The last few months in Thailand have been pretty hectic – as always. I have managed to assist my organisation with a few exciting projects that have taken up a lot of our time. We collect some medical supplies to send into Burma, into a particularly rural and inaccessible clinic where villagers often have to walk to days through the mountains to be able to reach, and even then the clinic has such limited resources villagers have to make do with traditional medicines. As such, […]
Thailand Rocket Festival by Santo Chino on Flickr Month 10 (June) – Kutchum & Phana Rocket Festival, Kevin’s mum visits and School Show The beginning of June was very hard for me. The 2nd is my little sister Victoria’s birthday. Being a very close family made it difficult to be separated from them for such a long period of time in the beginning although I managed to cope just fine after a while. However on days like those where you should be celebrating with your […]
Sunrise at Ko Pha Ngan by Oliver on Flickr Month 9 (May) – End of Holidays, Returning to Phana & Work and the Military Coup The last two weeks of our holidays were spent on the islands of Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Tao. Unfortunately throughout this time Jelle (one of the volunteers I was travelling with) and I suffered a rather nasty stomach bug that rendered us almost useless. Thankfully this has been the only time this has happened whilst in Thailand which rather shocked […]
Month 7 (March) – Council Sports, Science & English Camp, Graduation and Holidays March began with the annual sports competition for all the local councils. Instead of just setting it over a full day or even a weekend, Phana went all out and held it over the course of 2 weeks. The Phana council buildings are located right behind our house so we were right next to all of the action. Every day at around 4 when most people had finished work the area next […]
Month 5 (January) – Ayutthaya, Birthday’s, Family Holiday, School Trip and PT Visit January kick started with an almighty bang. Spending New Years Eve with my family was great. I was able to tell them all the exciting adventures and experiences I have had thus far in Thailand while showing them a small portion of the culture from my perspective. We brought in the bells in the centre of Bangkok with the usual countdown and fireworks bursting overhead in all directions and so began 2014. […]
By Cameron Welsh The start of October saw Kevin and I repack our rucksacks and meet some of the other volunteers who are at projects close to ours at Ubon bus station. We were preparing to spend 3 weeks living and learning some basic conversational Thai in the northern city of Chiang Mai. It was great seeing the others again after a month and sharing stories about our experiences so far. An 18 hour bus ride ensued where I made the monumental mistake of wearing […]
Month 4 (December) – The King’s Birthday, School Trip, Christmas and Holidays December brought a sudden cold chill through Phana as we also approach winter. This chill of course is probably still a very hot day for me back home in Scotland but not now that I am acclimatised. For the whole of this month both Kevin and I had sore throats and terrible coughs which is one thing i never thought would happen in a tropical country! I began the month by cracking out […]
สวัสดี (Hello) My name is Cameron Welsh; I am 17 years old and have just finished my sixth and final year at Blairgowrie High School (near Perth in Scotland). In little over 2 months I will be flying from London into Thailand, where I will be staying and working for a year. The town I am staying in is called Phana and is located on the Eastern edge of Thailand near to the border with Laos and Cambodia. My partner and I will be living […]
Dear All, I am terribly sorry for the delay in this letter but I guess in all the hubbub of returning and heading off again I thought I had already sent this. Clearly not. This is just a note to say thank you so much for your support which got me to Thailand. I had the most fantastic year anyone could have hoped for. Although it was a bit of a shock returning to England at first (mostly being able to move without sweating) I’m […]
I think this may be my last report from Thailand! I can’t believe it! It’s nearly over! I think I only have 6 weeks left of teaching left after tomorrow – I must say it’s a scary thought! Since I last wrote, what has happened? SO MUCH! I’m not sure if the student trip to Pattaya was mentioned last time, but in January, a few teachers and several busloads of students voyaged down south on an entirely un-educational trip! We stayed in a temple, went […]
I hope you have all had a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I’ve certainly had an eventful one myself, to go with a busy and spectacular past three months! In October, I was sent off to Chiang Mai during the school holidays for a three week language course with AUA, who have a course specifically for Project Trust volunteers, like myself. It was great to see all the other volunteers from all over Thailand, and as well as having a very fun […]
Message From Thailand! I’m finally away and in Thailand! I’ve been at my school in Mae Sai for over a week now, so I guess its time for an update. On flying into Bangkok the heat that hit us was almost overwhelming, but what struck me more was how dark it was at only 6 o’clock: no long evenings for us over here I suppose. After two days in the capital, my project partner, Katie, and I were bussed up North to what is now […]
I’m going to Thailand… and not for a holiday! That’s been my slogan for the last 14 months of gap year planning and fundraising and now its finally happening! I’m Caitlin and in Easter 2009 I was selected by Project Trust (the charity hazel’s co-volunteers travelled with) to be the 2010/11 volunteer English teacher in Mae Sai, Thailand; after that horrific struggle which was my A levels. I’ve been enjoying the fundraising greatly, as hard as it may have been, but I’m hoping that its […]
