News and Messages

Special Trip

Songkran Festival Thailand  2005  

The traditional Thai New Year may be celebrated all over the country, but one of the best area's to celebrate is around the old area of Bangkok near the Grand Palace, Rachadamneon Avenue and Khaosan Road. At Sanam Luang, the revered Phra Buddha Sihing image will be displayed and bathed by thousands of Buddhists, while, not so far away from Sanam Luang, in the town’s main backpacker haven, Khaosan Road, several thousands of locals and tourists have a blast in the city’s biggest water battle. During this festival, Rachadamneon Avenue’s charm will be enhanced by beautiful fountains along the avenue.
 photo by www.thailandlife.com 

On day one (12 April), we start at Bangkok in Khao San Road with merit making early in the morning. We release caged birds into the sky and fish into the river. Paying homage to our ancestors including paying respect to the elder is also very important. We pour water over their palms and wish them good health and a long life time. We have the songkran festival on 12th April all over the country and you can join the local people splashing water on each other during the traditional Thai new year. Overnight near Khao San Road for 2 nights.  
On 14 April we will leave to Khao Yai national park for gibbon watching and a night safari. You have the opportunity to see many wild animals like gibbons, monkeys and wild elephants for example. We will stay at Khao Yai for 2 nights and stay at a nature lodge inside the park. On the 16th we will leave Khao Yai and will visit the Phimai ruin. It's the biggest ruin of Thailand and was build under the influence of Cambodia style. Afterwards we will go to Buriram province to visit Phanom rung ruin which is situated on an old volcano. In the evening we will arrive near Surin, at the Elephant Mahout Project at Ban Tha Klang Village. You can learn about Thai domestic elephants and you can take care of them and feed them. Bathing of the elephants is one of the daily activities.  Beside that, you will enjoy about Thai cooking and old process of textile or teaching English language for children in the village. 
On the 19th we return to Bangkok where our tour finishes.

If you have any further questions about participation and prices, please contact us at  info@ecoexplorerthailand.com 

Tsunami Volunteers needed 

Hello Michiel,

Thank- you for contact us.

As you probably know the resort has been hardly damaged by the tsunami (please visit our website for more information www.goldenbuddhabeach.com and at present, we are developing a volunteer program at Golden Buddha Beach resort.
We are looking for skilled and unskilled volunteers who would be willing to help to put things back together on the island. We are very concerned about the environmental impact of the tsunami on Koh Phra Tong and its future consequences.

We can offer accommodation and food as some of the houses are still fine and we have an excellent chef, as well as transport from Ranong or Phuket airport to the island. 

If you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Paula Diaz

We received the following message from TIES friend Monica Aureggi, Project Director of naucrates, in Phar-Thong island,Thailand

MEMORIAL FUND Lisa Jones and Rebecca Clark 
Naucrates, an Italian organization, has set up a special Fund to continue its conservation effort in Thailand in the future. Naucrates has been running a Conservation Project on sea turtles, the mangrove forest and coral reef at PHRA THONG island since 1996 in collaboration with the Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) and the Ranong Coastal Resource Research Station (RCRRS). The project is registered at National Research Council in Thailand. During the past 8 years many volunteers from different countries have helped in collecting valuable information, in applying conservation strategies and conducting education and awareness activities. BTCV (UK) and Ecovolunteer (Netherlands) have been part of this project; they have been recruiting volunteers. Golden Buddha Beach Resort, on the island, gave a logistic base for this work to take place. 
On the 26th December 2004 the project was completely washed away. Our little museum, the volunteer huts, instruments, turtle tank etc. are lost in the Andaman Sea. However, this is a material loss and no where near 
comparable to the loss of 2 members of Naucrates staff working on the island that day. 

At the time our team comprised of 11 persons. Monica, Claudio, Lisa, Rebecca, Matthias, Kirk, Caroline, Armelle, Katherine, Victoria and Helen. Unfortunately, Lisa Jones and Rebecca Clark did not survive the tsunami. 

Lisa Jones had worked with Naucrates for 4 years and was a person dedicated to her work. She believed in Conservation and loved the island community. Lisa chose the Phra Thong local community as part of her Masters' Thesis. Last season she spent one month in one of the fishing villages teaching English in the school there. She also interviewed villagers on what they thought about conservation. She was there with us writing her thesis. Part of her work can be seen on our website, www.naucrates.org. 

Rebecca Clark had been working as a research assistant with us since 4th December 2004. The time spent with her was too short, but long enough to understand how qualified she was and how dedicated she was to her job and wildlife. More information can be found about her short and intense carrier at www.pbs.org/odyssey. 

Naucrates will continue its conservation effort in Thailand and will help to rebuild whatever is needed in the fishing villages on the island, in particular things or buildings for children. If you wish to make a donation you can do so through Naucrates. We will do our best to manage the fund in honour of Lisa and Rebecca. 


You can make a donation by sending money to: 
Naucrates 
MEMORIAL FUND Lisa Jones and Rebecca Clark 
Bank Account details: 
Banca di Roma Spa 
Filiale di Latina 4 (417) 
Address: 
Via della Stazione, 225 
04013 Latina Scalo (LT) 
To: Naucrates 
Account Number: 15453.37 
International code, IBAN: IT41G0300214705000001545337 
Cod. ABI: 3002.3 
Cod. CAB: 14705.8 

For more information please contact 
Monica Aureggi 
Naucrates - Onlus 
Via Corbetta,11 
22063 Cantù (CO) 
ITALY 
naucrates12@hotmail.com 
naucrates12@tiscalinet.it 
www.naucrates.org 
TEL. ++393334306643 

We thank you for any support you give to this appeal. 

The tear drops of the Andaman 

About the Tsunami of south Thailand on 26 December 2004;
Most people were faced with all horrible things and so many people passed away from this incident. It’s an disastrous event in the history of Thai people because it has never happened before in Thailand. We have to work together with government and individuals to clear and rebuilt all things and to give support to the survivors and families of the victims. In this difficult time, all hearts from all people melt together and become one in order to overcome the effects from the Tsunami. It cannot be explained by words. We can only hope from the bottom of our hearts, that by all support that is being given, we will all have a good feeling again in the future and keep hope for the lives and businesses of all people that were invlolved. We praise everyone who have and will make a donation to the people of south Thailand or the people who in a different way. We are so sorry for all that have lost relatives or friends from this terrible event. 

Arnon  Sisamran
Project Manager
Eco Explorer Co.,Ltd

Michiel,

I just wanted to write to you and say thank you for an excellent tour, my wife and I had a great time.  What we liked most was that there were no frills, we travelled in the back of trucks and slept in basic accomodation with basic facilities, some tours like this end up with air conditioned people carriers and hotel accomodation - not the real experience like we had.  It was also nice that there was not a rigid itenerary, this created a much more relaxed atmosphere and allowed Touch to adjust our activities for example around the weather (i.e. it was too hot to trek for 12km in the afternoon so he changed it to the next morning - a good idea!).

The main shock was how cold it was!  We had to buy coats at a market because we had only taken warm clothes, at night is got down to less than 10C which you really notice when you are sleeping in a tent or a bamboo hut!!!  It would have been nice to know this before we went so we could have packed
some warm clothes as well, but we survived and would highly recommend it to anyone.

Also, Touch was an excellent guide and all the guys that assisted during the tour were friendly and extremely helpful, nothing was too much trouble. I think the only thing that I did not enjoy was the elephant trek, the first 1.5 hours were fun but by 2.5 hours I had had enough and got off and walked the last half an hour, it was so uncomfortable!  Mainly because I am 1.9m tall and I was cramped in the basket. I will be posting our photos on our web site next week so will send the link to you when I do. So, again thank you Michiel for arranging the tour and a big thank you to you Touch for looking after us so well, if you make it to Sydney and need a guide we would be more than happy to help!! :-)

Thanks,

Adam & Dana

Hello Andrew

First of all, best wishes for the New Year. I’d also like to thank for your patience with regard to my reply.

As you know, the Christmas and New Year has been a disaster in Thailand and other countries in South East Asia. My family and our customers can only be grateful they left the area here just in time. Unfortunately many other others did not….

In my opinion, besides the direct help that is so needed at this moment, it is best for the future of Thailand that people will still come here for holiday, especially to the area’s hit by the Tsunami (when possible again). If tourists do not come anymore, this will also have a huge effect on the economy and the jobs and so food for many people. I hope we can avoid that the local people who survived this disaster have to deal with another one.

I therefore have looked at your email and answered and quoted for you as required without any changes to locations. However, if certain areas can not be visited yet, or if you have any other thoughts or suggestions, of course we can change planning. Other beaches that can be visited are for example Ko Samui, Ko Chang and Ko Kood.

Michiel Burghouwt
Marketing Manager 
Eco Explorer Co.,Ltd

I feel it is imperative that TIES makes a major effort to counter the already-forthcoming blanket warnings reaching the public. Equally information is the misinformation coming from the television news and other reports. Consistently we have been getting images from Sri Lanka, India, etc with accompanying dialogue about disease potential, while the reporter is in Phuket. Such images and dialog are interspersed, without differentiation, with pictures of Phuket hotels. For the public, the possibility of wide-spread disease is being linked with Phuket. We see the same thing occurring when there is a terrorism event in any central African country - the reporters are stationed in Nairobi, therefore the report is bylined Nairobi, and we see a drop in tourism - with the attendant drop in local income - in Kenya, although the problem may be 500 miles away.

I already have people wanting to change their Phuket plans in March due to the threat of disease, even though their hotel and those around them were unaffected by the tsunami. And due to its advanced nature Phuket will not suffer the same infrastructure problems - sewage etc - as more unfortunate and devastated places.

I watched many friends lose their businesses, and their heart, due to overly aggressive travel warnings in Indonesia over the last 5 years, and the consequent downgrading of conservation on Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Sumatra as a source of income. On all three islands conservation areas have reverted in part to use by locals for extractive and farming due to this.

It is imperative that sloppy, sensationalist reporting and government overkill do not make worse an already bad situation for those whose livliehood is affected. I have already written to several clients the following:

I might mention that as a general principal we tend to try to maintain bookings in areas affected like this, as long as it is safe and enjoyable for our guests. We've been through a few local disasters, including the bombing in Bali, problems in central Africa, the Shining Path in Peru, and a Dyak uprising in Pankalanbuun, and invariably the locals, who depend on tourism for their income, want us back as soon as possible.

Andrew Haffenden, Director
Nature Travel Specialists
Helena AL 35080 USA
Email: ask_us@naturetravelspecialists.com
Website: www.naturetravelspecialists.com

Had a marvelous time.  Touch was a most fantastic guide and Tong a
competent driver.  Thank you so much for organizing it so well.  No hitches
whatsoever.  We are hoping, hoping hoping to be with you again for a longer
trip in June.  Would really like to see some tigers.

Regards

Susan and Rex

Thanks again and hope to see you next year on a new trip !!

Yours sincerely, Andi

We really regret it that we didn?t have the opportunity to say goodbye. We enjoyed your company; I particularly enjoyed the bird watching. We followed your advice and went to Khao Sok National Partk. We stayed there for six days and made a couple of treks into the park. We even managed to see the Rafflesia (big) flower! I found the treks quiet heavy but I finished them all. We are sure you will find lots of possibilities to express your own ideas in a way you think is the best. Especially educating children about wildlife protection and conservation is a task that suits you perfect. I saw that with my own eyes and did hear that with my own ears that evening at the camp near Pala-U. We wish you all the best with your work and in your private life. Ingeborg made some pictures you might want to have. We have scanned them and attached to this mail. We hope they will please you and remind you of a period we will not easily forget.

Thanks,

Jan