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Over two years ago we started the preliminary plans for an Independent International trip to Thailand. We lovingly named it "Thailand, the trip of a lifetime" having no idea that this is exactly what it would become.
Seven of us went on this adventure and from the moment we landed we were looked after and treated with great care and respect by our sisters in Guiding. While in Bangkok we stayed at Girl Guide Headquarters and were escorted around by "O" our tour guide/guider. We experienced a Thai welcoming dinner, traveled to the Bridge of the River Kwai, visited the Golden Palace, the Crocodile Farm/zoo (where some of us ate crocodile) and traveled by boat, train and tuk tuks. We journeyed north to Chiang Mia and stayed at the Girl Guides facilities there. We were welcomed there with a wonderful "welcome lunch". While in Chiang Mia we visited an Elephant camp where they take elephants that use to be used for logging and now use them for educating the public about these majestic animals and of course we went on an elephant 'safari'.
We had the honor of spending time with a distant relative of the Royal family including a visit to a guiders home to meet her family. Some of the Guiders took us out for an evening to experience Thai dancing, music and food. What glorious colors and sounds! We visited our first school here and were very surprised to find approximately 150 Bluebirds waiting for us. We had wrongly assumed a group would be similar to a unit and we were expecting about 30 girls. We quickly re-grouped and had so much fun with them, singing songs and playing games. In Chiang Mia we had our first experience with the night market. What an experience it was!
We then traveled to Mae Sot where we visited many different schools, a medical center and the largest refugee camp in Thailand, nearly 50,000 refugees, mostly from Burma. This was a sobering, but very spiritual experience for each of us in our own way. We were honored to have been allowed to visit Mae La. While we were in Mae Sot we stayed at John's church (Jennifer McGregor-Greer's fiancé) and he introduced us to Father John. Between the two of them they took us places and showed us things that would not have been possible for us otherwise. Father John took us across the Friendship Bridge to Burma where we saw some very unsettling sights, but amongst that we found a beautiful Buddhist temple high atop a hill. John and Father John took us to Father John's mission in the hills were we had a Thai style bbq (like a fondue), some children from one of the local hill tribes preformed for us and we sang karaoke with Father John. There we were surrounded by lush green jungle, high on a hill singing karaoke. A moment you couldn't have dreamt up. We had many moments like that. At John's church where he teaches the kids "school" during the day, we held a "late" Canada Day party. We colored, played games, did crafts and singing. We gave out stickers, pins, balloons and Girl Guide Cookies that we packed all the way there! We helped serve lunch to the kids (and families) after school, for some of them it will be the only meal that they eat that day. After school, many of the children go to the market to pick up garbage (bottles and cardboard) to sell for money. We experienced real Thai markets while in Mae Sot, the sounds, the sights and the smells were certainly very different to what we see in a market here.
After Mae Sot we traveled to Ko Samui, a small island where we stayed at a nice resort on Chaweng Beach. We spent our last few days here, thinking we would really enjoy the 'down time', but what we really found out was that we missed the Thai people. At the resort, we found there were too many tourists and that we had really preferred the company or our Thai friends. While on Ko Samui, we had several great adventures, we went snorkeling and saw some beautiful tropical fish and coral. While snorkeling in this amazing place, we all said our promise, re-affirming our belief in the Sisterhood of Guiding. We traveled to Anthong Marine Park for a bit of exploring and played beach volleyball will travelers from many other countries..and we saw Lemurs and hiked up to an inland salt water lake. We visited a high school on Ko Samui and we were once again treated like royalty.
Then it was back to Bangkok for one last night before our flight home. On our last night we were very brave and ventured out on the sky train to one last market! Up bright and early for our flight to Japan to make our connecting flight home to Vancouver! While on our lay over in Japan they had an earthquake, magnitude 6! That was enough for us.
Thailand was truly the trip of a lifetime. Everyone we met in and out of Guiding was so kind and caring. We would encourage anyone to travel there and experience "Thailand, the trip of a lifetime".
Submitted by Chris Federici, Mid-Island Area International Adviser
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