So you want to Volunteer? A how-to guide for volunteering in Thailand

Our time at Baan Dada has been one of the highlights on our trip and is highly recommended. Giving something back to the less privileged is a great part of travelling and will show you the real Country (in our case Thailand) you stay in. Nevertheless, there are several factors to consider before you start volunteering. During our three-week stay we had two volunteers leaving after three days as they couldn’t cope with the circumstances. This doesn’t just make it difficult for the organization, but especially for the children you want to help.

Hard work is a part of volunteering

 Volunteering is not a holiday

This is not a five-star hotel. You sweat, you stink, your back will hurt and the only available shower may be a bucket. You are in a different country, so there may just be a squatting toilet (and NEVER flush the toilet paper, it belongs in a separate bin). We were lucky to have a western toilet, but there was no flush, so you had to use the bucket.

Toilet and shower for your time being at the orphanage

At the start we had a warm shower, but there were problems with the water connection, so the last two weeks we had to shower with cold water straight out of a bucket. On some days there wasn’t even running water at all at the volunteer house.
The volunteer room was basic with a thin matt (my back hated me for a week), a fan and a mosquito net. No luxuries but doable for the time being. There were bugs and mosquitos everywhere, one of the reason why one volunteer left early.
Obviously you get traditional food, in our case vegetarian Thai food which we loved. Eating rice three times a day became a little bit too much for me in the end and I bought some corn flakes at the local seven eleven 20 minutes away and some milk.

If you give it a go, you will get a great reward

 Be proactive

Some of the volunteers were bored during their time at the orphanage. The kids went to school over the day and there wasn’t a lot to do (in their eyes). Don’t expect anyone to hold your hand guiding you along. This is about what is best for the children, not you. Try to find a task yourself. There is always something to do, especially labour work. Welding, building new toys, painting, office work, the list is endless. If you have a special skill, use it. I work in PR so I created a media kit for donations. If you are good at IT help with the website and so on.
If you cant find anything to do, ask the volunteer coordinator. They will find a job for you.

Working, working, working

 Consider how long you stay

At Baan Dada you have to stay for at least a week. We were there for three and considered that a short amount. It is hard to change anything in 21 days, but seven seems even harder. It takes the kids a week to get used to you and it will take you a week to get used to your new environment. After a week you know the schedule and get used to teaching English. Try to stay as long as possible to get the best out of your experience. It is definitely worth it.

Fun with other volunteers

 I hope the above tips will help you and wont scare you off. Volunteering is a great experience  which will change your point of view completely.

Travel Diary: Trips in Burma

Exploring cities and sights on a backpacker budget is of course the best option, but often you have to book some tours as well to enjoy and experience the country you are in.
Below are my recommendations for each city we have visited on our trip trough Burma. We often negotiated the price, but were always happy with what we paid. I probably could have paid less at some place, but I felt that the below prices are fair for what we received. We just did some sightseeing in Yangon. If not stated otherwise, all prices are payable in local currency.

 Kyaiktio

Enjoy the Golden Rock

Return ticket to the Golden Rock $5 pp
Entry to the Golden Rock $6 

Bago

One of the impressive Pagodas in Bago

Scooter trip around town $20 for two
This was for a four-hour scooter trip including two guides. They were driving us around town and we didn’t have to pay any further entries at the sights as they got us into back exits. They also stored our luggage at the bus stop office and transported it back to the train station. They approached us at the bus stop.

 Mandalay

Get a bike and start exploring the city

Bike hire $1 pp for the whole day, can be organised everywhere around town
Boat trip to Bagan $40 pp
This included breakfast with different pastries, bread and banana and lunch (fried rice or noodles). You can book your tickets at your hotel, but it is cheaper to book them straight at the wharf.

 Bagan

Exploring Bagan with a horse

Entry to Bagan is $10 (in US notes) and has to be paid by each tourist
Bike hire $1.50 pp for the whole day, ask your guest house
Horse carridge $18 from 9 am till sunset, ask your guest house
Your guide will ride you around old Bagan till sunset and drop you off at your hotel

 Kalaw !!!Highlight!!!

Our friendly hosts

Three day hike $36 pp
This included guide, accompanying chef, food, accommodation, luggage transport and boat over Inle Lake. We booked with Sam’ Trekking Guide. He has a shop on the main road.

 Inle Lake

Beautiful sunset at Inle Lake

Entry to Inle Lake $15 (in US Notes), has to be paid by each tourist
Bike hire $1.5 pp for the whole day, can be booked everywhere in town
Boat hire $23 for two
We had a boat from 8 am till sunset and stopped at all the important sights on the way. We visited handicraft markets, craft shops, different pagodas, temples and monasteries  Highlight is the sunset, so be sure to ask for it when you book your tour. Ask your hotel, one of the many agencies or a fisherman directly.

Travel Diary Burma: Mandalay to Bagan

As mentioned beforehand, we didn’t arrived in the best condition in Mandalay. I was tired and grumpy and the weather didn’t help to light up my mood. The cab driver wanted $6 dollar for the short trip to our preferred hotel, so we decided to walk trough the rain. Completely soaked we arrived and where lucky enough to get a room. We dumped our luggage, got the rain coats out and started exploring Mandalay.
I wasn’t to impressed by the city, but bad weather and a lack of sleep can make the most beautiful place dumb and boring.

View from Mandalay Hill

 

It is pretty easy to get around town as all the streets are labeled in numbers. You normally have to pay $10 for a ticket covering the main sights of the city, but no one approached us. We visited some monestries, Buddha statues and pagodas and decided to have an early night hoping for better weather. The first hot shower since Yangon felt like heaven after being completely wet.

Entry to Mandalay Hill

We where lucky the next day as it was overcast, but no rain, so we decided to get some bikes and explore the surroundings of Mandalay. Riding a bike was an adventure itself. The city has nearly one million inhabitants, but just a handful of traffic lights. We just decided to do it as the locals do and ride whenever a motorcycle or car on our street drove. Lucky enough we survived the ride and it was a lot of fun.

Monks lining up for lunch

It took us around 45 min (and a lot of asking around) before we arrived in Amarapura, the city of Immortality. We visited the Gamayon Kyaung Monestry, famous for its 10.30 lunch. Hundreds of monks are lining up to be served food, their last meal of the day.

Beautiful U Nein´s Bridge

Afterwards we went to the famous U Bein´s Bridge, with 1.2 kms the world´s longest teak bridge and an impressive 200 years old. Sadly, you get hassled by people trying to sell you souvenirs all the way. Still a beautiful sight and definitely worth the ride.

We returned to Mandalay and rode around the river, ready to buy our tickets for the boat to Bagan the next morning. As the weather still wasn’t perfect we wondered if it would be worth the money as the bus was a lot cheaper and quicker, but decided to give it a go as we have just heard good things about it.

Get a bike and explore the city

As the weather was still holding up, we cycled around the Palace to Mandalay Hill, a 45 minute barefoot hike up the hill trough temples and pagodas. We had a great view over the city and just got lucky as it started to rain the moment we arrived on top. Thank God the walk is covered and we returned back to our bikes and to the hotel.
We spend the night at the Skydeck bar, the only proper bar in town on a two storey house. We were the only customers and enjoyed $2 cocktails and a not spectacular view over the city. Going out in Mandalay is defintley not on top of my list, but we still had a great night.

Our ship to Bagan

As our boat left at 630 am we went to bed early once again packing our bags. Our hotel arranged our pick up after a long discussion about our bill. We paid when we arrived, but didn’t ask for a recite. Lesson learned! Luckily we didn’t had to pay again in the end and were able to start the next leg of our trip.

Beautiful scenery along the way

The weather was beautiful that morning and our boat was nice with a comfortable outside sitting area. We enjoyed a nice breakfast on board, beautiful landscapes and pagodas and I was able to catch up on some sleep. After nine hours we finally arrived in Bagan

Travel Diary Burma: From Yangon To Mandalay

We took an early flight with Air Asia from Bangkok to Yangon and got picked up by our guesthouse. The room was nice with aircon and a warm shower, the last for the coming three days (little did we know…) We started the day exploring the city and trying to get some of the local currency Kyat. We have heard beforehand that your best bet is on the black market, but twice the dealers tried to trick us. Third time lucky we got our first 970,000 kyat (100 US$).

Be kind to tourists signs can be found everywhere around the country

The heat that day was unbelievable. We went to the train station to buy our tickets for the Golden Rock and had to wait nearly for an hour for our tickets. The sellers got us into their office and we had to sit down and wait. My bet is that they were fascinated by us as they still haven’t many tourists in Yangon. Everywhere on the street I received lots of stares because of my hair 🙂
Yangon itself wasn’t spectacular and we were glad to leave early the next day. The train ride was an adventure itself. First it is REALLY slow and second it is so bumpy that we were all jumping around like crazy. A lot of fun.

Train ride

We arrived in Kyaiktio after five hours and took a pick up truck to town. We hadn’t bothered to book any accommodation and got approached at the bus stop by two hotel owners. We choose the cheaper option, a double room with fan and a bathroom with a cold shower. Unfortunately the whole room smelled like paint which we realized once the rain settled in. Not the best, but doable for a night.

No proper streets

 

Our plan was to walk up to the rock, but as it was already three o’clock and we had to walk for around 5 hours we opted for the truck and decided to walk down the hill.
Transport is an adventure every time in Burma. We were seated with approx. 50 other tourists (most Asian) and drove up the windy road in full speed.

50 other tourists and us on the way to the Golden Rock

At the top we were able to take some pictures before the rain settled in. The golden Rock itself is really spectacular. It sits half on the cliff and looks like it will fall off every second. It contains a hair of Buddha and just men are allowed to go the last 200m to the rock and touch it.

The beautiful Golden Rock

The rain didn’t stop and we had to get the truck back down. After five minutes they stopped and we all had to get out of the truck. It was pissing down with rain and we were standing in the middle of nowhere, no idea what was about to happen. No one was answering our questions, so we had to wait for half an hour.  A truck came and picked up all the Asian tourists so that it was just Ryan, me and three other Europeans. Thank God another truck arrived five minutes later and took us down. It was raining, there was no light, the street was curvy and the driver was going down the hill with full speed…

Thank God we arrived safely and were able to take the bus to Bago the next morning. We arrived around lunchtime and booked a tour around the town. We had around five hours before our train departed (so the plan…)

exams about the Buddha language

 

The tour was great:

Bago’s lying Buddha

 

We were sitting on the back of scooters, visited pagodas, the traditional Burmese temples, monasteries, a big Buddha, a cigar factory and even saw a 120 year old holy snake which was massive.

The 120 years old holy snake

In the cigar factory one of the women applied the traditional Burmese sunscreen on my face. They take a piece of wood and rub it against a stone with some water till it creates a white paste.

with the traditional sunscreen

We returned to the train station, as our plan was to get the overnight train to Mandalay. Buying a ticket wasn’t as easy as you may think. As the train left in Yangon no one knew if there would be any sleepers available before the train departed Yangon. We could have taken the cheaper bus but the overnight train ride was on top of our list and we had to wait. There are no computers for booking. One man was sitting in front of five telephones, which connected him to all the train stations. Lucky enough we got our tickets at five just to find out that the train wouldn’t arrive before seven. Waiting wasn’t too bad as all the locals were really nice to us and we had great chats with them.

hanging out with the locals

We shared our four-bed department with three monks, which was an interesting start of the journey as they were really nice and eager to talk. Unfortunately they got kicked out of the department by a Burmese family, which must have paid more for the tickets. Ryan and I had the two bottom beds booked but the family refused to give us Ryan’s bed and he had to sleep in the upper bed. The train ride itself was interesting. We didn’t sleep a lot as the train horn was blowing nonstop and the tracks were really bumpy again. Poor Ryan was up in the air by 10 cm more then once. Nevertheless, it was a great adventure we don’t want to miss as you see beautiful landscapes and village life at its best.

Beautiful landscape on the way to Mandalay

After 14 hours we arrived in Mandalay, tired, without accommodation and once again rain pouring down at us…

Travel diary Burma:quick update

We are currently in beautiful bagan but have some internet problems. As. Soon as it works properly again i will update you on our trip 🙂

Travel Diary: How to get US Dollars for Burma and Kyat in Burma

As I have said beforehand, there is a little bit of preparation involved when travelling to Burma. One of the other things you have to consider is your cash.

It is not possible to exchange Burmese Kyat outside of Burma. Your credit card wont help you either as there is just a limited number of ATMs available, most of them costing you 12% in commission. Western tourists have to pay most things like hotels, entries and train/bus tickets in US Dollars.
unfortunately Dollar isn’t dollar: The notes have to be absolutely clean and crisp, NEVER bend them over. When you exchange them take care that the serial number is after 2006 and I can’t stress enough how important it is to check each note for stains.

You need US Dollars…

Many exchange places in Bangkok wont give you dollars for Burma as it is such a hassle. We went to the Au Thong Travels close to Khao San Road. Walk to the end of the street where MC Donalds is and the police cars are parked and turn right. Walk till you see a big yellow bank on the left hand side and turn right and head down the street opposite the bank. after approx 200m you will find the agency on your right hand side. If possible go there the day beforehand and let them know how much you will need. They will ask for a 1000 Baht deposit and already give you some dollars in exchange.

To get lots of Kyat

Once in Burma you have to change your dollars into Kyat. We did that on the black market. You will get approached wherever you go, but it took us three times till we finally exchanged money. At the moment you will get around 1000 Kyat for one dollar. Always count the money yourself and don’t let the dealer hold it afterwards. Twice they rejected our 100 note and took the Kyat back. They then changed their mind and wanted the deal to go ahead again but we were not allowed to count the notes again. If you want to exchange money on the black market tell them straight away that you are the ONLY ONE holding the money, don’t even give it back for them putting a rubber band around it!

 

Travel Diary: How to get a visa for Burma

Travelling to Burma isn’t as difficult as it may sound. Even though it is a relatively unexplored South East Asian Country (compared to the others) some tourists may be put off by all the preparations beforehand. Easy peasy if you do your research and invest a little bit of time:

You have to apply for a visa before you enter the country. There are two alternatives:
1. Apply for a visa at the Myanmar embassy in your home country
2. Apply for a visa once you are in Bangkok

We took option two. I didn’t want to send my passport away (as in option one) and I have heard it can take a while to receive your visa. Additionally to the visa costs you have to pay for the insured mail to send over your documentation.

 

The embassy in bangkok is open between 9 am and 12 noon for visa applications. Bring two passport pictures, a copy of your passport, your plane ticket (foreigners HAVE to enter the country via plane), passport and the address of your first hotel with you. There will probably already be a line, but you can go straight to the counter pick up the documents you have to fill out and join the queue. Once it is your turn to hand over the documents and your passport you have to choose when you want to pick up your visa. There are three options:

1. Same day around 1260 Baht
2. Next day around 1000 Baht
3. Two days around 800 Baht

You will receive a number and have to sit down again. Once they call your number, you pay the fee and can leave.
Pick up time for the visa is between 3pm and 430 pm. If you have the same day visa option you can go straight to the counter and pick up your passport.

the address is
Train Station : Surasak
132, Sathorn Nua Road,
BANGKOK 10500