We had our orientation day the day after we arrived in Chiang Mai. It was great catching up with shellie our co-ordinator. We had an informal meeting about our volunteer
placements and our expectations for the next eight weeks. Shellie explained Thai culture and traditions with us which is so important as Thai people have very different customs than western people.
Afterwards we headed out to taste the infamous Thai street food, my tastebuds went into shock as the spices hit the back of my throat, there was so many different tastes wrapped up in one meal sticky rice and papaya salad is one to remember. We decided to take a songthaew to Wat Chedi Luang temple the oldest in Chiang Mai. By the way a songthaew is a Thai taxi which is an eyecatcing colourful red truck.
The temple was beautiful and the atmosphere created by the monks chanting was an unforgettable experience. Next up Thai language class which I found to be difficult and interesting as a lot of Thai words are spelt the same but have different meanings when the tone of your voice is different, knowing me and languages I’m sure to get the tones mixed up.
The following day I began volunteering in The Wildflower Home which I will go into detail in my next blog.
