Blogs from Ranong, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 2

On the first day of our Southern trip, we went down to Ranong province and into Kuraburi to a village that was devastated by the 2004 tsunami. We took a boat to a floating hotel, a community tourism project that the village started with Loreal to help fund the rebuilding of their village. The floating hotel is in the middle of a river surrounded by mangroves, it was so cool! The hotel was made of bamboo, and electricity was through a generator, so we only have light at night, and only until 11 o'clock. Also, the shower heads were made of coconuts, it was really neat! Once we got there, we saw monkeys running around in the mangroves (which are a major part of the mangrove ecosystem) which was amazing! We then went net fishing, and ... read more

The Moken, also known as Sea Gypsies, are a diverse ethnic group living in Thailand, Myanmar & Malaysia and are considered stateless people - not having citizenship within any country. I sail to Koh Lao, an island about 4 km off the coast from Ranong, and stay 2 nights at a Moken village after being invited by an NGO named 'The Mirror foundation’. Taking a long boat from the pier takes around 30 minutes to arrive at Koh Lao. On arrival, we are invited to have lunch with a local family. After a delicious meal of various kinds of fish, the topic of conversation changed. It is translated to me by a member of 'The Mirror Foundation' that the Moken fishermen make dangerous journeys across the Andaman Ocean into Indian and Burmese waters to earn a ... read more

While visiting Kim and Awe, Jarod and I got to go on a community tour of area villages. We spent three days visiting about 8 communities that have been engaging in some sort of eco-tourism since the tsunami. The communities were all small Muslim Thai villages that were mainly focused on fishing and are doing tourism activities like basket weaving, tye dye, batiking, homestays and cooking lessons, mangrove forest restoration and tours, etc... It was a great eye-opener for us to see more of Thailand away from the major tourist destinations. We had translators throughout the visits as all information was given in Thai and aimed at visiting Thai tour operators. It was wonderful to see how these communities have bounced back after the tsunami. One village that we visited had lost 18 children and the ... read more

We are currently in Ranong, which is on the Andaman coast of Thailand. It's here you can do a 'visa run' over to Myanmar so that you can get an extension of your Thailand visa. When we arrived in Thailand on the 28th June, I used my APEC card and was given 90 days. Patrick doesn't yet have his card, so was only given 30 days, and hence the visa run. You can do visa runs from Phuket, whereby you get a bus at 6am to Ranong, and then go by boat over to Myanmar, get your visa, come back and then travel by bus again back to Phuket. It's a 12 or 13 hour round trip, and prices vary from 1500 BAHT to 1600 BAHT (1500B is $AUD50). We asked in Phuket about the trip ... read more

Hoi! Het is negen uur sochtends dus we zijn nog niet helemaal wakker, maar ja, je moet toch een keer je blog schrijven... en trouwens, negen uur is best laat.. afgelopen week stonden we elke ochtend om half zeven aerobics te doen.. neee, denk maar niet dat wij het makkelijk hebben... Afgelopen week dus weer een engels kamp, in phato. maandagochtend zijn we daar aangekomen en eerlijk gezegd weten we niet meer zo goed wat we de hele dag gedaan hebben... gegeten :).. en voorbereid.. dinsdag begon het kamp dan.. eerst de officiele opening.. vreselijk, thais thais en nog een keer thais.. en dat kunnen we helaas slechts nid noi... maar dan ook echt een heeeeeeeeel klein beetje.. die dag viel een beetje tegen.. eigenlijk hebben we de hele dag maar wat aangekloot met die kinderen ... read more