English Camp on Doi Inthenon

I was invited to ride along with the English camp run by Dr. Suket at Maejo University. This camp is a reward field trip for the best English students in the best public high school in Chiang Mai. In the past, these camps have been held in "luxury" resort. I participated with one two years ago at a golf course resort. This year the kids asked for something less luxurious and more adventuresome. They got it with a trip to the highest peak in Thailand, Doi Inthenon and the Doi Inthenon National Park.

We met at Maejo University and car pooled up to camp. It was about 3 hours for us to get there including some stops. Just before I left, I saw a note that we would be sleeping in a tent. Barbara fixed me up with the two polar fleece in the picture. I was very glad to have them. The ladies are Janny and Peerayos who work for Dr. Suket and who had done several of these camps before.

I rode up with Joos, the activity director. He doesn't work for Dr. Suket, but has his own business. He's really good with the guitar and keeping the activities interesting for the kids. There were four farangs for the children to talk to. Gil, who is a friend of Jason's and who wants to do more with teaching. Ian is a farmer, but a former teacher and looking for work. Ironically, he is good friends with Chap and Mam. He set up a jewelry store in down town Chiang Mai, just before Covid lockdowns. He had to close it, but still a small town story that he knows the people that made Barbara's wedding ring.

After check in and the opening activities, we broke into four groups and had discussions on our assigned subject. The kids were relaxed and talkative. It was a pleasure.

My session was on farm life. I shared pictures from Annie's farm. She had just been there visiting her parents. I only had one or two kids who had been on a farm. This is a Chiang Mai high school so these are city kids.

They were pretty grossed out by the fact that the farm includes raising frogs.

After the discussions we headed up to the mountain and went on a loop hike called Kew Mae Pan nature trail. We went up and down the mountainside. The elevation makes for cool temperatures and pacific northwest flora on the hike.

The hike was incredible. It was very comfortable at 14C, but I still impressed the kids with my ability to sweat. They were worried about if the old teacher was going to make it 555.

After we got back we were pretty tired, but it was time for dinner and then the temple fair. At the fair, the kids break into to groups and make a game of the materials avaialble. We're all givin play money to do the games and the team that makes the most money wins.

It got a little racy :)

These boys are just not shy at all. In fact, the big guy is a bit of a leader to the group.

We had some other activities. We coached and judged a play that our group put on. Chaz taught the kids disc golf and the bug watching was pretty good.

A million pictures at the end, but I like this little talk with my kids, "Group 4".