place, with less distance between your workplace and home.

Dad at Home

Petchkasem Hotel
Surin, Thailand

People in the SpringBoard Network 2010

SpringBoard UK Education Fair 2010

At the SpringBoard UK Education Fair 2010 at the National Institute of Education, Ministry of Education, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia during February 3-4, 2010

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Picture SB02 - At the opening ceremony, SpringBoard UK Education Fair 2010, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Picture SB03 - At the dinner hosted by the National Institute of Education, Cambodia

People in the SpringBoard Network 2010

Pracob Cooparat
SpringBoard For Asia Foundation (SB4AF)
E-mail: pracob@sb4af.org

The followings are pictures of people with description. They may be CEOs, professors, business persons, in various countries we have activities with - such as the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, etc. Definitely, there will be some others to add on.

These photo albums are not complete yet, howerver they can be edited periodically. I will serve as a coordinator informally to bring in pictures with information to make this album more completed.

So all my dear friends, please send in your pictures and related information so I can post them up for sharing information with others who may need them while seeing you for the first time - at the airports, bus stations, hotel lobbies, restaurants, meeting places, etc.

In case the pictures are not correct or inappropriate, please let me know.

SpringBoard Groups



Picture SB01 - Colin Glass, CEO SpringBoard Group, at the preparation for SpringBoard UK Fair 2010, the National Institute of Education, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Picture SB02 - Colin Glass, CEO - SpringBoard Group, at a party in India

SpringBoard in UK

Picture SB03 - Ian Paynton at the SpringBoard UK Education Fair 2010, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Picture SB04 -Ian Paynton, at MBK Shopping Mall, Bangkok, Thailand

SpringBoard in India

Picture Ind01 - Colin Glass, in India

Picture Ind02 - Pav

Picture Ind03 - Pav,

SpringBoard in Vietnam

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SpringBoard in Cambodia



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SpringBoard in Malaysia

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Picture Mal03 - Chay Peng,

SpringBoard in Thailand

SpringBoard For Asia Foundation (SB4AF), in Thailand

Picture TH01 - Pracob Cooparat, Ph.D. Chairman and co-founder of SpringBoard For Asia in Thailand
E-mail: pracob@sb4af.org

Picture TH02 - Aj. Kunchit Jamaraman,

Picture TH03 - Boonchoo S
Picture TH04 - Wilailuk K

Partnership Institutions

Pictures of people from partnership institutions and representatives of SB4AF in Thailand.

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Picture TH06 - Prapaporn Boonplord, representative of SpringBoard For Asia Foundation in Lower Northeast Region in Thailand, Surin, Burirum, Srisaket, and Roi-Ed provinces

Faculty member of Surindra Rajabhat University (SRRU), doctoral candidate for the Educational Leadership and Administration program at SRRU, Surin Province, Thailand
E-mail: airthecorr@hotmail.com

Representatives of Universities from UK

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Picture GB02 - John Mountford

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English Language Testing, LTD
Picture GB11 -Picture: Caroline Browne, CEO - English Language Testing, Password

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British Council


Picture GB13 - British Council, Malaysia

Picture GB14 - British Council, Malaysia


British Council, Thailand
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Picture TH22 - British Council, Thailand

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