Many people volunteer abroad in Thailand for their holidays for a number of different reasons, although one of them is the mystery that Thailand seems to possess. Volunteering to work abroad in Thailand is a popular way of spending a vacation in south East Asia.
However, Volunteer vacations in Thailand are not easy holidays and you will be expected to work, not just wander around as if you were on a normal vacation! Sure, you pay for it, but you also benefit through the communication you will have with the locals and you will learn just as much from them as they will benefit from the work you do to help them. You will learn a little about their language and a lot about the Thai culture, and although you might arrive in Thailand simply to get volunteer work on your CV, you will leave humbled and with a better idea of how other people live their lives.
The program we would like to discuss is the program in the Nong Khai province of Thailand, this program is truly great for cultural immersion and encompasses volunteer projects based in and around Phon Phisai town, a small rural district and town located approximately 45 minutes from Nong Khai the capital of the Northern eastern Isan Province. Nong Khai is 615 kilometers from Bangkok and has an area of 7,739 square kilometers. Nong Khai is a long thin province running along the Mekong River, providing the main access to Laos. Due to the Nong Khai location it inhabitants are a mix of Laos and Thai. This means that volunteers who volunteer in this region will get the opportunity to experience both Thai and Laos culture and also have the advantage of being within a 30min border crossing to Laos and another 30 mins into the Great Laos Capital of Vientiene.
The quickest and cheapest way to arrive to the Nong Khai Province is to fly from Bangkok to Udon Thani Airport (UTH). The flight takes an hour and cost around 50USD. An alternative route is to take the adventurous overnight train from Bangkok to Nong Khai Train Station.
Another Program that is great for volunteering in Thailand is the program based in Trat and also in the island of Koh Chang (Elephant Island). Both Trat and Koh Chang are about 3 hours coach ride from Bangkok and are scenic seaside location where you will get to experience true Thailand. Another benefit of volunteering in this area is that like the projects in Isan, volunteers based in Trat and Koh Chang will also have easy access to Cambodia and the Mekong delta. These trips are great tourist destinations and also enable quick visa Surrey Realtor runs when your Thai visa expires.
The majority of volunteers in Thailand are students working during their gap year to improve their CV or because they get credits from their college. But if you volunteer in Thailand it will come to mean much more than that as you learn about how other people live their lives and forge bonds with them that will last a lifetime. When you volunteer abroad in Thailand it is a two-way thing: they learn from you and you learn from them.
