Volunteer Stories  |  Mike

I arrived in Nong Khai in January with a severe case of jet lag and a tinge of anxiety. I had travelled thousands of miles to a remote corner of a country I knew little about to link up with an organization I only knew from the internet. I am so glad I took the risk to come!! What I found in Nong Khai was an extended family of Thais and volunteers that will be a part of me for the rest of my life.

After my arrival I spent the first few days visiting and deciding where I wanted to teach. I finally decided to instruct at a high school during the day and at a Buddhist temple at night. Because I was a Western guy, I became and instant celebrity with the girls at the high school. The first day I was bombarded with friendship bracelets and "Can I have your phone number?" queries. I was never this popular as a teenager in the US.

The most satisfying part of the teaching experience was instructing the monks every night at the temple. Learning to teach there was easy. I just shadowed another teacher for a few days and soon was developing lesson plans and a teaching style all my own. Any initial trepidation of standing in front of a group of monks was quickly washed away by the tremendous amount of enthusiasm they show for learning English. I guess they liked the class because it quickly grew from six students to fifteen and included "civilians" from the community. The monks even invited me to stay with them for two nights at the temple (actually, they invited me to stay "forever" but I couldn't quite make that sort of time commitment!). It was nice staying there because they have hot water showers and mosquito zappers- they don't live such austere lives after all.

As great as the teaching is, you only do it for four days a week. Why?? Because there is so much more to go out and do in Nong Khai. You can even take off longer blocks of time to go travel. A few other volunteers and I just returned from two weeks of travelling to Chiang Mai and Northern Laos. We did it all- rode elephants, trekked to hilltribe villages, learned to cook Thai food, rode a slowboat down the Mekong for two days, swam under waterfalls in beautiful turquoise waters, explored mysterious caves, sat in herbal saunas, received Laos massages and wrapped it all up with dinner at a posh French restaurant in Vientiene. I even learned to speak Dutch courtesy of my travelling companions from Holland. We all agreed that the time we spent at Travel to Teach made the travelling more rewarding because we had a lot better understanding of language, culture and traditions than the average joe traveller.

I'm really sad to have left Nong Khai, but am thinking that the easy going Isan lifestyle might draw me back someday. The people and the culture here are probably the best Thailand has to offer. While leaving Nong Khai I met an American on the train who has lived in Bangkok for three years. He said that he comes to Isan when he takes vacations because the people here are friendlier and more laid back than the rest of Thailand (and the food rocks, too!). If you do come to Nong Khai you should stay at a minimum six weeks- any shorter time is just not enough to get the full blown experience. I hope you take the risk to come just as I did......