This month I had the chance to experience one of the village tours in the remote village of Tung Dap, located on the Island of Koh Prathong, with one of our guests Mandy and our translator and guide Pi-Tui. 

We left Kuraburi and made our way to the pier and took the long-tail boat out to the Island. The boat ride out the Island was amazing, the color of the leaves from the mangrove trees was bright green, glistening and shining in the early morning sun and the ocean turns from green to blue as the boat navigates through the shallow and deep waters.

Before reaching the island, we went to explore the mangrove forest and learnt about the way the local people manage the environmental conservation of this mangrove area.  We also learnt about the medicinal use of the mangroves, and learnt about many animals and crustations which live within the mangroves.  This is a natural habitat for these animals which has to be preserved to protect all the remarkable species living there.  The amazing mangrove eco-system acts as a nursery for crabs, fish and shrimp, and is well managed by the villagers, who try to minimize environmental impacts for our future generations.

After that, we met Pi-Noi and her husband Da Nong and had a delicious lunch together, freshly caught sea food……….. aroy J  After lunch we observed the traditional method to take tin out of the sand, this is a long process and very hard work. 

We also had the chance to learn how to make squid traps; it’s not as easy as it looks and it’s amazing how fast the locals weave the net.

The atmosphere of the village was very relaxing and everyone was very friendly. We were able to ask a lot of interesting questions about their culture and way of life on the island and were able to share stories and experiences between our hosts and Mandy thanks to our great translator and guide Pi-Tui. 

The cultural exchange was intense as Mandy was able to tell about her life back in Australia and what her impressions were of seeing this new culture and Pi-Noi seemed amazed to hear about Mandy’s life back in her home town and compare the way they live.

 At one point, the exchange was quiet fascinating, because Pi-Noi was talking about her experience during the 2004 tsunami and how challenging it is to be Moken in a rapidly changing world.  Moken are very proud of their life style and treasure keeping the close and important connection with the nature, I was so lucky to be part of this exchange.

Later in the day we had a unique ride through the savannah on a customized tractor a one off ingenuous invention and had some coconuts caught by Da Nong as he climbed the coconut tree right in front of the beautiful pristine beach.

After that we came back to the village and learnt how to make Thai desert with Pi-Noi. We cooked sticky rice in freshly grated coconut milk and wrapped in a banana leaf, the Thai way.

We’ve been amazed all day by the way villagers welcomed us to their village and with this beautiful landscape surrounding us.

If you like the sound of this trip, or if you would like to find out more about this program, don’t hesitate to contact us, it’s a great and unique cultural experience.

My name is Nicole Lemmo and I just started with Andaman discoveries as a Program Development and Administrative Assistant in April.  The end of March brought the completion of my two year Peace Corps service here in Thailand, but I was far from ready to leave this enchanting country.  The beautiful nature, kind people, fun language and delicious food have a hold on me. 

 I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue serving the country of Thailand through the works of Andaman Discoveries.  Learning about the many different village experiences, volunteering opportunities and nature tours has me excited to get out there and explore the North Andaman region.  Making the move down to Kuraburi from my home in Chumphon has also kept me busy. Learning the Southern Thai language, shopping at the fresh daily markets and making friends in my new community is a special added bonus. 

 I love walking to the AD office in the morning surrounded by forest covered mountains and crystal clear skies and then leaving in the evening to witness a breathtaking sunset.  I don’t think this part will ever get old!  I hope to use my past business experience and my work as a community development volunteer with the Peace Corps to help AD achieve its goals and continue to thrive. 

 Looking forward to seeing you on your next visit to Thailand!

 Thank you so much to our volunteers who took part in our projects over the last few months:  your time and dedication means so much to us.

We are currently developing new projects that will need the skills and time from volunteers over the next few months, watch this space for an up-date.

Here is a little excerpt from the feedback from one of our past volunteers :

“Hi! First of all, if you’re reading this, thank you. Thank you for giving up some of your precious time to help out on a really worthwhile cause, I know that it was so tempting to book that beach resort instead but trust me, you’re doing a good thing.

 How good that ‘good thing’ really becomes is now entirely dependent on you. But who am I to say all that? Well I, like you, volunteered in 2012 when I was 21, I did have a lot of help but still there were one or two small things that, on reflection, set me back and prevented me from really making my ‘good thing’ truly great and if I can pass on the mistakes that I made and the solutions that I found and help even just one person, then I’d feel a lot better.

  Before I even get onto teaching methods and how that’s all really going to go down, I want to talk about Kuraburi itself. As you no doubt feel right now, you’re a rather long way from home and all these unreadable signs, market stalls and strange glances from pretty much everybody isn’t helping the uneasiness. Don’t panic, that’s perfectly normal; it’s culture shock and it will take time. Probably no good right now, but I will say that although there’s nothing you can do about the signs (or the market stalls) a smile goes a very long way with the locals and once you realize that there’s nothing malicious in their curiosity, you’ll quickly start to enjoy the attention. Take it from me, I’m seriously shy but the locals seem to have this thing for different skin tones and a fondness for foreigners that landed me several charming compliments without even a Hello.”

 

Our long term friend and supporter, Rainy Lam from Hong Kong, donated a whole load of soft toys for the children at the Kuraburi Nursery and Learning center this week.  Rainy has been an avid donor, since sponsoring the education of one of the children; sending gifts and educational toys for all the children.  She has helped them understand origami (paper folding) and you will find little paper flowers and birds made by the children all over the place.

If you have unwanted toys or games we can always use them for our schools and orphanage programs; please get in touch for details on where to send.

Sawadee ka!

I am Shiori, one of the new interns at Andaman Discoveries.  I joined the team at the beginning of February, and I will be here for another 5 months. It is unbelievable how fast my days have gone by since arriving here.  It’s been great fun and I am enjoying working with the team and with the community projects.

This internship is part of my bachelor degree of International Tourism and Consultancy at NHTV in the Netherlands.  I chose to come here because I’ve been interested in working on Community-Based Tourism and such projects for the last few years, Andaman Discoveries is working on projects which I’ve been keen to be involved with.  

I am in charge of client communications and coordinating volunteers who come to help our projects.  I am also here to do destination research for my study.  I do hope to be able to contribute my experiences and knowledge gained from my studies and gain more experiences and expand my network during my stay.

If you have not been to Thailand or the Andaman region, I do recommend you visit us and explore this beautiful and exotic area! 

My colleague, Jennifer who is working on our Newsletter and social media up-dates, will keep you posted about us, our volunteers and guests and of course our projects!

Our first installation for the project was in Ban Chimee for 60 drip filters, and Bang Lampu for 65 drip filters on 19^th February 2012. Many villages in Thailand don’t have access to water and it usually comes from polluted sources. As there’s no access to electricity, usual water filtration systems are not practical. The villagers also use rainwater stored in tanks for drinking water then boil or filter but it often runs out during the dry season.

 

The Drip Filter is a ceramic system, and a low cost alternative to provide these families with bacteria and pollution free drinking water, they can have a local drinking water instead of buying bottles of water from the mainland.

We are very active in the communities and have a long relationship with the RCoPB through other projects and have the capability to follow up and make sure the Drip Filters are properly used and maintained thanks to our social network.

 

For this second installation we carried 31 drip filters for more than a 100 people, and it was very interesting to be part of this project to make sure everything was going well and also see the cooperation between the villagers (Andaman Discoveries) and the Rotary Club of Patong Beach.

On the 17th of March, we also assembled a total of 64 drip filters and gave instructions to the Moken and Thai families on the island of Koh Phratong and in the remote villages of Tung Dap and Ban Lions, on how to best use the filter.

This month I had the chance to experience the beautiful “Village by the Sea” Tour organized by Andaman Discoveries with our wonderful translator Pi-Tui and guide Hem in Deh’s lovely homestay. This was part of the trip for two French guests we hosted “Frederic and Rozen”. They spent two days and one night discovering the way of life in the village of Ban Talae Nok and experienced the cultural activities with the locals. During our time there, we were able to enjoy the delicious southern Thai meals with our host family; every day there was a delicious array of dishes presented Thai style of course.

When arriving to the village we had a walk through the community and learnt about the history of the village, and what happened during and after the tsunami and saw how they rebuilt the village in a nice and respectful way doing their best to respect the nature of the area.

After enjoying a relaxing break on the hammocks and a walk through the beautiful village, we learnt about the batik technique of hand-dyeing fabrics by using designs drawn in wax. It was very interesting and enjoyable to have time for drawing.  It was nice to feel like the old days when we used to have time for this kind of leisure, and discovering this kind of art.  I was able to keep my “creation” as a nice souvenir and it hangs with pride on my wall.

After this relaxing and fun activity, we went fishing with two local fishermen who taught us how to manage the fishing net. We all went into the water together while trying to keep the net down, so the fishes did not escape. Then we had a barbecue on the beach cooking the fish that we caught; it’s amazing to have dinner with food that you actually catch yourself from the sea. I now understand why fishermen are proud of their life style; it was such a great experience. I will never forget the environment and the landscape surrounding us and the unforgettable colors of the sunset.

Later we were shown how to cook local Thai food with the host family; it’s very interesting and I hope to do it back home for my friends and my family and the result was great and delicious. We had fried fish, shrimps in curry, and vegetables in a coconut soup that we just freshly grated.

I could only stay in the village for one day and one night, so I couldn’t experience the mangrove tour in long-tail boat, and the hand-crafted soap making workshop. But Rozen and Frederic had very positive feedback from this experience.  They wanted to discover the cultural part of Thailand and they have been amazed by the simplicity and the kindness of the family homestay, and also by the way they live in harmony with the nature.