IndoChina/中南半島

Chih-Hsiang Liao (廖志祥)

Jogging in Khon Kaen University Campus



A faster way to be familiar with your living environment is jogging. Once you know where you are, it will become easier to know how to get to your destination.

Why jogging

As usual, I continued to jog when I first arrived here in this forest campus of Khon Kaen University. I had several purposes in mind regarding my morning jogging. First I had to adapt this new place in this foreign country as soon as possible. Second I am sure that jogging will help strengthen my digestive system in my body. In other words, through jogging I will develop my immunity from diseases which may result from my daily meals and water intake. Third it’s a good moment to think things ahead when you are jogging alone; there’s nothing you can do but think. Of course, there’re many other benefits with this physical exercise, depending on how you see it. With jogging, I have explored a lot of places and taken many interesting photos in this forest university. I think this is the most exciting part in my daily jogging. I kind of became a photo-runner or mobile photographer.

Jogging history

I started to jog since August 2012. According to my past records, my jogging mileage was around 2700 km, as of December 27, 2013; it’s almost like jogging around Taiwan Island three times. Counting jogging days only in Khon Kaen University, it’s about 480 km. How does jogging change my body shape? I become much thinner than before, as was observed by all my colleagues, students, church members, and my friends.

Jogging in the forest university

Safety issue

In exploring this forest university, I have tried to run quite a few of different routes. The most concern of mine is safety on the road, in view of heavy traffic in the peak hour and those street barking dogs.

I had to run right opposite to the incoming traffic in order to see the front road condition clearly, without worrying the traffic in my back. After I was getting more and more familiar with traffic condition on different roads, I came up with my most favourite route which I would recommend to the runners in Khin Kaen University to follow through.

Another annoying issue was the village and street dogs. It’s kind of in dilemma. To avoid heavy traffic, I’d better choose the trails within the residential village, but then I would be threatened more in there because villagers usually raise home dogs. On the contrary, there will be fewer dogs on the main roads, but I have to be careful with all kinds of tiger-roaring traffic conditions. In general, the street dogs are less offensive. So, there’re pros and cons to choose either one. Just watch out when you hit the road.

Outside the boundary

As you see the map here, the campus of Khon Kaen University in light brown colour is walled off from the outside area. There’s one time, I tried to run outside the campus, thinking to enlarge my jogging area as far as I can. After studying the google map carefully, I decided to explore the area west to the campus. I thought I would be able to cut into the inside campus at a certain point if there’s connecting trail heading toward the east. However, it turned out to be that I had no way to get into campus because the white wall-fence goes all the way along the outside trail. So I had to run further toward the west to find a major traffic road, instead of small trails. But this put me in an awkward situation. Shall I run back to my starting point or keep going to see if I can find somewhere to cut into campus again? I was lost and didn’t know when I could reach to the major Maliwan road. More important, I almost lost my energy.

After I located where I was from the map of Runkeeper App, I continued my hard journey toward Maliwan Road. Finally I had to stop at some point, which marks the end of my jogging with a distance around 10.8 km. Then I walked back to the starting point near my living place, and it took me quite a while to walk back, especially when exhausted. The lesson is this: You never know what will happen until you are put in the field.
The best jogging route

After several trial-and-error, here are the 2 routes I would recommend if you want to jog in this forest university campus. There’re 3 major roads in this campus, including North Boulevard (East-West direction; Mileage #2-#3), West Avenue (North-South Direction; Mileage #3-#6), and Central Avenue (North-South direction; Mileage #8-#10).

On November 14, I ran counterclockwise by following North Boulevard, West Avenue and Central Avenue. Yet, I felt really under pressure because of heavy traffic in North Boulevard. In addition, when running on the West Avenue, the running space is quite limited and is too close to the incoming traffic because I kept at the right hand side of the road for the sake of safety concern. As for the section along Central Avenue, the trail is quite comfortable to run on there.

Later on, as is in the map of December 11, I decided to run clockwise, starting first from Central Avenue, passing 2 big lakes near the university entrance, turning northward onto West Avenue, making a right turn onto a path below and parallel to the North Boulevard, and then entering into the third lake area. With this route, I avoid running on the heavy traffic of North Boulevard and take advantage of running on the bike route on the West Avenue. So, this route became my favourite one.




The longest jogging record

Since I have signed up for the international marathon game to be held in Khon Kaen on January 26, 2014, I thought I had to make it a try to see if I can finish my target one - half marathon, which is around 20 km. So I finished 20.46 km on December 5 by following the clockwise route, as mentioned above. I made 2 laps of the bigger contour, and 2 laps of the smaller contour in the upper part, and finally completed the 20.46 km in the lake area, where each lake circle is around 0.84 km.


Scenic views on the roads

It’s most enjoyable to jog in the campus of Khon Kaen University because most of the roads are under the cool shades offered by the tree forest. In the hot weather of the month of November like Khon Kaen city, the heat of bright sunshine is hard to penetrate through this natural cut-off. All your eye touch is green forest. In addition, the jogging route covers all three lakes in this university campus, where special landscape is formed and has become scenic points you would love to spend some time there. Browse some photos below in each area.

Area A

Area B

Area C

Area D

Area E

Area F

Area G

Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on December 27th, 2013

Golden Jubilee Convention Hall, Khon Kaen University

This splendid Golden Jubilee Convention Hall (GJCH) in the campus of Khon Kaen University first caught my eyes when I jogged around the campus in the morning, and I took a first photo of it, with bright sunshine on that day.

Afterwards, I took quite a few photos of it with different angles, at different locations, at different times, and in different weather, whenever I passed by it in my morning jogging. I suppose this GJCH should be the landmark and an inspirational symbol of Khon Kaen University. It looks to me this GJCH is unshakable and humble. In addition, if you jog around its circle, you’ll find all its structure is symmetrical in both axes of x and y. Its side entrances are in the north and south, facing a forest and a big lake, respectively. In the east and west sides, there’re two major entrances with ascending steps leading to the public Hall area inside.

After I further searched for information from the website, Golden Jubilee Convention Hall has the following history:
"In commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of His Majesty the King of Thailand's accession to the throne, Khon Kaen University constructed The Golden Jubilee Convention Hall. Beginning with the laying of the corner stone, presided over by His Majesty the King, the Hall quickly became the pride of northeastern Thailand. Located on Maliwan Road, and with magnificent manicured grounds, the Hall is just 4 km from the airport and 1.5 km from the central business district. Khon Kaen is served by some outstanding 4-5 star hotels with neighboring shopping centers, banks, and a regional hospital."

In view of its business operation, "Equipped with functionally state-of-the-art multimedia technology, the Hall provides audio-visual systems that can be tailored to the needs of any client, whether domestic or international. The Hall provides adequate design and appointments to guarantee convenience, comfort and safety. These systems are complementary by 500 on-site parking spaces and additional capacity for up to 30 buses."

In the presented sets of photos, you will see Golden Jubilee Convention Hall in closer view, distant view, night view, and its surrounding plantation phase of Casuarina trees. Note that different sky colours indicate the weather conditions, clear or cloudy. Also when you see the clear reflection of GJCH in the lake, this tells you the weather was not windy. All depending on the weather, it just needs a good timing and chance to have a good photo. But, no matter what kind of weather it will be, each photo has its own beauty, also depending on your feeling and mood.

As I google-serached "photos of Golden Jubilee Convention Hall", there’re so many magnificent photo works out there. Through my effort, I, like a photo-runner, hope mine can also add some more records to reveal the beauty of this Golden Jubilee Convention Hall, which seems embedded behind a mysterious veil of Casuarina tree forest.








Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on December 25th, 2013

Trip to border cities of Thailand

December 18-19, 2013




It’s exciting to explore some other border cities in northeastern Thailand. We spent two days touring around there, including Loei, Phu Ruea and Chiang Khan.

For the first 40 days in Thailand, I always stay in the city of Khon Kaen, trying to adapt myself better in this foreign place. Tuesday, Dr. Surapol mentioned to me if I am available to visit Loei together where he will take some water samples from a gold mining site. After moving my Thursday’s lecture to Friday, we decided to get there on Wednesday and Thursday (December 18-19).

December 18, 2013

Loei city

Dr. Surapol picked me and Michelle up at my place and headed toward Loei at 7 in the morning. As you can see from the map, it’s quite a long drive to get to Loei from Khon Kaen. The distance is about 200 km and it took about 3 hours by local route. On the way to Loei, sugar cane fields are all in your eyes. Big trucks loaded and piled quite high with sugar canes were busy on the road driving to the sugar plant. In this long drive, we passed by Phu (means “moutain") Wiang National Park, and went through Phu Kradueng National Park at its east side. By the way, there’s this saying about the word of “Loei": "Passing through directly without any intention of staying in this place." Is it because Loei is a deserted land or a bad place in the past times?

By the noon time, we arrived at Leoi Rajabhat University (LRU) and met with Pang, who is a lecturer at LRU and is now pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Khon Kaen University. After greeting Pang’s colleagues, Pang toured us around the botanical garden in LRU campus. This garden features with all kinds of dinosaurs and ancient plants. The garden looks like the one in the movie of Jurassic Park. I am sure visitors would be impressed by such a special spot of this university.


Scenic points near Phu Ruea National Park

After brief lunch, we all moved into Pang’s Outlander for sightseeing. It’s only until we arrived the first scenic spot that I knew we were in a temple area called Wat PA Ban Huai Lat. The construction of this splendid temple was supported by Queen of Thailand. Right below the pointing roof, there’re two royal symbols posted high on the front panel, which I guess represents King and Queen of Thailand, respectively.

The next two spots are not far away from the temple. Both are located within the outer rim of Phu Ruea National Park. One is a landscape full of european style, windmill and Christmas red flowers. During the winter times, the view of this spot is very in season, especially when Christmas is coming next week. Another one is a resort area with green forest in the place. It’s a place where you would sit and breathe in a whole lot of fresh air, and enjoy seeing the blue sky. It’s quite relaxing to stay and drink a cup of coffee there.



Night view of old street in Chiang Khan

Though the trip was quite relaxing, we were still in a hurry to drive eastward back to Loei and then turned upward to Chiang Khan lest it should become too dark on the road. The total distance is about 100 km, a long way to go. When we reached Chiang Khan, we were in a tourist area where the old and traditional Thai architecture is on both sides of the street. The leisure clothing displayed in the shops is mostly in colourful brown, yellow and dark red.

After we shopped around, finally we got to a restaurant at the other end of the street, and met with all Pang’s colleagues, Or, Kong, Ann and Kai. We had a big dinner together. The meat and soup were in Isaan style, and the fish was in particular provided from the Mekong River. Note that this tourist street goes along the nearby Mekong River. It’s a pity we could not see the river view during the night time.

It’s been a long day for today. What will be the next program tomorrow, seeing monk parade on this street or going to see clouds sea early in the morning?



December 19, 2013

Clouds sea

We decided to get up earlier and left for the clouds sea spot at 5: 30 am. I was awake around 5 am and found out that the morning temperature was 6 degree C only in Chiang Khan area.

So we all were on time to meet together at the hotel lobby and drove to the place for this morning adventure. Arriving at the foothill, Pang bought the tickets for the car-pool transit, and up we went to the hilltop, where a big crowd of tourists have been waiting there, ready to see the sunrise and sea-like clouds of all varieties. This scene reminds me of my past experience of watching sunrise and clouds sea in Ali-mountain, Taiwan. Like the situation here, we had to get up very early in the morning, took a chu-chu train to the spot, and betted our good luck to see the sunrise. There’s a difference of clouds sea between here and Ali-mountain. In Ali-mountain, you don’t visualise the cluster of village houses because it’s located at a pretty high altitude. Here, it’s with a hill terrain and the villages are spread right below the clouds sea.

There we saw the clouds sea and took a lot of photos. Fortunately, we had the luck to see the sunrise as well. I heard that it is the first spot here to see the sunlight in the whole land of Thailand. If this is true, the trip to Chiang Khan is even more worthy. On the way back to Loei, we stopped by a special scenic point, where the Mekong River makes a sharp turn. Again I was thinking I have ever stood right in front of the mountain forest of Laos, with the Mekong River in between, for several times. But, somehow I never have an opportunity to enter its land. I should manage to visit this isolated and mysterious country while I stay in the city of Khon Kaen.




Gold mining site visit

Another purpose of this trip was to visit a gold mining site and took groundwater samples from the nearby village. We were welcome first with a briefing of site profile, including site geology, gold mining and extracting processes, and site wastewater treatment and disposal. After this, there’s a site tour of mining pit, waste disposal pond, and mineral ore processing plant.

In general, I was impressed by the guideline of zero discharge, in view of environmental protection. But I was curious to know how this guideline was implemented and ensured. For example, washout of hazardous sediment and pollutant-contained water can be a potential issue of concern during the rainy season. In addition, air aeration of water sprinkling can accelerate toxic gas to escape from waste disposal pond. Furthermore, water mist may be wind-carried to the nearby paddy fields and villages, causing possible threat to human health.



Concluding remark

This 2-day trip accompanied by colleagues of Loei Rajabhat University was closed with a late lunch of Isaan style in the city of Loei. It is highly appreciated that Pang and his colleagues have arranged such a great trip, technical and cultural. We were back to Khon Kaen at around 6:45 pm.


Photo albums







Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on December 21st, 2013

My first 30 days in my sabbatical leave in Thailand

Airport pickup

Imagine I have been here in Thailand for 30 days (November 6-December 5, 2013)!

In Thailand
Well, it’s not quite a long time. But it’s my third longest stay in a country. Of course, Taiwan my home country is the longest one. The second one was in US, and I was there for almost 7 years. Then it came to the third one here in Thailand, in particular, in the city of Khon Kaen. What impressed me most for the past 30 days here?

Leaving comfort zone
First, I felt like I was back into the stage of my undergraduate study once again. I had to rent a condominium, bought some grocery stuffs, and looked around the neighborhood to find food (ไม่เผ็ด) to eat for the first few days. I had to study and worked hard on preparing my teaching material. When you get into a new place, definitely you need some people around to help you out with some awkward situation. These include airport pickup, friendly ride for grocery shopping, and touring you around the campus and the surrounding environment. In addition, I had to restart people networking because I was living in a brand new community. Everything is new, and there’re things taking you time to adapt. New things mean inconvenience, not in your comfort zone. So, such a thought may come up from your mind one day, and say ‘why taking trouble to be here?" But there’s always a time you have to leave your comfort zone and throw yourself into a strange place where you can really leave something behind and get to know yourself more and more. Even, you may begin to think of what is the most important thing ahead to pursue in your life.

Thai traffic system
Second, I need to get used to the new traffic system. One day when I was jogging along the street in the campus and I had to come across the road, I was almost hit by an incoming car from my left hand side. This means I have to reprogram my perceived system of traffic, no longer the one in Taiwan. We follow the right-hand side system in Taiwan, but here it’s in the opposite. Now I have to remind and train myself to watch closely first the right-hand side, when crossing the street, and be careful of the incoming car on my left-hand side when I come to the centre line of the road. This is my own rule of thumb and it seems safer with this carried in mind.

Khon Kaen University
Third, it’s the most enjoyable time when jogging in a huge green forest in the campus of Khon Kaen University. Basically, KKU is a forest university. Even, at noon time in a day of bright sunshine I can walk to my office without sweating because of lots of shades on my walking trails. The whole campus layout is in an axe-like North-to-South stripe on the map. There’re two big lakes right at the major entrance of KKU in the south side. In addition, there’s one smaller lake in the northeastern part of the campus, where you will see people jogging or walking around this lake either in the morning or in the afternoon.

What else
What else is interesting and impressive? Maybe wait for another 30 days, and I’ll see what to write about.

People Networking




KKU Campus on the Map

KKU, a forest university

Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on December 5th, 2013

美秀來到Khon Kaen

因為美秀的加入，我在泰國的安息年休假，變得更加多采多姿。

我到Khon Kaen約兩周後，美秀也於11/20/2013從台灣飛到曼谷、並轉機到Khon Kaen。她的到來，讓我脫離單人的孤寂生活，也開始了我們結婚將近三十年以來最優閒的日子。美秀來了之後，我先帶她熟悉附近環境，並採買一些生活用品，當然也和我一樣，開始進入這裡的社交生活，參加KKU環工系的晚餐聚集、到湖邊運動散步並結交新朋友。


最幸運的是，我可以不用為吃煩惱，不用到外面覓食，不用沿街繞了老半天還不曉得吃甚麼才好。你看，美秀的創意式晚餐：用電鍋及熱水瓶當烹飪用具，完成一頓難忘的佳餚。


Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on November 21st, 2013

Day 12 in Khon Kaen


我賃屋居住的地方鄰近孔敬大學東側門，對我這一位訪問學者而言，算是相當方便。走進住屋大樓 (Luxury Condominium)前之街道，各種餐店、雜貨店、7-11、Tesco/Lotus等，幾乎生活所需的，在這街上都可以獲得滿足。但是，有一缺點，路邊的攤販，大都賣到半夜三點左右，之後才歸於沈寂。收攤之前，你總可以感受到喧嘩聲音，甚至使用擴音系統的歌唱聲，在寧靜的夜晚，住在高處的公寓，更顯得刺耳，不過還是在可忍受的範圍。只是，我很好奇的是，附近鄰家難道都不會抗議，是民族性或已習以為常了。

住的問題解決，Khon Kaen大學附近的環境，大概也有個譜，吃的也約略知道怎麼吃、要到那裏吃。接下來是，穿的議題。我的意思是，換下來的衣服，是要請人洗（每月400泰銖），還是自己洗？雖然請人洗，費用並不貴，但是，我還是決定自己洗。因為我住的地方，就在學校隔壁，租屋的學生人口頗多，可以看見一棟、一棟新建樓房，都是因應學生租屋需求而蓋。學生一多，很多投幣式洗衣機，到處可見，小容量的20泰銖、大的30。走出我住的大樓，右邊10公尺處，就有幾台洗衣機，往左邊約15米處也有，並且旁邊也有售水站，相當便利。所以洗衣服的問題，就剩下買洗衣籃子及洗衣粉，就解決了。

最後，剩下交通問題待解決。走路是最基本的選項，但是也不能老是花太長時間走到目的地，我來這裏的目的，又不是為了鍛鍊腳程。如果要爭取時間，那就用跑步的囉？當然這也不符實際，總不能老是氣喘呼呼、全身是汗進入教室上課，跑步只是早上健身，或快速認識環境的方法。所以，騎腳踏車、摩托車或開車是唯三的選項。考慮這裏是靠左行以及租金問題，先剔除租車的建議，而系上有一位老師願意借給我腳踏車，我是欣然接受了。至於要不要租摩托車，就等假日再來租較實用與划算。

再談住的議題。我租的是，沒有廚房的第六樓套房式公寓（不過小陽台有一個Sink，洗菜、洗碗盤也挺方便的），是一棟全新大樓，尚未有人住過。每月費用租金7000泰銖，未住滿半年算是違約，不退回一個月之押金，以我的情況頂多租4個月，經與屋主爭取結果，就退一半押金，所以算一算每月租金約8200。

Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on November 17th, 2013

牢記三件事

我的安息年休假 (2013.8-2014.7)，預計在泰國Khon Kaen University (KKU)停留四個月，也就是一學期的訪問教學，心中儆醒謹記三件事：
  1. 守安息日(主日)
  2. 選擇神所喜悅的
  3. 緊緊抓住神的約
Isaiah 56:4-5 (MSG)
"For God says: To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths and choose what delights me and keep a firm grip on my covenant, I'll provide them an honored place in my family and within my city, even more honored than that of sons and daughters. I'll confer permanent honors on them that will never be revoked."

11/10是來Khon Kaen的第一主日，透過KKU教師Surapol認識Toon/Anthony夫婦，他們載我到Khon Kaen Baptist Church參加聚會。在那裏有幾對美國人家庭及其子女，加上一些本地泰國人，是一間開拓型教會。牧者夫婦是美國來的宣教士，牧師很不簡單地使用泰、美兩種語言交替帶領主日聚會。記得有一次他講道時(11/17/2013)，有一段話讓我印象特別深刻：“不看環境，只看我所信的那一位 神 (You can be free in prison or you can be free from the prison. God can set you free by either way. Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God when they were put in prison. God's power also got them out of prison at the right moment)." 不管環境如何，祂仍然是我的神！這是非常有力的見證。願 上帝賜福這一間教會，像一粒麥子落在土裏，終要結出許多子粒來。



Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on November 16th, 2013

Public transportation in Khon Kaen University area

I am a newcomer in this city of Khon Kaen. The key issue is my mobility, going from this place to that place. The faster you move around, the sooner you are getting familiar with your surrounding environment.

By walking I can get to my office from my condominium place（1 km) in 12 minutes. If I jog, I can see the whole campus of KKU (10 km) in about 1 hour. Now I got a bike from Netnapid. My moving range expands significantly. But, all these three will consume my energy a lot. Always I just have this feeling that my daily intake of food seems not enough. That means I pay my meals to move my body around. In other words, I move by using natural energy of food if we don’t argue over the concept of carbon footprint.




So finally I need to consider the use of fossil fuel energy, contributing to quite a few of carbon emission. I pay the ticket to get on the public transportation to move around KKU and its surrounding area. Here is what I have discovered today, thanks to Mullika’s show-and-tell:
  • If you need a free ride within the campus, then take KKU campus shuttle bus. Try to locate the bus stop and you will be soon on the road. For example, there’s one right in front of the building of Faculty of Public Health.
  • What about going to Central Plaza and Big C? As far as I have known, there’re two ways to get there:
    1. Take a white van in the campus. Your cost is 15 Baht per ride, and it will take you to Central Plaza.
    2. If you want to go to both CP and BC, first you take Blue Pick-up #8. This will bring you to Bus Terminal, where you cross the road by overbridge and take another Yellow Pick-up #3 with a sign of “Big C". On the way to Big C, you may get off at Central Plaza. Note that the price is 9 Baht for adult per ride and the pick-up schedule is run until 6 pm. After you have finished your Big shopping, just follow the opposite route and you will be home safely.



Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on November 16th, 2013

Days 1-2 in Khon Kaen

November 6-7, 2013

來泰國前兩天，我簡單記錄了一些活動行程：
11/6
11/7


沒有離開台灣前，對於自己的安息年，能有機會到KKU訪問教學還蠻興奮的。但是，真的踏上旅程，心中卻想著，為什麼要離開舒適的本家本族，來到一個陌生的地方，語言不通、飲食也有差異，當然思想與習慣就更不用說了。不像一般出國旅行 ，它的目的就是吃喝玩樂，旅行結束就說再會，留下無限的懷念。像我這種短暫的訪問教學，除了面對教學壓力外，還要適應新的人際互動，一切的人際關係都要重新架構，生活方式與習慣也要重新調整，一切都在不安定狀態中。而這兩天暫住校園旅館，自己好像處於隔離與孤立的狀態，實在令人難受，畢竟這是不合乎人的群聚性。

說實在的，如果沒有一股熱情與目的，真要打退堂鼓了！

Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on November 7th, 2013

Khon Kaen University

Khon Kaen University
See photo album "all about KKU" here.
Vision

A university of health and happiness

Core values
  • Caring for the community and society
  • Connection with scientific knowledge for social problems solving
  • Creativity for work and services
  • Happiness in the Greater Mekong Sub-region

Logo
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Prospects
International competitiveness
By the year of 2015, the KKU aims to be
  • One of the 3 leading universities in the country;
  • One of the 80 leading universities in Asia;
  • One of the 400 leading universities in the world.
Leading fields
The KKU attempts to excel in the fields of
  • Medicine (including public health and tropical health);
  • Tropical agriculture and farming (animal science and plant science), bio-diversity in the Greater Mekong Sub-region;
  • Arts, culture and social, economic, business and tourism sectors in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

Mission
  • Education
  • Research
  • Services
  • Art and culture preservation

Facts
History
  • Established 1964
Programs
  • 340 academic programs
  • 43 international programs
Students
  • Undergraduate: 30000
  • Graduate: 10000
Faculty
  • 2200 academic staff; 8500 supporting staff
Area
  • 900 hectares of forest campus

Academics
In general, there’re 3 core groups featuring the academic programs in Khon Kaen University, including Science and Engineering; Humanities and Social Sciences; and Health Sciences. These three groups consist of 17 Faculties, 1 Graduate School, and 3 Colleges, with 51 Departments serving their individual purposes.

Science and Engineering
  • Faculties of Agriculture, Engineering, Science, Technology, Architecture.
  • Departments of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Extension, Animal Science, Plant Science and Agricultural Resources;
  • Departments of Agricultural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering;
  • Departments of Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Science, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics, Statistics;
  • Departments of Biotechnology, Food Technology, Geotechnology, Production Technology;
  • Departments of Architecture, Building Technology, Industrial Design, Urban and Regional Planning.
Humanities and Social Science
  • Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences, Education, Management Sciences, Fine and Applied Arts, Law, College of Graduate Study in Management, College of Local Administration, International College.
  • Degree programs of humanities, social sciences, languages, and information management;
  • Degree programs of Education: Mathematics Education, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages;
  • Departments of Accounting, Economics, Finance, Hotel Management, Management, Marketing, Tourism;
  • Degree programs of Art and Cultural Research Program, Visual Communication Design, Folk Music and Performance Program;
  • Degree programs of law and human rights in northeastern Thailand;
  • Degree programs of Entrepreneur, Business Leadership, Health Care Management, Industrial Management;
  • Degree programs of Public Affairs Management, Local Government;
  • Degree programs of Arts in International Affairs, Business Administration in Global Business, Business Administration in International Marketing.
Health Sciences
  • Faculties of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Public Health, Associated Medical Sciences, Veterinary Medicine;
  • Degree programs of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Community Medicine;
  • Degree programs of Nursing Science Program, Nursing;
  • Departments of Dental Community, Dental Science, Oral Biology, Oral Diagnosis, Oral Surgery and Jawbone, Orthodontics, Pediatric Dentistry, Prosthodontics, Restorative Dentistry;
  • Degree programs of professional pharmacists for careers as health care providers in communities (drug stores), hospitals, and industrial pharmacies.
  • Departments of Biostatistics and Demography, Environmental Health Science, Epidemiology, Health Education, Nutrition, Public Health Administration.
  • Degree programs of Medical Science Program, Physical Therapy and Human Movement Science, Biomedical Science Program;
  • Degree programs of animal health and sanitation as well as training in ethics, academic work and social services.
Undergraduate
  • 101 undergraduate programs
Graduate
  • 138 Master programs
  • 77 Doctoral programs
  • 24 Graduate diploma programs

Campus
Maps




Landmark
In commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of His Majesty the King of Thailand's accession to the throne, Khon Kaen University constructed The Golden Jubilee Convention Hall. Beginning with the laying of the corner stone, presided over by His Majesty the King, the Hall quickly became the pride of northeastern Thailand. Located on Maliwan Road, and with magnificent manicured grounds, the Hall is just 4 km. from the airport and 1.5 km. from the central business district. Khon Kaen is served by some outstanding 4-5 star hotels with neighboring shopping centers, banks, and a regional hospital.

Equipped with functionally state-of-the-art multimedia technology, the Hall provides audio-visual systems that can be tailored to the needs of any client, whether domestic or international. The Hall provides adequate design and appointments to guarantee convenience, comfort and safety. These systems are complementary by 500 on-site parking spaces and additional capacity for up to 30 buses. (Source: http://www.gjchall.com/about.html)



Shuttle bus
Though the campus of KKU is in a huge area, there’s free shuttle bus ride to move faculty and students to different campus buildings. Depending on the target places, services are provided by three different transit lines of yellow, red and blue colour.



Featured Building
While walking or jogging along campus roads, some of buildings catch your eyes right at the first glance, especially for the foreigner like me. People tend to overlook the beauty of their surrounding environment when they stay in a place for a longer time. But it’s not for the newcomer. Here are some of my choice:




Food courts


Accommodation

Campus Hotel



Campus Flat



Nearby Apartment




Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on November 5th, 2013

赴泰國教師簽證申請

10/23/2013
過去12年來，進出泰國進行學術交流，都是透過旅行社辦理觀光簽證，從來不需要去煩惱出入境問題。

此次安息年休假一年，與Khon Kaen大學聯繫，準備進行一學期長達四個多月（11月-3月）之教學訪問。但有關出入境之簽證問題，來回退補件計有三次。前二次是透過旅行社辦理，而傳遞給我需補件之資訊，似乎也不夠明確與具體。我也只能憑行政經驗及想像，草擬相關文件，請泰方大學快速預備並快遞資料給我。從十月上旬退件後，開始密集備件，以至於今日（10/23/2013）親自上台北赴泰國貿易暨經濟辦事處辦理簽證事宜，在短短兩週時間，總算在第三次簽證成功。


在簽證當中，眼看著審件官員質疑這、質疑那，自己也只能暗自禱告，若 神要我去，就求 神開路。感謝 神，總算經過這兩位併鄰而坐官員的討論與徵詢，才一一把不需要的文件退還給我，留下他們認為需要的。最後，完成證件審查與繳費，並通知下午4-5點取件。

以下是教師簽證重要資訊：

今日簽證之交通排程
  • 6:03 - 6:27沙崙線。6:51 - 08:36高鐵。
  • 板南線捷運: 忠孝新生站荭橘線，松江南京站下車；8號出口上松江路。
  • 8:45抵達泰國貿易及經濟辦事處。
  • 教書簽證NT$2300；觀光簽證NT$1200。
泰國貿易暨經濟辦事之相關資訊
  • 辦公時間 每週一至週五(國定假日例外) 週六及週日為本辦事處假日
  • 簽證業務 :
    • 個人(1~9件)申請時間 AM 09:00 ~ 11:30
    • 團體(10件以上)申請時間 AM 09:00 ~ 10:00
    • 領件時間 : 每個工作天 PM 16:00 ~ 17:00 逾時不發件　敬請遵守
  • 領事事務 :文件驗證/泰國護照換發/旅行文件/出生證明/死亡證明及其他業務等
  • 申請時間 : AM 09:00 ~ 12:00
  • 取件時間 : PM 14:00 ~ 17:00
  • 地址: 台北市104松江路168號12樓
教書簽證備審文件
  1. 雙方工作合約正本(在MOU架構下之教學合約)
  2. 邀請公文正本
  3. 學歷英文証明正本
  4. 英文履歷正本
  5. 中英文良民證正本
  6. 泰國教育部立案影本（私立要，官員口頭說明好像國立的不用？）
  7. 其他申請表格、身分證影本、相片一張，及其他備用文件

Chih-Hsiang Liao Posted on October 23rd, 2013