VOLUNTEER THAILAND!

June 2014 me and two friends decided to quit our jobs, sell everything and backpack Southeast Asia!  Yes - for real!

I've been to Thailand before, see "THAILAND" tab above, and ever since my feet have touched Thai soil I've dreamt of my next visit here - and voila two years later it happened.  The first thing most people say about travelling abroad is "OMG I cannot do that flight!"  I really want to say, "Well guess what, you'll never get to see it!"  Flying is a pain - I get it - but that temporary hell is worth it, trust me!  GET OUTSIDE OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!

My first trip to Thailand was for a yoga retreat and we stayed at a five star resort.  This time around however we were backpacking, a MUCH different experience.  ;)

The first week of our journey was a cultural immersion week in Singburi Thailand.  When we landed in Bangkok we had an escort help us get to our destination via multiple bus stations.  His name was Korn.  It's so nice to have a coordinated escort when arriving in a foreign land.  Korn was such a spunky yet poised man.  

 

He is originally from Thailand, about an hour east of Bangkok.  He and I had a very interesting "click."  I'm not sure if no one ever talks to him or asks about him, but upon asking him where he was from he immediately looked at my left hand and started to read my palm!  Such a deep and interesting fellow he is.  He said my life line looked good, my work ethic was strong and I thought a lot.  WOW - so on point!  He guided us through our two bus connections and the next thing you know he was gone.  

The above picture was at the last bus stop before we parted.  He pointed out that the beautiful building in the background was a Buddhist temple.  He said the long bell shaped architecture was a sign of one - the universe.  The past few years that I've been into Buddhism I've realized how majestic and magical this culture can be, but Korn mentioned something that I did not know.....  He said that Thai people & Buddhist Monks have a lot of history in not only seeing UFO's but "talking" to them too!  He said they connect to them through meditation.  He also mentioned that the guy who either designed the space shuttle that landed on Mars or assisted in the very beginning of space study with NASA, was Thai or from Thailand?  Through these "meetings" and conversations Thai people have had with Aliens, that's how the intelligence came to work with NASA.  He said there is a lot of information out there on YouTube - which I will be checking out soon!  We took pictures of each other and he said "OK I will send yours to the Aliens."  As crazy as that sounded - I was so convinced not to rule it out.  You never know!!!!

Finally - we arrived at our volunteer house.  

Dinner was waiting on us. We quietly ate and quickly took ourselves to bed.  

The next day was a free day essentially. It was great, we woke up, had breakfast, read, talked, read some more, laid around, had lunch, read some more, etc. Throughout the day more and more travelers   arrived. Now there are about 12 of us all doing the cultural immersion week before we are off to our specific volunteer opportunities. Some of us were doing the elephant sanctuary, some were teaching english at schools or an orphanage, some were doing mountain trekking and even a bike tour.

This was such a beautiful experience. There are travelers from all over the world: France, Holland, Belgium, USA, China. Throughout all my world travels in the past I have met so many people from so many different countries. That. Makes. Me. Smile. :)

So our first "cultural immersion" day was nothing short of indescribable, so I'll do my best do create words here my heart has felt.  We started off taking a walk through the town.  The local town where we were staying heavily relies on the river for fish farming.  

Work out anyone?

We then rode into the main town of Singburi to take a look around.  After that we were off to lunch!  Oh My God this coconut soup was some of the best I've ever had!  

After lunch we were off to a Buddhist Temple.  Buddhism has a special place in my heart, soul and mind, and this was my first real Buddhist Temple experience - in Thailand.  I was blown away.  

We blessed the Buddha, the teachings and the Monks and we were off walking around.  In no way did I expect to see a Buddha of this size, beauty or stature.  I was captivated.  I had a couple moments of my emotions almost starting to pour out, but I held it together.  At this point anyway.  We continued walking around the temple and slowly made our way out after in depth discussions on the history of Buddha.  In all of my readings I did not realize that the Thai people and the Chinese viewed Buddha differently.  I thought they all thought of Buddha as the same man.  In short I think they do - it's more so the history that's different.  Wow - doesn't that sound like all types of religion....

Upon arriving back to the volunteer house we had Thai language lessons! I thought this would be simple hello, goodbye, etc. NO. It was an hour and a half intensive! Of course when it was over I was completely thankful we went over so much. But damn I paid for this volunteer opportunity a.k.a. vacation and damn we were being grilled! It was so awesome though - our guide was the best! I ended up taking 3 pages of notes!!!!

As if this day couldn't get any better, after dinner local school children came by to show us a dance.  There is something so innocent, natural and real about children.  They know no fear, or if they do they are completely cute at it.  

The boys started out with the drums.  They were amazing.

Then the boys parted to the side and played the drums while the girls danced.  

After they finished dancing they invited all the volunteers up to dance with them!  We were all dancing in a circle and tried to do our hands and arms similar to what they are doing in the above pictures.  It was so cute, as we were going in circles the girls would come grab my hand and pinch my thumb and index finger together and push me on my way.  There was a moment after a few rotations that I felt like I was in a dream.  All the kids are smiling and dancing, and so are we.  In that moment it hit me how serene and magical this was, and how far I've come compared to what I was doing just weeks prior sitting at a desk job at a bank.  It was hard for me to hold my tears back to keep my emotions together.  But when it was over my friend Cassie was experiencing the same thing.  The experience of dancing and the innocence and kindness of those children will always have a place in my heart.

Little did I know that the following day one of my dreams would come true.  Can my heart take any more?!  I knew this was a long packed day full of activities, but I did not realize at our first stop I would get to hang out with baby elephants!!!!!!!  As soon as our bus pulled in my eyes almost teared up with joy.  I immediately ran up toward the elephants and there was a baby elephant right when I turned the corner!!!!

It was only 40 baht to take pictures with the baby - that is about $1.40.  HELL YES.  

One of my dreams came true on this day!  Baby elephants are SO cute!!!

One day we got the chance to make our own lunch and coconut bracelets!  For lunch we made papaya salad and pad see yew!!!!  I must say it was delicious!!

Another day we got the chance to visit a local school.  Thai schools are set up much differently (so it seems) than schools in America.  We didn't have much time with the children, as we didn't want to take up too much of their school day!  But we did get a chance to sit down and draw with the kids.  The kids were using pencils, of course, in case they messed up they could erase.  But I pulled out my gel pens and one of the little boys went crazy!  It was absolutely precious.

Our group!  :)

This whole week was jam packed with amazing experiences.  From temples to animals to trekking to waterfalls to riding down winding roads in the back of a truck - my "cultural immersion week" in Thailand will never be forgotten!  Here are a few pics from a few of the other temples we visited....

One of the last temples we visited was unlike any other temple we had seen.  This was a monkey temple!  There were monkeys everywhere!  Supposedly there are 6,000 that roam around this particular city.  And they somehow all have had their shots?!  Hmmm.

The first part of the temple was cute.  We actually went into the temple and prayed, and right outside of it were the first monkeys we saw!  They were running around, climbing and falling into the water!  It was so cute!  

Across the street was another temple or monkey grounds where little did we know were many many many more monkeys! We could actually let them crawl on us! The guards and our tour guide had sticks ready to beat them down should any try to take a bite out of us, so in we go!

They advised us not to wear any jewelry as the monkeys would jump on you, grab it and run off!  This one actually got our friend's water bottle!  

The best thing was not try to take a selfie with the Monkeys, but rather give your phone to someone else to take the pictures.  How hilarious are these?!?!?!

The above picture was right when a little monkey bit my butt!!!  One of the girls in our group actually got bit, or attempted bitten.  It drew blood so they cleaned her up and she went to get a rabies shot just in case.

The experience was quite cool - but glad I can check that off my list! 

Our "cultural immersion week" was one I will never forget.  Could this experience get any better???  Yes. It. Can.

Before our week of volunteering with elephants started we had a free weekend.  We chose to go on a tour that took us to see some waterfalls and a Tiger Temple! The waterfalls were in Erawan National Park in Thailand. This park is located in western Thailand about 3 hours from Bangkok. It's known for it's 7 tiers of waterfalls!

We drove to Kanchanaburi (awesome party town) to stay for the weekend because it's close to the falls and the Tiger Temple. We asked a tour guide if we needed sneakers to get to the falls, and she said no that flip flops were fine. HOWEVER - I will say now I do recommend tennis shoes. These falls are not at the end of a driveway. I would say it was about 2 miles from our car to peak #7 - each way.  And not a straight road either - I'm talking trekking!!!  This was the half mile walk to the start of the trek.

Do you see the lizard/iguana in the above picture?!  Those are the dense type woods that surround you, or jungle may I say.  

This park is known for it's "pedicure" type fish.  You can sit on the edge with your feet in the water and the fish will come up and suck on your feet, toes and ankles!  Their suction is quite strong it feels like a pinch at first!

Look how clear the water is!  Amazing!

We actually hiked all the way up to waterfall #7 however waterfall #5 was my favorite.  The plentiful smooth covered rocks surrounded by dense green trees and dainty butterflies soothed my soul like no medicine could.

Being on a group tour really limited our time to enjoy more of the falls.  Our it could have been our determination to reach #7 while not realizing I could have been relaxing at my favorite fall #5 the whole time.  Oh well.  You should definitely add this to your list of places to see!  The waterfalls are so majestic and amazing!

On our way to the Tiger Temple we stopped at a local market.  Little did I know that another one of my dreams would come true!  I was able to take a picture with a baby leopard!!!!!!!!

I must say I am proud to be a cat lady!!!!!!!!!!!  :)

Ok - The Tiger Temple.  I was extremely excited and scared at the same time.  I did not know what to expect, I had only seen pictures of tigers roaming around with Monks.  Really - tigers just ROAMING around....?!?!?!??!  Still I went in.  

So yes, the Tigers are chained up for the most part.  There are small chains in the ground, maybe 4 feet long that keep the Tigers in their places.  This was my first picture with them!!!!

Next we were able to walk the tigers down to their next exhibit!  This was a little more interesting, the tigers were NOT chained to anything.  They had a leash on and that's IT!  The Monks were near them and their caretakers, and they advised us to line up in a straight line behind each other and we could each get a chance to walk a tiger!!!!!!  They said to never go past their shoulders, and if the tiger speeds up, you speed up, if the tiger slows down, you slow down, etc.  They also said if the tiger stops to pee, to just let him pee.  Do not pull the leash quickly, tight or in any fashion that would be alarming to the tiger, and if you put your hand on a tiger, do it with force so they do not think it's a fly.....  SO, it's my turn, and what does the tiger do, stop to pee!!!!!!!!!

The tiger stopped and looked back at me and I was so scared!!  I was barely holding the leash and looking away like I could suddenly be invisible!  hahahahahaha.  Soon the tiger was done and we were off!  Those 10 seconds of pure natural beauty, nature and freedom were so exhilarating, I will never forget that adrenaline rush! 

We were walking the tigers toward another exhibit where we were able to take additional pictures with them.  In a way I feel so sorry for these majestic creatures.  But I do think that some controlled habits are necessary to prevent all the poachers for killing them for parts and rugs.  :(

After the Tiger Temple we were off to see the elephants!  Who's ready for a 4 hour ride in the back of a truck - I AM!

By the time we arrived at the Umphang house it's daylight.  This place is quite cute!

It was also a bit cooler up here in the mountains - which was very welcoming!  

So our volunteer work - each morning we would wake up and have breakfast, then go cut down banana trees to feed to the elephants.  These banana trees are absolutely covered in ants!  UGH!  But blasting them with a machete felt amazing!  It's so interesting to see what grows in nature for our use and nourishment.  These trees can be heavy, dense and full of water!  Nature is so beautiful!!  

So after we cut down a truck full of banana trees we head off to feed the elephants!  The elephants are so smart!  They are very picky about which pieces they want to eat!  Sometimes they smell the ends to see if they like them.  Sometimes after they choose a piece they bang them on their legs or a tree to loosen them up I assume.  I actually tried a small piece of the inside of a banana tree.  It's almost flavorless but does have a sweet taste, but takes a while to chew it up.  Kind of like the consistency of celery.

After the elephants were fed we cleaned up the scraps to throw in the river.  We do not want to attract any more ants!  After WE were fed we would take the elephants for a ride and then into the water for a bath!  The elephants loved the water it was so amazing!!!!

We did this process for a couple days straight.  Then one night our tour guide threw us for a loop and took us camping one evening!  This was actually my 1st time camping!  Although I was a bit nervous, once I arrived at the campsite I was in complete awe....

The following day we just fed and rode the elephants one last time.  It was nice to be able to spend a week with the same elephants.  You learned which ones were shy, which one was crazy, which ones were sweet, etc.  I highly recommend this volunteer opportunity to anyone who is looking to give back, spend time with nature and get outside your comfort zone.  I built so many memories in each day I feel like I've been traveling for months, and it was only for two weeks.  My heart is more full and my soul is richer.  The friends I have made throughout this experience will always share such a special bond that only a select few know about and will experience.  I am one lucky girl.  :)