EXCHANGE REPORT
Thailand – Spring 2015
221216
Overview
I did my bachelor’s exchange exchange in the BBA Program of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok
during spring 2015. The experience is something that I would definitely do again. The hectic city
combined with not-so-stressful school environment, amazing culture and good food. Also Bangkok is a
great hotspot if you plan to travel during your exchange, since the flight tickets to surrounding countries
are very cheap.
Table of Contents
Overview...............................................................................................................................................................1
Preparation ...........................................................................................................................................................2
Educational Visa ...............................................................................................................................................2
Vaccines ............................................................................................................................................................2
Travel Insurance ...............................................................................................................................................2
Contact with Chula and Aalto ...........................................................................................................................3
Arriving in Bangkok ...............................................................................................................................................3
Accomodation ......................................................................................................................................................3
Studying ................................................................................................................................................................4
Consumer behavior ..........................................................................................................................................4
Business concepts and ethics ...........................................................................................................................5
Introduction to information technology and information systems (INTRO IT/IS) ...........................................5
Entrepreneurship..............................................................................................................................................5
Managerial accounting .....................................................................................................................................5
Life in bangkok ......................................................................................................................................................6
Moving around .................................................................................................................................................6
Eating out..........................................................................................................................................................6
Nightlife ............................................................................................................................................................6
Travelling ..........................................................................................................................................................7
Preparation
Do not stress too much about the preparation when entering the BBA program, because in the end it’s
very straight-forward. The most important thing that you need to take care of is to obtain the educational
Visa, get a proper travel insurance, get required vaccines and book an accommodation in advance. Schoolrelated stuff and also the accommodation is easily arranged via the help of the Chulalongkorn exchange
coordinator Thirawut Sutabut. Thirawut is a very relaxed man that approaches you in August/September if
you’re going to do spring exchange as I did.
Educational Visa
You should get the ED visa with multiple entries, so you don’t have to apply for extension during your
stay. The latest requirements for the visa can be found from the Thai Embassy website.
http://www.thaiembassy.org/helsinki/fi/ The cost of visa is 130€ for the multiple entry visa. All the
required official documentation is mailed from the Chulalongkorn to you and you need to retrieve them
from the school international relations office or they can be mailed to you. Some have had problems with
obtaining the multiple-entry visa, but for Finns there usually isn’t too much hassle, just explain that you’re
going to travel a lot and a single-entry just isn’t suitable for you. The Visa application process is quite
straight-forward, but you should get it out of the way as soon as you receive all the required documents.
Vaccines
Call to YTHS travel clinic, they know exactly what vaccines are required for you and what you should
consider taking even though they aren’t officially required. You can do all the hassle on the phone and then
just get the recipes from YTHS lobby. After you have the recipes, you should book the vaccination date
with YTHS in advance, I didn’t and it almost ended up being a problem. Also, some of the vaccinations are
quite rare and not all the pharmacies have them in stock, but the Mannerheimintie’s Yliopiston Apteekki
usually has everything you need. There is not real malaria risk in Bangkok and to be honest, almost the
whole of Thailand is free from Malaria. But if you plan to travel to the Burmese border or to other malaria
infested areas, you should consider taking the pills. But I’m not a doctor, so you should contact the YTHS
travel clinic (link below) and consult them.
www.yths.fi/vastaanotto_ja_neuvonta/yleisterveys/matkailuneuvonta
Travel Insurance
You should definitely invest in a good insurance, because if you get hurt or robbed the payments can be
high. It’s not too rare for tourists to hurt themselves or to be targets of a crime, so it’s good to have a
proper insurance. Most likely everything is going to be fine, almost all of the students I talked with had
experiences with pick pockets trying to steal their stuff. So better have that insurance. I had my insurance
from Pohjola and it had quite good coverage and the cheapest price. Around 150€ for the 5 months. The
most expensive offer I got was approximately three times that. And check that the insurance also covers
your belongings! My roommate’s didn’t and he ended up paying for his lost camera himself, so better check
beforehand.
Contact with Chula and Aalto
The things that I haven’t talked in this report are the official things such as applying for the Chula,
selecting the courses and booking the accommodation. And that is, because the contact between the
Universities and you are so well organized. You will receive an email from Thirawut and he will basically
hold your hand and tell you what you have to do next. He is very helpful man and he will help you with all
of your questions, before and during your exchange. He was the number one guy I contacted, if I had any
problems. Also the Aalto Exchange coordinators are very good and if you have any questions, they will
answer you quickly. Chulalongkorn University will also organize a buddy for you, which is a Thai student
that can help you with your tasks, such as obtaining an uniform, when you arrive in Bangkok. Some
buddies also were in the airport to get the students. But generally the buddies don’t care too much, some
didn’t even see their buddy. My buddy was awesome and helped me a lot.
In addition, usually someone starts a BBA Chulalongkorn exchange student group in facebook and invites
all of the people that are attending the exchange. But if you you don’t get an invitation, you might want to
check facebook whether someone has already created the group. In the group the students usually talk
about what accomodation they are going to choose and discuss arrival dates.
Arriving in Bangkok
For us, the school started on the second week of January (5th!), even though it was scheduled to start one
week later on 12th. The reason was that they arranged a sports week in the middle of the semester and to be
able to teach the required lectures, the start of the semester was moved to be one week before the
scheduled.
I recommend arriving a couple of days before the school starts, because there are certain things that you
need to take care of before, such as getting a local sim card, buying a school uniform and get to know the
city a little before the school starts. It is recommended that you get the school uniform before the school
starts, because if you don’t, it’s going to be very awkward since everyone else is wearing them. And also is
obligatory, but some exchange students were forgive not wearing the uniform for the first couple of days.
Also if you arrive earlier, you have a chance to get to know the people you’re spending the next five
months with. If you live at Nonsi, this will happen in the “fine dining” garage restaurant. The uniform is
best to buy with your buddy and can easily be bought at MBK the huge shopping center with everything
you need. Also the price for the uniform is very low, so do not buy it in advance. My uniform cost about
50€ with a couple of pants and a few shirts.
Accomodation
I stayed in Nonsi, as well as almost all the other BBA students. Nonsi offers quite cheap studios
(11.000THB) as well as multi bedroom apartments that you can share with other students. I lived in a 3
bedroom apartment (110 square meters) with two other students. The price per head was also 11.000THB.
You can get cheaper apartments also, but since all of the people were living at Nonsi, I decided also to go
there. But if you’re female and you want to live cheaper, there is a female only residency named iSanook
House, that costs 6.500THB. Something worth considering, but what I’ve heard, it’s not as clean as Nonsi.
If you stay at Nonsi, you should be aware that if you didn’t include cleaning in your contract, you have to
buy toiletries, blankets, pillows and everything by yourself. We had cleaning every 2 weeks and it was a life
saver. It costs 800THB / per head / per month, something that I would definitely buy again. Also the
cleaners are fun to talk to, even though they don’t speak too much English. And they clean good. Every
apartment includes A/C and a balcony. Nonsi also has a swimming pool and very basic gym for training.
Nonsi is a little bit further from the center than the other choices, but trafficking between school and
home is very easy with motorcycle taxis and MRT (the subway). The motorcycle taxi ride to the MRT
station is 20THB and directly to school it costs 60THB, something that is very comfortable and very fast.
It takes about 10min with a scooter to get to the school and you can avoid the traffic jam when taking a
motorcycle taxi instead of a regular taxi. Walking to the metro takes about 20minutes, but it is quite
relaxing to walk it every now and then. I used the motorcycle taxi almost everyday for the first couple of
months, but after obtaining a Thai motorcycle licence, I rented my own motorbike and just drove around.
The traffic in Bangkok is very hectic and quite dangerous, but if you keep your eyes open and only use
familiar motorcycle drivers, you should be alright. Most of the drivers that are hanging infront of the Nonsi
Residence are very professional and safe drivers, just remember to keep your knees in.
I don’t have experience with the other given possibilities, but I’ve hear that the Evergreen is more hotellike accomadation, but you have to share a room where in Nonsi you didn’t. And almost nobody stayed in
CUI house (university accomation).
www.nonsiresidence.com
Studying
I had to take 5 courses, each worth 3 credits. They transfer to Aalto with double the amount. I had a
marketing course, accounting, finance and IT courses. The workload varied quite a lot between
alternatives, so you should definitely check out the Syllabus beforehand. It is also possible to take courses
from the economics department, but I didn’t pursue that opportunity.
One thing you should know beforehand is that the class participation is 80% in all of the courses, but some
professors still didn’t take attendance. The workload is generally lower than in Aalto and I had no
problems balancing free time and school during my exchange. Local students didn’t pay too much
attention to the course during the course, but revised a lot before the midterm and finals. It doesn’t make
too much sense, since the attendance is mandatory, so better learn while you’re in class so you don’t have
to do almost anything before the terms.
Consumer behavior
A very interesting course, the professor had a great passion in his teaching and I can honestly say that this
isn’t like any of the classes you have taken before, since you don’t use the textbook at all. The course
includes the human behavioral concepts of marketing, such as attitude, perception, personality and the
professor has a unique way of combine real-life examples to the topic he teaches. But sometimes it’s hard
to find the link between the topics he covers and the real-life examples he shows. The workload is quite
low and attendance wasn’t monitored. There is couple of presentations and a market research & product
development final. The final exam is quite hard combined to the teaching method he uses, but he didn’t
grade too strict. Professor also encourages student participation, but do not cross opinions with him too
much. It’s good to criticize every once in a while, but if you do it too often you will realize that he has quite
a big ego.
Business concepts and ethics
The easiest course I had. The professor is an ex-consultant that has retired, but still continues to teach this
course. He is a good performer and a pure professional. The course name is quite misleading, since the
ethics part of the course is actually quite loq. This is basic 1st year course of business concepts, similar to
‘Liiketoiminnan perusteet’ in Aalto. The course had one lecture a week and in the beginning of every
lecture there was a quiz about the last week’s topic. We had no presentations and the group was very big.
Attendance was taken every time that there was a quiz, but other times not.
Introduction to information technology and information systems (INTRO IT/IS)
This was a first year course with weekly lecture and a couple of presentations. By being a first year course,
the topics that it covered were not the hardest ones, but rather basic concepts. The course doesn’t go into
detail about IT or IS, but rather just gives a quick overview about the importance of both in the current
business environment. There was two group projects with topics that covered the self-chosen web or
mobile application that you think have had a great impact over user’s lives. Workload is medium, mostly
because of arranging the meetings with the group. Attendance was taken every lecture, but he wasn’t too
strict about it.
Entrepreneurship
If you’re planning to be an entrepreneur, take this course. The teacher is a venture capitalist and the course
consists of interesting guest lecturers and it covers the principles of being an entrepreneur. The most
important part of the course is the business project, in which you form a group and start an actual business
from scratch. The professor chooses the business sector in which you can do anything you like. For
example our sector was cosmetics and we had groups making bubble masks, suns lotions and soaps. It is
very helpful in learning how is it to be an entrepreneur, since you have to actually invent your product,
design, be in contact with the suppliers, do the sales, everything. Only minor thing is that the Thai business
sector speaks mainly in English, so most of the contacting with the suppliers for example had to be done
by the thai students. Also not all of the students participation in the course care too much about the
course. So if you want to actually learn something in your course, choose your group carefully and be
proactive. Sometimes when we had a meeting the language suddenly changed to Thai and you have to
remind them to speak English.
Managerial accounting
Self-explanatory. Covers the book Managerial Accounting by McGrawHill. At first we had two lectures a
week and the other was on Sunday, which causes some problems with my travels. In the beginning of the
lectures we had quizzes that also affected your grade. The professor has quite childish way of teaching, but
I think that it was quite appropriate since the students were very childish also. They played with their
mobile through every lecture and didn’t give too much respect to the professor. If you did well, you got the
rockstar sign! If you’ve studied the principles of accounting, this course is not too hard. But the weekly
homeworks (in the beginning twice a week) required quite a lot of work, but actually doing them paid off.
The grading was quite strict and there was only a few A’s in the class. Not to brag, but it was me. So if you
take this course, you have to keep Aalto reputation up. Kidding.
Life in bangkok
Moving around
Endless possibilities to get through the hectic metropol. You can travel comfortably with a private taxi, but then
you take a risk of getting stuck into traffic jam, comfortable commuting with MRT, always fully-packed skytrain
BTS, or motorbike taxis that often drive quite recklessly. You choose the appropriate way of transport based on
where you need to go and how fast. The public transport covers only the center, so if you have to go further,
you almost every time take a taxi. Taxis start from 35THB (a little less than 1€) and then it goes up by 2THB
every once in a while. A very cheap mode of transport, but if you’re in a hurry to get to a lecture, I would
consider some other mode of transport. Usually taxis will put the meter on even without asking, especially if
you have your uniform on and you wave the taxi yourself. If you take the taxi in the middle of the night or
infront of a touristic place such as any shopping center, they always want to get a fixed rate that is at least
double the rate with the meter. If you don’t want to haggle the meter, you can say that you give some tip
(50THB) example above the meter rate. Motorbike taxis cost 20-120THB depending on the distance. A
good rule of thumb is 10THB / km. Tipping is not necessary, but rounding up to nearest ten is a nice
gesture and sometimes I gave bigger tips, especially during night times if the driver didn’t even try to
haggle.
Eating out
One of the absolute best things in Thailand is the food! Awesome soups, curries, stews, barbeque and fried
chicken. Mmm. The cheapest street restaurants start from 30THB to a premium steak in a western
restaurant ~400THB. I ate out almost every day, since the cost of someone else cooking for you instead of
buying the ingredients and cooking yourself is extremely low. But the street food isn’t the healthies, since it
includes lots of oil, rice and fried things. My favourite dish was Gai Phat Metmamuang, which is fried
chicken with cashew nuts and the best place to buy it is from Klong Toey MRT about 1km to the east
following Rama IV a street restaurant in the corner of the green Kasikornthai ATM’s and continuing into
the alley. We ate there with my roommate at least once a week. I recommend that place a lot. First we had
to wait our dishes quite long, but after they started to recognize us, the food was prepared all the time
faster and if possible, it even got tastier. The restaurant is led by a lady in her 30-40’s.
Furthermore the food delivery is gigantic steps ahead of Helsinki. Foodpanda.com has a lot of companies
delivering to your door with 60thb delivery fee. Also you can order McDelivery 24/7 and Pizza Company
has a promise to deliver in 30 minutes, if you ever experience a sudden urge to eat western fast food.
I did shop my groceries shopping usually online. Tesco’s online grocery store works like a charm and the
delivery fee is 40THB + a tip for the driver (20-100THB) based on the amount you ordered, because they
will actually carry them into your kitchen. You order online and book a slot for the next day and then be
home when the guy arrives. You can pay in advance with a card or with cash when the driver arrives.
Nightlife
Bangkok’s night life is very good! A wide variety of restaurant choices from small roadside beer joints to
full-blown rooftop night clubs can fit every partygoer’s needs. The prices in the nightclubs are a little
cheaper than in Finland, but not too much. The cheapest option is usually to buy a bottle of rum
(Sangsom!) and share it with your friends. Mixers are quite often included in the price. Unfortunately
prostitution is a major part of Bangkok’s nightlife also, but you’ll recognize to avoid the places where it is
blooming.
Something that you definitely have to experience is the rooftop bars of Bangkok. There’s many different,
but the one I enjoyed quite a lot is Vertigo in the Banyan Tree hotel.
Travelling
As I mentioned earlier, you should take an advantage of the cheap travelling opportunities in Thailand and
to nearby countries. I visited Vietnam, Cambodia, Malesia and Philippines during my stay. There are so
many different countries that you can experience, so just pick your favourites and go! The flights are
inexpensive varying from 20€ to 100€ depending on the distance. Also if you have a possible to have a little
holiday after semester, you might want to consider buying The Asean Pass from AirAsia. For 130€ you get
10 credits that you can use within a month to pay for flight tickets and you need to only pay airport fee in
addition to spending the credits. For 10 credits I traveled from BKK Krabi  Kuala Lumpur  Manila
 KL  Krabi  BKK.
But you don’t have to go abroad to travel! Thailand is quite big country with diverse nature from the
mountainous area in the north to the green paradise islands in the south. There certainly is something for
everyone and everything for every situation. Travelling within Thailand is very easy due to quite good train,
bus and minivan network. All the trains leave from the Hua Lamphong station and the mini vans usually
depart from the Victory Monument. There are also a couple of different bus terminals, depending where
you want to go.