The Hill Tribes

On Saturday afternoon, we visited the Hill Tribe village from which some girls would be coming on Sunday for the day of activities.

We were greeted by 4 bubbly girls who weren't as confident as other girls we've previously met but were very proud to show us around their home village. 

The majority of us hadn't seen a hill tribe village like this before and it seemed miles apart from Chiang Mai. It had a very profound effect on us.

The village was very basic, with houses mostly made from tin and wood, yet it felt like there was a tight community spirit. All of the homes had outside toilet facilities, however many houses did have satellite dishes and access to electricity which some of us didn't expect.

We saw some ladies doing traditional embroidery which was beautiful which they loved to share with us. It would take 2 months to produce a very intricatley designed piece (albeit very small) of their local dress!

There were many chickens, pigs and dogs freely roaming the area, which the hill tribe families would use for food and for trading.

It's upsetting to think that girls like the ones we met today, could be persuaded to move to inner areas such as Bangkok as they're told that their quality of life will improve - when in fact they will be taken advantage of and exploited in the industries such as the sex trade.

Now we've had a real taste of the kind of lives some of the hill tribe children have, it's helped us to fully comprehend how important our activies on Sunday will be. We're really looking forward to sharing our activies with these girls and many others from local schools in the area.

El, Anna and Beth X

To Chiang Rai and beyond!

Today was the day we ventured into the wilderness of Chiang Rai. After about an hour of travel we stopped at some hot springs. We all had a quick paddle in the bathing bit and then tried some small eggs that had been boiled in one of the pools. We all 'enjoyed' the smell of rotten eggs. Then it was on to another temple. This one contained a museum of different amulets that had been found. There were thousands! This temple had been derelict and had been restoring it since 1900s. Before lunch we had a quick stop at a lake that the princess is interested in. This has meant that nobody disturbs the fish there and they have grown to be massive. We had fun feeding them! 

After our favourite lunch so far we went off further into Chiang Rai and visited a site that was on the border between Chiang Rai and Lampang, where there was a real gold Buddha statue inside a temple. Alongside this there was also a museum in which they had collected lots of old clay pots that had all been handmade and painted, this was really interesting as it was nice to see history preserved in a way for people to look at today. 

For dinner we went out for a South Koren buffet which was very interesting! but also very fun! We tried to cook our own food, the key word was 'tried'. But we carried on and achieved little nibbles of food and over we all had an enjoyable time. 🍉🍳🍜

Finally, we headed to the Chiang Rai Girl Guiding centre, we are now currently in a little humble home for the next few days; which have nets above the beds to keep up safe from pesky bugs and the rain which has just started to patter on the roof. 

Love, Maisie, Hannah, Anna, Grace, Charlotte and Florence. 💙

Free day

As this was our designated free day, we had the opportunity to plan for our next project - where we will be providing educational activities for young girls in Wiang Pa Pao. The project, Valuing Girls, aims to teach girls key life skills in a safe environment that they may not have the opportunity to learn elsewhere. We're really looking forward to it and we are sure that the activities we've planned will be beneficial.

Tonight, after some time swimming, reading or chilling outside, we visited a temple because it is a national Thai holiday which signifies the coming of the Rainy Season. We circled the temple three times holding flowers and incense to give good luck to the Buddah, the Tripitaka and the Monks. It was great to experience this celebration with the Thai community.

We're still having the trip of a lifetime and are seizing every opportunity possible! Love Lou, Lou and El 🙏🎉☔️

National Park trip

The day started with a trip to- as Gui put it- "Thailand's Grand Canyon". After walking what felt like a thousand stairs down we eventually reached the bottom, only to walk back up a few hundred more to reach the viewing point where we saw a famous actress having a photo shoot, holding up our chance for a group photo!!! But seeing the canyon was worth it as it was a site of natural beauty. 

On the way out Fiona convinced some of us to get a photo next to the sign for the park, which was unfortunately placed very close to a nest of fiery red ants, which Maisie soon discovered didn't half hurt when they bit you...but all was good no lasting effects !!!  Love, Charlotte, Grace and Anna :) 

After lunch, where there was a toilet in the shape of a windmill. We travelled up to the highest point in Thailand. 

This was where we faced with winds and rains of the British Isles! Safe to say we do not miss the British weather; regardless we traveled up the stairs and visisted the temples that were pretty magnificent, despite the vast looms of fog. Once we had got ourselves somewhat cold and wet, we all got ourselves warmed up with some hot chocolate! Love Maisie, Hannah & Flo :) 

After a long day traveling we arrived at our destination -the Doi Inthanon National Park- the scenery was lovely but reminded us of Europe, especially with the rain.

We were then designated new room buddies in our lodge in the woods and we had a bit of free time to settle in. We then went to eat our tea, where the crockery was all pink plastic but Abbi still managed to break it! To end the day we settled back into our cabin for an early night ( with some unexpected insect visitors) lots of love Maisy, Abbi and Beth🌳 x

Today, we went to Changthong School and met some lovely guides aged 14-15 to do lots of activities.

 After a brief introduction, they explained how to make Lanna Flags used to give good luck on traditional Buddhist festivals. 

Then we shared some activities, which we had planned before the trip, with the girls. Our activities were based around friendship as we thought this was important to us. One of the activities was making a people paper chain, by each girl decorating themselves on paper and then threading all the hands together so everyone was connected. This was then hung up in the library for the school to keep. Another activity we lead was making friendship bracelets which each girl got to finish making at home to remember their time with us. 

Since it was the National day of learning Thai we individually learnt some phrases with the girls we had paired up with. Many of us can now confidently count to 10!  

A wet day 💦 💧 ☔️

Today was a little bit of a chilled out day compared to the stressful market last night! It also felt like we were back in the UK because it rained, rained and rained some more! The only difference was it was still warm.

The day stated with domestic chores, tidying, sweeping and washing underware. 

After breakfast we headed up a very cloudy mountain. We stopped half way up and visited Wat Pra That Doi Suthep Temple. We had lots of fun jumping in puddles with our bare feet as we wandered round the temple.  It would have been a wonderful site looking down over Chaing Mai, if the cloud had lifted. 

We then headed further up the mountain to Boubing Palace, which is the King's home during the winter. 

After a lovely lunch we hit the newest shopping mall in town! At last there was coffee and cake, not much else was bought as it was too expensive 

The day was finished by a swim and planning our next session at a local school.

Love from Team Thailand x

Poo !!

The first activity of the day was making paper from elephant poo! We went to the Chiang Mai elephant poopoo paper park and had a tour around the different stages of making the paper from boiling the poo (nearly all of us had a go at stirring it), to spreading it and putting it out to dry. We had a little go at decorating various items made from the poo paper, and everyone's looked really good - Beth, Anna, Lou.

After playing with poo Guy took us to the princesses favourite resturant, after been vaguely told what the menu meant (it was all in Thai) we got are food which resulted in Hannah being served an extremely hot yellow curry! It was fun to eat real Thai food and they defiantly didn't hold out the stops when it came to spices.  Maisy, Hannah and Louise x

After poopoo paper and a hot & spicyspicyspicy Thai meal we boarded the Red Trucks and headed to a parasol paradise. This was where we were able to look at how they were made and see how they were decorated. We proceeded home and some of us had a fabulous swim in the cloudy pool.

At 6pm we wandered through night markets which were swarming with 'friendly,' tourists. Finally, heading home after coffees we got into Tuk Tuk's - very eventful!o Fiona has just given us the power to write this after commenting on the clean, organised utopia that is our room. (See picture below.) night babes, love the very hyper and caffeine filled Abbi, Charlotte & Florence.💙💙💙

PS: Eleanor has bought enough souvenirs and pressies to fill a cargo ship - pretty sure she has bought half of Thailand. We've managed to barter like pros thanks to El too though, it is very very cheap here if you're willing to battle with a market stall owner!! Lots of jewellery, lanterns, bags and mango flavoured food items have been purchased, and Louisa, Anna and El managed to grab a bargain of 3 skirts for 550 Baht altogether (about £3.50 each!!) - see picture 👗 Love Grace, Maisie and Eleanor X

What a messy room girls !!!

ELEPHANTS!

Today we were proper Eco-tourists and went to the Elephant Nature Park/sanctuary. We decided to go to this place because they pride themselves in rescuing and rehabilitating abused and exploited elephants. At 8am we were picked up and it took an hour to get there. Firstly we fed the elephants, then we wandered around the reserve and met some elephants, thirdly we had lunch, and afterwards we bathed the elephants in the river. Finally we observed a beautiful family during their meal time. 

I had an amazing time today, my favourite part was when we bathed the elephants, although even after the elephants left we carried on splashing each other!!! Took loads of photos for my elephant obsessed mum :) - Grace x

Today has been a huge highlight of our trip so far - to see and feed real elephants has been something so incredibly special, I never had imagined I would ever get the chance to do it. I had a couple of (very happy) teary moments because they are my most favourite animals and I felt so grateful to be able to care for these beautiful creatures for just one day! - Eleanor X

This has been an amazing, surreal day. My favourite bit was definitely towards the end. Most people remained on the viewing platform but myself, Abbi and Katharine went down towards the elephants. It began to rain - monsoon style!! - and so the elephants and the cute baby one began to move towards the shelter of the platform. We soon found ourselves surrounded by several of the biggest elephants in the park and we fed the ever hungry animals some more. It was a truly unforgetable moment. Maisie x

Today has been a once in a life time opportunity; I got to do something I never thought I would be able to do. I loved been so close to the elephants and to see them be happy in their natural environment. I couldn't believe how close I got to the elephants and the fact that I got to stroke and feed them we also got to wash the elephants in the river, however we all got rather wet as it ended up with us all having a water fight. Abbi x

The Elephant Nature Park was something everyone was excited for, once it came around we couldn't wait to be up at 6.30! Once we arrived, we fed, stroked and bathed the elephants. This was one moment that I will never forget. This once in a life time opportunity brought learning and history through out the day about some of natures most beautiful creatures. After this experience, it has inspired me to look into volunteering in the future. I'm very thankful for this experience and I thoughly enjoyed the day. - Florence 

Today was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life without a doubt. Personally, my favourite part was washing the elephants. They wagged their little tails, which meant they were happy... Especially when I poured a bucket over Abbi...😝 At the end of the day we all went to this bridge, (that reminded me a bit of hogwarts,) and watched all the elephants, including the baby ones, come out and just chill in the reserve! The view was beautiful, and when it began to rain it truly set the scene. Can't wait to show the Rainbows all my pictures of the Ellie's, as well as looking forward to our lie in in the morning!!- Charlotte 💙💙

 

The day was finally upon us when we could go and see the elephants! After the worth while early start we were soon feeding the elephants, their trunks were like giant hovers. My favorite part was washing the elephants as they seemed so happy and comfortable in their environment. There was a funny part when a baby elephant was chasing its handler for more bananas. Today was truely an unforgetable day and I am so glad I have been given this opportunity🐘😃- Maisy B

Having never seen an elephant in real life before, I didn't really know what they were like but I loved it, they were playing in the water and I enjoyed washing them the most because we could get so close to the animals. A brilliant experience I will remember for a long time!- Louise

Spending the day hanging out with elephants in a place they were safe was amazing! There is no way to comprehend the size of them until you can actually be up close to them. An utterly amazing day!! - Hannah

Today was absolutely amazing! It was so nice to see the elephants in a way that keeps them safe and happy. The stories behind the elephants in the sanctuary were often very sad but we all got so close to them, feeling so lucky ❤️ - Beth 😘

I absolutely loved seeing the elephants today! It was amazing to hear all the stories of the elephants lives and to see them up close in person. Meeting and bathing the elephants was so much fun and is something I'll never forget. It was definitely worth the early start as it meant we got to feed the elephants too. I am extremely grateful that I have been given the opportunity to come and see the elephants! 🐘🐘 Louisa 

Today was so so fab!! It was completely different to anything I'd ever seen before and I genuinely really enjoyed it. Love, Anna :) ps sorry about the short message I got this last and it's about 11:30pm- so from all of us- GOODNIGHT!! 😴