Asian Adventure

Asian Adventure

At a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of South Foreland members heard from students Zak Wills and Sam Jones about their World Challenge Adventure to Thailand and Laos last year.  Preparations began in 2017 after a visit from the travel company to Dover Grammar School for Boys.  After- school planning sessions were followed by various fundraising events, such as a race night, fashion show and quiz, to raise the daunting sum of £4,000 needed for each student.  This was finally achieved and a group of seven students, two teachers with a leader from the company, set out on the 9,800 mile flight to Bankok.

After a few hectic days in this busy capital, acclimatising, sightseeing and sorting responsibilities, the group travelled to the Khao Yai National Park in central Thailand.  Here they planned trekking and sightseeing in this area of grassland, forest and waterfalls.  There were close encounters with monkeys and deer which were attracted to the food and tents in camp.

Then it was back to Bankok to take a modern overnight train to Chiang Mai in the north where they visited temples and found out about the Buddhist way of life from a monk.  Put simply: don’t worry about the past or future but live in the present.  They also had cooking classes and learnt more about Thai culture.

A day’s coach journey then took the group to the border with Laos where excitement grew at the prospect of a two day boat trip but this proved to be boring.  Next came the charity aspect of their trip which involved a travelling by boat and then a trek through the jungle to one of the many isolated villages in Laos.  This village had no electricity, and running water only for the past five years so the group experienced living in fairly primitive conditions.  Their task was to build a workshop in the village for the development of traditional and sustainable skills, such as making fishing nets.  The foundations were dug and building began but the monsoon rains arrived and it was impossible to complete the work, so the group headed back or they could have been stranded in the village by flooding.

Their final visit was to Luang Prabang in northern Laos, the former capital city situated near the Mekong river; this was a great contrast to rural village life.  Here they visited the War Museum and learned of the city being bombed by the Viet Kong in the Vietnam War.  They saw bears in an animal sanctuary and elephants close up in a nature park, as well as visiting local waterfalls and going swimming.  With money left at the end of the trip they were able to treat themselves, such as visiting good restaurants.

Best memories of the trip for Zak and Sam were the natural beauty of the two countries, the temples, seeing the elephants and the cooking classes.  What was difficult was the stress of the first few days and all the necessary planning, but getting to the end of the trip without any serious mishaps was an achievement. The trip was a valuable learning experience, widening their horizons and developing life skills. They leant much about the culture and way of life of Thailand and Laos; they had to work as a team and use their initiative; they had to develop planning and budgeting skills. Both would like to travel the world at some time in the future.  They were warmly thanked for an interesting presentation which was delivered with humour.