The End of an Experience

The last day 😢 Today we embarked on the last leg of our journey. After arriving at the airport, checking our bags in and saying some emotional last goodbyes to our hosts, we boarded the 11 hour plane from Bangkok to Amsterdam. Two meals and many films later we were walking off the plane into a lounge where we are currently sat for the next 3 hours whilst we wait for our connecting flight to Manchester. The next short flight will no doubt be followed by teary goodbyes at Manchester airport.

Louisa and Maisy ✈️😢💜

Bangkok Day 2

Today we went to a floating market in Bangkok. We started by having an hour long trip down the river, smiling and waving at the locals who were all sat in their back gardens that overlooked the river. We got the opportunity to stop and feed the fish with loaves of bread- almost like feeding the ducks back at home!! Then we got a chance to look through the market and several tiffins were bought. Afterwards we went back to the Guides Centre and had lunch - make your own sandwiches again :) 

The next adventure was the sky train! After words of warning from a Thai guide book to run for your life we were all prepared to elbow our way through. However the doors opened to a relatively empty train and Abbi got all worked up for it! 3 stops later we got off and wandered over to the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre and Jim Thompson Museum. The first of the two was very interesting for the artists of the group and it also had lots of cute little shops to explore. The second was a mysterious house full of conspiracy theories and artifacts. 

After a wander around a few markets we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for our last supper! It was delicious and we all had a lovely time. Then it was back to the guiding centre for an early night, ready for 22 hours of travelling tomorrow!!! 

Bangkok Day 1

 We started off the day by heading to the grand palace after breakfast. We were pulled along an incredibly busy street by our little tour guide, directing the way with her yellow, oriental fan. The palace grounds were utterly swarming with people, and the heat was blazing down, however it did not take away from the beautiful scenery of the palace, which was a change from the busy Bangkok we had been used to. 

 Whilst at the palace, we learnt a lot about the Thai royal family, from a museum on grounds, as well as spending some time in the temple of the emerald Buddha, which is a big attraction and was utterly breathtaking.

 Our tour guide then took us to 'Gems Gallery'; a place which specialised in the rare jewels that Thailand has to offer, specifically sapphire and ruby. After watching a interesting short about the jewels, and enjoying our complimentary drinks, we headed of to look around the amazing range of jewelry. A few of us even bought a ring, giving in to the nice women who followed us around the shop, desperate for us to purchase. 

 We then headed back to the guide centre, and spent some time after lunch buying some souvenirs from the guide shop, swimming, reading and chilling, before once again heading out for our surprise tea.

 Half of us went for some Japanese cuisine, because we haven't already eaten enough rice during this trip, whilst the others headed for some food at an "American buffet," which include authentic western foods, such as jellyfish sushi, squid tempura and surprise tuna pizza. We hid any leftovers in tissue pockets and napkins, as otherwise we had an extra fee to pay. 

 Our first full day in Bangkok was a full one, and we all went to bed feeling quite tired. - Abbi & Charlotte 💙

Flying to Bangkok

We woke up at the normal time of 7am, to have breakfast and get ourselves organised. The Tuk Tuk's picked us up at 8.30am to take us to the airport. 

After emotional goodbyes to the people that had looked after us for the past three weeks, we ended up in the Boutique Lounge for Bangkok Airways, very posh! 

We particularly loved the salted popcorn and as Grace says, the best hot chocolate in the world! 

We bored the plane at 11:30 and started our journey; with the complimentary chicken pie, which had never seen a chicken... But less about that. Just as we were nodding off we landed back in Bangkok. We were greated at the gates by another party bus, including TASSLES! 

After travelling a short distance on a long bus ride, we arrived at the Girlguiding Centre for a quick bag drop off. Before heading to the hospital for a Thai Massage. We greeted our physiotherapists and were taken one by one into a big room... We had to wear pink scrubs and lay down on a bed. The massage was interesting. We all got pulled, stretched and yanked in different ways. We also had knees and elbows pushed into our bodies. After an hour some of us emerged calm and collected and others were a little bit startled. But we all said it was a new experience!! (Not to be repeated for some, enjoyable for others). Then we walked back to the centre, had tea and settled in for an early night :) - Flo, Grace, Maisy and Abbi xo 

Fairwell dinner

Upon arriving downstairs, we were greeted by all the Thai leaders who were at different stations to do activities. 

The activities were making banana leave bowls, making traditional Thai decorations usually used in Buddist festivals out of flowers (very tricky) and making and sampling different Thai foods such as chillied squid and barbecued pork.

 

After this we had a presentation, 

speeches and exchanged gifts before spitting down for what felt like the fifth meal of the day. After tea we said our final good byes the proceeded to bed.   - Louise and Abbi.

Last day in Chiang Mai

YToday we were busy finishing off any jobs, packing and then relaxing. After breakfast we all helped make a photo album to leave in the centre so that others who visited could see what we got up to. We also made some cards to give to the kitchen staff as a thank you for all their hard work. After a bit of packing, lunch and then more packing, we all split off into groups to do what we wanted in our free time. Some people visited the 3d art museum down the road, others went to the market, and the rest went to the Internet cafe. 

The market - Maisie, Maisy, Louisa, Fiona and Katharine caught the tuk tuk to an indoor market which sold different produce for locals. After a walk round the ground floor and a few purchases of various dried fruit we headed up to the other floors in search of fabric. 

We walked through the china town and picked up some pink dragonfruit before hailing a tuk tuk back to the centre. 🍉🍍 Lou and Maisy

The 3D Art Museum was one of the most invovled a museums you can get! The paintings were flat to the wall but looked incredibly life like along with 3D looking frames. Along with the animals and sea life in other areas which were all jumping out of the wall.

 All of us, (Maisie, Maisy, Louise, Anna, Hannah and Florence) got into the pictures in question. We even had a trip to Venice and nearly fell down a waterfall! The afternoon was topped off with a smoothie 

and a trip to 7-11 to stock up on chocolate for tomorrows flight. - Hannah, Anna, Louise and Flo 😊🍉🍍🍈🍋

Whilst the last few bits of packing were being done, some girls went swimming before we all got into uniform for the farewell dinner. 

Louisa and Maisy 😊 x

Lanna dinner and show 💃

After a chance for everyone to get dressed into frocks,

 we headed out in tuk tuks to... a photo opportunity! Half of the group had photos doing the Miss Thailand pose whilst the other groups were taking the scenic route. Eventually we left to go to the restaurant. We were welcomed with traditional Thai music, then we were taken to take our shoes off and were shown to our seats. The seats were simply cushions on the floor, but we could cheat by dangling our feet down a hole below the table in the ground. 

The meal started with a bowl of Thai vegetable soup, and was followed by several dishes that we could fill our plate with at our hearts desire. All this was accompanied with boiled rice and sticky rice. 

Towards the end of the meal the show started and pineapple and fried banana dessert was served. The traditional Lanna show told a story of Thailand, for example one of the dances was showing the tea picking.

 Another dance was similar to one we had seen in Wiang Pa Pao performed by the hill tribe girls. After the last dance we got invited up to the stage to have a go at some Thai dancing which was nearly the same as what we had learnt in some of the schools. We got the tuk tuks back to the centre for some much needed sleep. 📷👗💃👍👯 

Lou and Anna 😊

Decorating the toilet block

Today we set about making our designs for the toilet block permanent. We each got designated areas of the walls to work on. Maisie, Charlotte, Abbi, Grace and Beth worked on the four girl silhouettes and three trefoils whilst Anna, Louisa and El worked on the flowers on the back wall. Florence meanwhile brought her elephant to life and Louise and Hannah painted the tree onto the front and side walls. Then Maisy painted the front wall with some more flowers. 

We all finished by putting green handprints to make the leaves on the tree- even the Thai leaders and kitchen staff took part!

Whilst the paint was drying on the walls we filled in the disabled pathway with sand to finish it off. Finally we were able to stand back and see what we had helped to create for the Thai girl guides.

The painting team !

 After many, many, photos we headed back to the girl guides centre in Chiang Mai to get ready for the Lanna dinner and show. 

Anna and Lou 😄

Campsite Project

Breakfast was at 7am, we were rally getting excited to what was to happen in a few hours, we were off to the Rai Chern Bamphen Campsite! This was the time we would be undertaking survice tasks that involved painting and paving! 

We arrived by Tuk Tuk, and we were shown around the most beautiful campsite ever! 

There was green grass, tree canopies and lovely guess rooms - with mattresses just off the floor. We also had a tour of the site before being introduced to the toilet in which need some serious TLC. 

The first thing we did was put a base layer of paint which went on the inside and outside of the toilet block. 

This layer of paint included white paint and gloss. We left this to dry and started on the pathway. The path way involved some serious hard labour in the sun; going back and forth with buckets of sand and stones. 

This was to create the base for the slope, we had to level this off, using some string to work out the gradient. (Very old school!) Soon enough we were ready to lay the stones, in fours we completed the task in hand.

 Finally, all we had to do was give the outside and the inside of the toliet another coat of yellow paint. 

Feeling accomplished, we finish the day of with a campfire. This involved lots of songs such as Campfires Burning and other Guiding Classics. Also we got to taste the lovely kebabs that were presented to us to cook on the barbecue. 

We finished the night we smores and a good nights sleep.

 - Grace, Florence and Hannah. 😀

Chilling in Thailand

After a lovely lay-in we had our breakfast, chips again🍟! We spent the morning catching up on our swims🏊 wondering around Chaing Mai🚶and reading 📔we had lunch 🍱and prepared ourselves for the afternoon boat trip! - Room 229 Maisy B, Anna and Charlotte xxx

After lunch, in which Abbi and Lousia both suffered the wrath of chillies! Hot, hot, hot! We clambered onto the boat and cruised down the river for 45 minutes.

 After a few attractions were pointed out, we then arrived at the farmer house, where we all enjoyed watermelon 🍉, pineapple🍍 and some interesting tasting juice 🍹 Some of us also opted for a waffle, which was very tasty! - Abbi, Hannah, Maisie G xxx

On the return, we took photos and enjoyed the view! Dinner was pretty good, with rice, pork and veggies! After a full tum and juiced up we finished off a bit of reading and various other activities. We decided as a collective, to head to the market to do that last bit of shopping! - Lousia, Grace and Florence 😊

We revisited the Chiang Mai night market, spent some time shopping - great atmosphere, lots of people and food. A lot of us decided to have a super cool ice cream to finish the night before a nice stroll back to our Chiang Mai home. - Beth, Louise and El 

Here are photos of our ice creams - the best we have ever tasted !!!

THE PROJECT 👭

We kick started the day with tree planting. We were each given a lemon tree to plant with some of the young Thai Guides and we got lovely and muddy!

Back inside to meet and greet the 40 girls who had come along for the day, the girls we had met in the Hill Tribe village gave a traditional performance wearing similar items to the ones we had witnessed being mades 2 days previous. Throughout the morning, many of us had the opportunity to join in and try on these clothes and attempt (and somewhat fail(!)) to recreate these beautiful dances.

The girls ran some activies for us all including: making sweet sticky rice packages which were either steamed or grilled; creating aromatic flowers out of plant leaves; and having a go at some of the embroidery.

Next, we took the reins! We thought it would be apt to show the girls where we're from to give them an idea of where we are in relation to them. We coloured in maps of the British Isles showing North East England and also had world maps where they could see how far away Thailand and England really are. We made miniature Union Flags and also Horse Guards cut outs too for them to take away.

We then broke for lunch and started the First Aid activities. The girls rotated around the four stations we had created which were:

-Tooth Brushing and Handwashing (El, Abbi and Maisy)

-Recovery Position and Shock (Anna, Beth and Hannah)

-CPR (Louise, Maisie and Grace)

-Bandages and Slings (Florence, Charlotte and Louisa)

At first the language barrier was difficult, but through many actions and a little bit of translation help, everything went really well! Particularly for the tooth brushing activity, it was great to be able to provide the girls with advice (and toothbrushes!) as the majority had never seen one before in their lives. Many found it funny, many found it strange, but all found it useful and hopefully will put this into practice in life at home.

After this we started to make friendship bracelets which the girls were able to take home to finish. Which led onto our final activity, that revolved around Sex Education and we ran a fun game (including sweets!) that both explained the importance of safe sex and how HIV can be spread. 

The grande finale included Abbi, Maisie, Lou and Lou doing their Senior Section promise, whilst the rest of us remade ours at the same time. The day was concluded by a round of Thai and English Taps (the song we sing at the end of a guide meeting).

Buenos noches from Anna, El and Beth, back in Chiang Mai 🌙

Quick Saturday Post

Woken up by a confused rooster, we travelled to the White Tenple in Chiang Rai. 

We have reached an agreement that it was our favourite temple so far! The sun was out, spirits were high, and the temple shimmered in the morning sunshine.

From there we were taken on a mad mystery road trip where we visited a tea plantation,

 the Northern Most Point of Thailand 

(the Myanmar/Thailand border) and The Golden Triangle. 

This was where Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand all met, forming the triangle where poppies grew and opium was produced.

Goodnight for now, as we anticipate being shaken early tomorrow by that pesky rooster! 

Beth, Anna and El X