Faces and sights of Umpiem

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I was fortunate enough to spend a week staying at a guesthouse in Umpiem camp with one of the trainers, Bee to observe her cultural orientation classes for refugees bound for Australia. It gave me an opportunity to experience first-hand how many of the families live in the camps and in what conditions. I would have to confess that I do not know how long I would be able to cope as it is extremely cold and nothing like I would expect from Thailand weather. As I slept under 3 quilts I felt fortunate that I had the luxury of such warm bedding.

Each morning before class I went for a walk along the freeway that runs parallel to the camp. The road has breathtaking mountainous scenery and eventually leads to Umphang, which is home to Thailand’s largest and highest waterfall - Thee Lor Sue. After the first two days of class we spent the afternoon exploring the camp, shopping at the market stalls and visited one of the interpreter’s homes.

On the third day we went in search of these famous white/pink rocks on the hilltop overlooking Umpiem camp. I had seen pictures of them from another trainer and thought they would be worth seeing. We took a couple of the interpreters with us as guides and while in the photos they look large, in reality are quite small. Nevertheless, there is a great view of the camp at the top and on the other side of the mountain is jungle forest and if you follow a track for 8 hours it eventually leads to Bangkok. This area is under regular surveillance by Thai authorities who often fly planes overhead to catch anybody fleeing from the camp. We continued through the dense jungle forest to see a couple of waterfalls and it reminded me of a trekking excursion, except that this was located right next to the camp.

As you can see from the photos we saw and met some great people and faces along the journey and during our stay. Our favourite friend, Poe Thaw also came to visit us at our guesthouse throughout the week who was practising his English with us in preparation for his move to the US.

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Photos

Visiting one of the interpreter
I was surprised to see a TV in his house which he later explained that families can watch in their homes if they pay a monthly fee to use a power generator.

Comments

[aning]

I woulder the american that umpiem
because they need more help but I can't do nothing I can tell american help them out