Author: sdaniels

 

The second day in the village has been an interesting experience, consisting of building the house in hot and humid conditions and playing games with the kids.

To begin the day, we had a breakfast of eggs, toast with marmalade, milo, tea and coffee. After breakfast, we resumed construction on the house. Our jobs were similar to those from yesterday, but it went a lot smoother because we knew what we were doing. While the jobs were easier, the build itself was becoming more difficult, as the bricks needed to be laid right up to the ceiling! After a long afternoon with everyone working very hard, we completed the walls of the house and were able to break for showers.

The village children finished school when we had completed our days work. We spent time playing with the kids and giving them gifts that we had brought from home. We tried hard keeping up with them but it was more tiring than building the house! The kids were all very young and full of excitement. We played games with them such as tag and hide and seek and they gave us flowers for our hair and some even lent a hand with the house. By the time we headed to the showers, everyone was exhausted, covered in cement and smiling.

The construction of the house was a new experience in many ways. The build itself was a new experience for all and we gained a sense of fulfilment by working hard and seeing our daily goals being achieved and by seeing the happiness and joy that we had been able to give a family less fortunate than ourselves. It was amazing to see the end result of all of the fundraising that had happened so many months ago.

We are writing this blog under the stars, sitting next to the man who we are building the house for. It is very humbling to know that our hard work and fundraising has come all this way and made such a difference in this man’s life.

By Laura and Chris.

 

 

Today was another day full of excitement and adventure. After waking up and enjoying our buffet breakfast, we packed our bags for our two night village stay in the Chiang Dao region.

On the way, we stopped at a local market to taste some of the local fruit and stocked up on snacks for our bus ride and stay in the village. We stopped again for lunch at a nice restaurant in Chang Dao, at the foot of the mountains that we would soon be embedded in. From the restaurant, we caught a song theoy (a large tuk tuk) through the mountains to our long awaited village stay. One songtheoy had some slight trouble getting up the hill, but we had plenty of people to help push.

When we arrived at the village, we were shown our homes for the next three days. The surroundings of the village were very basic – but beautiful at the same time. There were simple huts for each of the families (some with up to fifteen people in one hut), a beautiful green mountain backdrop, a small creek running through and lots of kids running around having fun.

After a quick change and a lesson in house building we began construction on the house. We had some students mixing cement, bricklaying, levelling the floor and cutting bricks. We worked hard and half finished four of the eight wall sections before it was time to call it a day. To clean up, we all had showers … in other words, we hosed ourselves off and poured some buckets of ice cold water over our heads.

The family we are building the house for were chosen by the head of the village because of their extreme poverty. The family (a mother, father and their little girl) had been living with their relatives with no home of their own. The villagers are all Tibetan refugees, who had come to Thailand via Myanmar. They have been given the land they are living on by the Thai government, but they are not allowed to go past Chiang Dao, the closest town. The extended families all live together and help each other out in times of need. Despite their poverty, the entire family had smiles on their faces as they watched us work on their new house and experience their culture.

Some of the local village children came shyly to say hello to us and they showed us how to light a fire with a corn cob! We played fun games with them and gave them a few gifts. Our dinner was cooked by the locals and was so tasty!!! It was a great end to a tough day’s work building the house.

By Bass and Morgan  

 

Today we travel to a hill tribe in the region of Chiang Dao. Here we will be spending two nights in a village and completing our building project. We will then depart Chiang Dao and arrive in Chiang Rai.

No further blog updates will be able to be made whilst in the village.

 

We began our second day with a scrumptious buffet in order to fuel up for the strenuous day ahead. We packed our packs and were soon on our way to the Mae Taeng rapids! Throughout the journey our attention was snared by the wondrous leafy scenery, the bountiful rice paddies, and most of all, the grand elephants. But soon the sight-seeing was over and we arrived. With a quick change, various instructions and geared up with life jackets and helmets, we were ready to face the perilous adventure that was the raging rapids. We boarded our vessels and launched into the white washed current, with looks of both excitement and terror in our eyes. We rode the torrents of the river, braving the churning water and evading the barricades of lurking rocks, and were greeted at the finish line by a delicious, nutritious lunch of vegetable stir fry, rice and salted, silky egg. It was great, but the day’s excitements were yet to conclude! A lesson in Thailand’s national sport, Thai boxing or as the locals say, Muay Thai!

 

The instructors bound our hands in supportive bandages before they were quickly thrust into a pair of boxing gloves. We sparred with the pros, skipped to our heart’s content and the boys attempted to woo the girls with their physical prowess in the ring and on the bars. We all sweated like small piglets due to the blanket-like humidity. We left the complex enlightened, inspired, and to put it plainly… absolutely exhausted.

Our day was over, but was it…no! A wander through the night markets saw us gorge ourselves on traditional Thai cuisine with the tantalising treat of shopping to wrap up the day’s adventure. With a quick haggle and barter, we were off to our hotel rooms to pack for our village stay.

Sarah and Sabre

After saying farewell to our family and friends, our Big Experience had finally begun. Upon arrival at Melbourne Airport, we flew to Bangkok and then onto Chiang Mai where we were greeted by Hung our tour guide and Bob our local guide, along with some hot and humid weather.

 

After checking into our swanky hotel the Imperial, we experienced our first Thai meal which everyone enjoyed. The garden setting was the perfect way to relax after our long flight from home.

 

To get our bearings around Chiang Mai, we had a tuk tuk tour of the city and visited a 700 year old pagoda. The Buddha was an interesting experience and a great photo opportunity.

 

We then enjoyed a swim in the one of the two pools at the hotel.

In the evening we travelled to the food market to learn about the local produce before our cooking class. The different varieties of everything, the smells and people created a wonderful atmosphere. The cooking class including cooking Panang curry, pad Thai and sticky rice pudding. Pad Thai seemed to be the most favourite.

After dinner some students visited the Night Market, some getting fish massages, others looking for the perfect gift, while many chose to get an early night before white water rafting and Thai boxing tomorrow.

Ruby and Murray

 

We have arrived in Chiang Mai. Everyone is very excited and a little tired.

This afternoon we are off to tour the city followed by a Thai cooking class.

The hotel we are staying in is very nice. See the link below if you are interested.

http://www.imperialhotels.com/imperialmaeping/default-en.html 

A full update of Day 1 to come from the students later today.