I arrived in Siam Reap last night at around 5:30pm. It rained all day and I forgot to bring my rain jacket with me so I was pretty much stuck in the hotel. I’ll be heading to Phom Penh in an hour and half, and I think once I get my visa I’ll come back to Siam Reap and check out Angkor Wat.

I’ll put up some pictures once I reach the hostel in Phnom Penh.

Off to Cambodia! Be back in a week and I promise I’ll put some pictures up.

The Golden Temple

I just got my camera’s USB cable in, and I’ll be putting up pictures on my day off. Sorry for not updating more often, but expect pictures and the like very soon!

It was my day off yesterday, and so the kiwi and I took advantage of having a motorbike available to us this week to jet off into the jungle.

We drove over the concrete bridge opposite the old wooden bridge (which looks rickety as hell, but it’s actually quite stable) and into the Mon side of Sangklahburi. To clear things up for everyone, Sangklahburi is divided into two sections separated by a river and connected by two bridges. I live on the Thai side, where most of the Thai people live. Across the river is the Mon side which is home to the Mon people who come from Burma.

Anyways, we drove into the jungle and hills on the Mon side. The concrete roads soon became dirt roads, and it was all really muddy and what not and we almost fell once, but other than that everything was cool. The Mon side is a little bit more rural than the Thai side. We had no map so whenever we hit a fork in the road we’d just pick the road that seemed to lead to somewhere interesting.

One of these roads led us into what  I believe is Thailand’s very own Neverland. The sign leading to the road led right into jungle. It read “Ba Thap Phum Arts Home” or something along those lines. As we were riding in I saw a bunch of little kids the dirt road playing with these little dradle things. They looked at us and seemed confused, but then they smiled and said hello in Thai and followed us in.  From what I could tell, it was a Children’s home similar to Baan Unrak but hidden in the jungle.

We walked around the compound and saw that it was equipped with a dining area, a shop that sold homemade clothes, a man made lake, and some other buildings that I can only assume were dorms. The cool thing was that the place seemed to be  infused with the trees and the plants. They literally lived in the jungle. I’ll put some pictures up later on. Anyways, the most interesting part of all this for me was for the two hours we were there, all we saw were kids. Small, little children running around playing with dradles. There were three or four older children who couldn’t have been older than 15, and they were kind enough to cook us up some food.

I did see one adult in the end…but only one!!!

That’s it for now. The USB is on its way so I will have pictures up soon!

A few people have asked me to describe a typical day at Baan Unrak.

I wake up at around 7. If I feel like it, I take a shower.  I walk over to the house at around 8 and grab some breakfast. Then it’s off to the office to check some email. I’ve got different things to do on different days. Right now, my main job is to polish the sponsorship cards and to send them out. A little mundane and monotonous but it has given me a chance to get familiar with the children’s names. All the volunteers are working on setting up a book shop at the Baan Unrak restaurant in the village. The volunteer in charge of that project is trying to find companies that will give us a discounted price for books. I teach English to the nursery school teacher, Malek, on Tuesdays and Fridays. I’ve had to teach computer classes because the computer teacher here got fired last week. We’re going to be making movies and learning how to edit them (JG, I need some tips…). I’ve also been given the task of trying to find a scholarships and an affordable online university for one of the caremothers here, a 22 year old Burmese refugee who I think came to the house sometime last year. If anyone has any tips or advice on that,  speak up!

There is an animal sanctuary at the Baan Unrak School, and it’s infested with dogs. A lot of them are disabled. The volunteers in charge of feeding them ran off last week, and so me and another volunteer have to feed them everyday. Just to make everyone reading this feel super depressed, there is a dog that can only use one of its legs (it sort of just crawls around the ground), there are a few blind dogs, a few dogs with mental illnesses, and one dog with epilepsy who seems normal but she just hangs out in one of the washrooms. It sort of dampens my mood, but we’re only doing it until the woman in charge of the animal sanctuary gets back.

So sorry Doug, no fence building yet. As you can see, it’s nothing too hectic right now. The main thing we will be preparing for is the camp program that’s happening in October when the kids have a month off of school.

Still waiting on the USB for my camera. I had my day off yesterday and went out to the sunken temple on the lake which is accessible at the moment because the government drained the lake in order to do some work on the wooden bridge.

…should have lost.

I would not have been able to even think about coming to Thailand were it not for Ali Morin. Ali, thank you for casually mentioning Baan Unrak and it’s volunteer opportunities, for your advice, your support and your backpack. If I find Naughty Boy, I will most certainly tell him you said hello.

Many people were also kind enough to send me donations, but I would particularly like to thank my uncle, aunt, and grandmother, who donated generously. This sort of sounds like an oscar acceptance speech.

Rob Kennedy, Carlucci De Santos, Penny, and Paul Derksen, thank you thank thank you.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents who were always ready to lend out a helping hand. And I suppose my sister too.

This is Paul’s new project idea and he needs some help to get it up and running. It would be wonderful if you could give it a read and spread the word. Thank you!

I’m working for a non-profit organisation called Baan Unrak in Sangklaburi (North west of Bangkok on the Burma border). Baan Unrak is a home and outreach centre for Burmese refugee children and single mothers displaced by conflict and other various reasons. The home was started 20 years ago with 3 children and now supports 130 as well as single mothers, a few permanent workers and volunteers who come to help with what they can. Please visit our website for more information http://www.baanunrak.org/

What is achieved at Baan Unrak is mostly the result of donations and other financial support from kind sponsors around the world. Along with this financial assistance, Baan Unrak has established a couple of self sustaining business enterprises, such as a weaving and sewing centre and a bakery/internet cafe/clothes shop (selling the garments made by us), both of which provide additional income for aid in the care and welfare of everyone housed and fed under Baan Unrak’s roof.

We’ve identified a great opportunity in which to establish an additional source of income, if only small, to help fund the organisation and we’re hoping you may be happy to assist us. As already mentioned we have an established bakery/internet cafe/clothes shop located in the village which backpackers to the area often frequent. Its popular because they understand that all profit goes directly into the care and welfare of the children at Baan Unrak. What is missing in the shop is a few shelves on the wall offering books for sale to these backpackers and indeed anyone else seeking a good read. We need to raise enough money to purchase the first consignment/supply of books from our supplier and from there get the project up and running – this is where you can help! If you would like to help out and donate to this project please follow this link to donate http://www.baanunrak.org/donatepp.html Even a small donation would help enormously! There is no other major book seller in town so we’d like to jump on this opportunity was quickly as possible but require the funds to do so.

To give you an idea of the money we need for the 100 books we’re hoping for to kick this project off:

100 books @ 200 Baht each = 20,000 Baht (US$616, NZ$892, CAD$636, EU511, UK423)

Thanks for your time and consideration of this project.

Paul Nairn

Development Projects Manager at Baan Unrak

Sangklahburi, Thailand