Late last year, I came back from one of the most amazing trips which was very humbling, inspiring, rewarding and fun! I attended a 7 day volunteer vacation with my company where 50+ of us volunteered at and Elephant Sanctuary and taught certain topics to students in grade school. Along with that, we also had excursions around Chiang Mai to really get to know the culture.
[See my summary at the end of the post…]
[Day 1]
- Afternoon
- Arrive. We got picked up at the airport which was about 15 min from our hotel
- Check In at Harmony Resort Hotel. This hotel had a pool, bar and meals. The room was essentially a one bedroom apartment.
- Massage and pedicure at White Orchid. Both took about 3 hours. After my amazing massage, I was able to chill with some thai tea while getting my pedicure.
- Evening:
- Welcome Ice breaker and dinner. All 50+ of us came together for some fun camp games to break the ice before our first meal at the hotel.
- Second dinner at the Central Plaza Mall. My roomie could not stop talking about how delicious the food at the mall was (she went earlier that day), so yeah, we went for a second dinner and snacks. You have to get the tom yum goong!!
[Day 2]
- Morning:
- Breakfast. Breakfast at the hotel was similar to dinner the night before.
- Morning orientation. We got our packets and learned a few Thai words and small conversations.
- Afternoon:
- Lunch. Lunch at the hotel. Starting to see the trend with the food here…
- Visit school and teachers. We got a quick glimpse into the school we were teaching at and met a couple of the teachers (who never showed up on the day of…)
- Wat Chiang Man. A Buddhist temple inside the old city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.
- Wat Jedi Luang. Another Buddhist temple in the center of Chiang Mai.
Wat Chiang Man
Wat Jedi Luang
- Evening:
- Market. We took the little red trucks to a market and got a tour of where they got the ingredients for the cooking class.
- Thai Cooking class at Chang. We each had an individual cooking station where we cooked a 4 course meal.
- Dinner. The food that we cooked was absolutely delicious! It did take about 2 hours to cook everything though.
- Kalare Night Bazaar. We wanted to go shopping so we headed out for desserts and souvenirs.
[Day 3]
- Morning:
- Breakfast. Sitting by the pool this morning.
- Ride to Elephant Sanctuary. The elephant sanctuary was about 2 hours away and was extremely rocky and bumpy. Let’s just say we were extremely glad when we made it! Gorgeous ride nonetheless.
- Afternoon:
- Volunteer at Elephant Sanctuary. Not gonna lie, I was hesitant at first because these guys were gigantic, but all they want is food (I can relate). It was a full day of learning about the sanctuary, feeding them bananas, making them natural foods, bathing them in mud, and rinsing them off. They were extremely well behaved!
- Evening:
- Dinner at Chiang Mai Gate Night Market. This market has a whole street of freshly made food and it was heaven for me! The stalls do tend to repeat the food options after a while so don’t feel like you have to go through everything. My absolute favorite was the grilled fish. So worth the wait!
- Muy Thai Boxing fight. We went to the biggest muy thai place in Chiang Mai and it was a few rounds of amateur teenagers fighting. We did get to see a couple knock outs which were brutal!
[Day 4]
- Morning:
- Breakfast. Same stuff…
- Create curriculum. We used the whole morning to get into our groups to create curriculum for the kids. Ours was grades 3-5 so we had to vary them slightly by grade level. We used most of our time making flashcards and thinking of games.
- Afternoon:
- Lunch. At the hotel. They changed it up and gave us curry this time!
- Wat Suan Dok (Monk’s Chat). We went to go hear a monk talk about how Buddhism is a way of life, and not a religion. They then opened it up for Q&A where some pretty interesting and controversial topics were asked.
- Doi Suthep Temple. A Theravada Buddhist temple in the hills of Chiang Mai.
Doi Suthep Temple
- Evening:
- Tha Pae (Sunday) Street Market. We ended the night at the famous Sunday street market that had pretty much everything including food and souvenirs! The whole street had to be more than a mile long!
[Day 5]
- Morning:
- Breakfast. More hotel food.
- First day of classes. We arrived to school at the start of the morning assembly where we had to go on stage and introduce ourselves in front of the students. We taught our first topic of sports which was pretty fun since we were able to do a lot of motions and demonstrations. The kids loved basketball where they got to “shoot”.
- Afternoon:
- Lunch at School. Lunch was homemade and was absolutely delicious! It was so simple, yet so authentic and home-y.
- Thai Massage at Getthawha. We got a much needed Thai massage that I didn’t exactly enjoy because it was pretty much just stretching and not applying too much pressure.
- Ban Tawai Handicraft Center. We opted out of the 3-D museum and went to the Handicraft Center instead that had a bunch of hand made stuff – a lot of it included furniture.
Ban Tawai Handicraft Center
- Evening:
- Dinner at Central Mall (again). Took a group of about 15 to the mall on this day and most people opted for McDonald’s. I, on the other hand, could not resist more authentic Thai food!
[Day 6]
- Morning:
- Second day of classes. On the second day, we presented on transportation which was not as fun as sports. The students picked up the words really quickly and we were able to teach them a couple songs to sing.
- Afternoon:
- Lunch. Another delicious lunch at school and a stop for coffee.
- Huay Tung Tao Reservoir. I literally thought we were going to picnic on a grassy area near a lake, but this place was amazing! They had huts that our group sat in and had waiters that came by. It helped that the view was also amazing!
- Evening:
- Dinner at Khaomao – Khaofang. A lot of people in our group were raving about this place and compared it to the Rainforest Cafe. While the interior was gorgeous, the food was the worst I had in Thailand. It was extremely disappointing and lackluster.
[Day 7]
- Morning/Afternoon:
- Last day of classes & English Camp. This was our last day of teaching so we went over the materials of the first couple days. In the afternoon, we had to teach 3 different groups American songs for 3 hours [insert tired emoji here]. The kids loved “We wish you a Merry Christmas”. Wrapping up, we concluded with a closing ceremony where they performed a traditional Thai dance. We also had to go on stage and show a traditional American dance – so we line danced.
- Evening:
- Farewell dinner at River Market. All of us concluded our volunteer vacation with dinner and a view. We were fed really well with a ton of variety which I obviously appreciated.
- Going out…some of us went bar/club hopping later. It was my last night so hey, why not?
[Day 8]
- Morning/Afternoon:
- Fly to Krabi. We got to go to the lounge at the airport which wasn’t that exciting.
- Check into Sea Seeker Krabi Resort. This place was walkable to pretty much everything we wanted to do and was a pretty brand new resort.
- Nap. Cuz we went out the night before…
- Evening:
- Burger King. This was the one time I gave into American food but I made sure that it was for something we couldn’t find in the US.
- Chill at the beach. We walked to the beach and simply chilled, ate our food and took pictures of the absolutely gorgeous sunset. The water was warm and the sand was soft.
[Day 9]
- Morning:
- Breakfast at Café 8.98. Got a nice hearty croissant to start my day before a day of being active.
- Kayaking. We took a guided tour and made a couple stops for caves and islands around the water. Our tour group was a lot of fun!
- Afternoon:
- Lunch. Lunch was amazing after a morning of kayaking. We had a variety of dishes to share and saw a lot of monkeys trying to eat our food.
- Snorkeling. We then headed out to another island to go snorkeling. The water was warm, but I unfortunately didn’t see that many fishes. Unfortunately, I did scrape my foot on coral so I had to sit on the beach for the rest of the time.
- Chill by the pool. After a long day of activities, we all fell asleep by the hotel pool before heading out to dinner.
- Evening:
- Dinner at Kodam Kitchen. We picked a popular spot to each one of our last Thai meals and we got to sit on the patio which had a really fun low key party vibe.
[Day 10]
- Morning:
- Breakfast at Lion and Shark. There’s not many breakfast spots in Krabi, so we opted for something somewhat healthy. This place was interesting because to get to it, we needed to climb the stairs on the side.
- Railey Beach. This beach was gorgeous and amazing! The water was so warm that I sat in there for literally 45 minutes straight!
Afternoon:
Late lunch at hotel. Got my last pad thai and it was okay. We also got a free fruity refresher from the hotel which was my favorite part of the meal.
Massage and pedicure at Massage Corner. We ended the last of our day with a final massage and a pedicure, which I really appreciated.
- Evening:
- Dinner at Saturday street market. While I was getting my massage, my friends went to go get dinner at the street market. They said it was small and not much variety.
- Souvenir shopping. As I walked back to the hotel, I browsed along the streets and got final souvenirs before going back home.
Overall, it was an extremely unforgettable trip – one of my top 3 travel experiences for sure!
No lie, i was pretty terrified of the elephants as I thought they were going to trample on me, but all they really wanted was food (I can relate…). They were pretty gentle and well behaved which made it easier to feed and bathe them.
In addition, teaching little Thai kids (grades 3-5) was extremely challenging, but so rewarding. They know a lot more English then they let on and they fought in class when we made them stand up, but I melted when they gave us hugs after teaching!
The culture, food, and country was simply amazing. I feel like we take things for granted whereas people in Thailand enjoys the simple things in life. It also helps that they have gorgeous beaches and warm waters that I couldn’t get myself out of!
