Between 11 – 20 January Traidhos’ Visiting Schools Program was fortunate to host Khartoum International Community School for an outdoor adventure experience trip.
During this trip, the thirty-two students took part in many activities, including kayaking across Mae Ngat Dam for an overnight stay in a houseboat, a brief mountain bike ride, rock climbing, and a zip wire experience with Eagle Track.
The trip was filled with good spirits throughout, with students and teachers creating a fantastic atmosphere that stayed with the group throughout.
In addition to the adventure experiences, the group took part in a day of community service, helping to build a new kitchen for a school located in Huay Pra Jao village, of the Karen hill tribe, in Mae Tang. The community service saw the students and teachers mixing cement, levelling the ground for a floor, rendering built walls and moving support pillars for the new room. It was an amazing experience for students and teachers, and the positive attitudes could be easily seen by all, turning a day of hard work into an enjoyable event.
The community service project was accompanied by two nights at the Mae Tang campsite, which served as the departure point for the Elephant Nature Park. Here, the students were taught about the history of the Thai people’s interaction with the Asian elephant and the unfortunate cruelty that worked its way into the practice. The group also had the chance to feed and wash the elephants that had been taken into this sanctuary and to experience working with one of the world’s most magnificent, yet endangered species.
The Mae Tang camp was used twice on this trip: on the second occasion the camp was the base for the bamboo rafting and jungle trek activity. The rafting was a two-day activity that saw the students construct their own rafts in a traditional way using only bamboo, and dock them in the river. The jungle trek took place the following morning and saw the group traverse through the hills near the camp site, for just over an hour. The rafting activity started that afternoon, with the students learning how to steer these traditional water vessels down the river, again using only bamboo.
The final two days of this grand trip involved rock climbing and zip wiring, both of which the students found phenomenal, with some braving the experiences and overcoming their fear of heights. In Traidhos tradition, the group was treated to a khantoke dinner to round-off their trip, with traditional dances, lantern releasing and a fireworks display to accompany it. Overall, the students were fantastic and had a trip of a lifetime, many saying they would love to repeat it.
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