Blogs from South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 880

Ban Lut is a newly constructed housing camp for displaced victims of the tsunami. After doing some other tasks to get ready for the team to arrive to construct the playground at the Ban Nok Na school, I was called by the director of the Ban Muang refugee camp and asked if I would help them by driving a few people to the local market to pick up some supplies for the new daycare center being organized at the Ban Lut village camp. Rotjana, the director of the camp, has started another daycare center in a one-room building where younger children can play and learn during the day while their parents are working and their siblings are in nearby schools. The young girl (20 years old, actually) shown in the close-up photo was a bit of ... read more

Most of Thailand has three seasons. The hot season is in America's spring months. Then the rainy season lasts until the end of October or early November. Finally, from mid-November until March, there is the cool season -although cool means 85F. Ko Samui and the islands in the Gulf of Siam have two seasons. The cool season last from our late summer until early spring and the hot season the rest of the year. The only truly rainy period is the month of November -something we didn't know before we planned this trip. As I've said before, we've been very lucky with the weather on our trip. We had sun all week in Ko Samui until yesterday afternoon. Today, however the sky is great and we've had tremendous downpours. No one is at the beach and ... read more

we've been so busy the last few days, in only 10 days we went to 6 differents places and i'm really tired. we finally left Tonsai beach, i can't believe we had planned to stay 4 days and we ended up staying 3 weeks! we were so sad to leave, we knew everyone, because when we arrived it was still the low season and all the locals were talking to us, simply because we were the only one. we got on so well with the manager of a bar that he took us for 2 days to the half moon party in koh Samui, on the east coast, we danced on the beach till 6 in the morning, the sun was nearly rising, and it was not only techno but trance music also. can't believe i ... read more

For the past week, I've been volunteering at the Tsunami Volunteer Center in southern Thailand. So far it has been an amazing experience and I'm really enjoying myself. The Center (TVC) is based in the coastal town of Khao Lak, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami. TVC was created shortly after the disaster to help people document lost loved ones and to provide temporary housing and supplies for victims. In the months since the tsunami, the mission has shifted to focus upon construction of new homes and job re-training for residents who have lost their income sources. There are currently 141 volunteers from 20 different countries constructing homes at four different sites, teaching English to kids at local schools, and building boats for fishermen who lost theirs during the tsunami. TVC ... read more

After Kuala Lumpur, we headed to Phuket (Thailand) to meet two of my friends from Toronto, Deb and Susan. We spent two days catching up on a beach in an area of Phuket that was hit quite hard by the tsunami last year and is still in the midst of reconstruction. Following a little catch up time we headed east to Koh Phangan: the site of the famous (infamous) Full Moon Party. Tara decided that heading up north was more her style and so she carried on up to Bangkok. Koh Phangan is a cute little jungle island of 168 km2. It has beautiful beaches with clear, warm water. Haad Rin is the beach where the Full Moon Party is held and between 8000 -15 000 tourists are drawn to the event. The next few days ... read more