Unforgettable experience, highly recommended!

3 week Thailand experience August-September (before going to Cambodia with gapguru for 2 weeks, then solo travels across Asia):

From the moment we arrived me and my boyfriend felt very welcome and very supported from the staff living in Thailand. We were collected from the airport and quickly settled into life in the volunteer house in Doi Saket (a lovely town around 45 minutes outside Chiang Mai in northern Thailand - if you are using songthaews, the local busses or tuk tuks).

Our first week consisted of exploration around the local area (including the swimming pool, umbrella factory, ceramics factory, and markets) and teaching English to novice Buddhist monks in two local wats (temples). This included daily lessons to between 1-11(ish) children of varying ages/abilities (mostly different classes every day) and then evening classes (with the same group of novice monks each night). Our transportation to and from the lessons was pre-arranged for us and we found the experience thoroughly enriching and enjoyable (especially as we were both quite nervous about teaching and as I had never done this before!). The novice monks were always very enthusiastic and excited to learn. There was obviously some lesson planning to be done on our behalf but the staff working out in Thailand gave us some ideas and also explained what had previously been covered by volunteers (so as not to repeat too much).

Our second week was spent at the elephant sanctuary in the hills around Chiang Mai. We lived, ate and worked for 7 days here (and as there was a dog shelter here too we spent a lot of time there as well as with the elephants which is something I really would encourage others to do too as they need as many volunteers as they can get - 400 dogs there need a lot of love!) The work included clearing out elephant shelters, planting bamboo trees, preparing food and washing the elephants (amongst other things). I learnt so much about elephants and their treatment in the tourist industry which was eye opening and I have not been able to stop talking about my experience here since. The food was fantastic, the staff were all very friendly and as there are a large number of volunteers here you are likely to make some very good friends! I could gush for a long time about this place so I will move on. . . but I must say be prepared for spiders and snakes and bats and bugs!

Our last week was spent exploring the local Doi Saket/Chiang Mai area again (including local bars) and we spent 2 nights in a hill tribe near the border of Myanmar. It took us around 5 hours in the minibus to get there and then around 1 1/2 hours on the back of a pick up truck after that to arrive at the hill tribe. It was a brilliant journey as we got to see a lot of untouched Thailand and saw stunning vistas (it was great seeing parts of the country which had not yet been invaded by tourism). We stayed with the family of one of the lovely lady's working with Gapguru. We met many families and teachers living in and out of Bapea (I probably did not spell this correctly!) who were all incredibly friendly (especially as some of them spoke no english at all and our Thai was very limited). The food was amazing and we spent time trekking around the rice fields (which did include getting attacked by quite a few hungry leeches!) We also spent a rather hilarious evening sipping rice wine and singing kareoke in a nursey classroom we could barely stand up in. All in all providing some memories I will look back on very fondly. The journey home was a little longer as we had to take a local bus (no air con and a very crowded and bumpy journey) which was quite an experience! Also, make sure you have your passport on you with long journeys like this as immigration control may sometimes ask you to produce it!

If you are looking to help others, experience something new and exciting (knowing that you will be supported thoroughly whilst there) and just want to meet interesting and friendly people then I would strongly encourage you to take this trip to Thailand. The staff out there are very helpful and plans are very flexible once you are out there so don't worry, you don't need to have your plan set in stone as to what you want to do before you get there! Enjoy travelling :)