Second time Baan Hua Tung, New Year and Research

The evening of the 30th of December we went back for the second time to Baan Hua Tung. This night was to prepare ourselves for the tough climb to the Chiang Dao Mountain. Even though the alarm had to be set early, it appeared that we had to wake up even earlier, already at 5.00 o'clock. This was because it was Special Monk Day and we got some food from our homestays that we had to offer to the monk in the temple. After that we had breakfast we left by car to the Chiang Dao Mountain. On our way we picked up our porters who would carry our water and the tents. At 10 finally we began our trip to the top of the Doi Luang Chiang Dao! With lunch and several other breaks in between, after 5,5 hours we reached the camping place. It was a pretty hard climb already, but we did not reach the top yet. After a break we continued walking to the top of the mountain to see the sunset. The way to the top was luckily short, but very tough and steep over the rocks. Finally we all reached the top! Where we could enjoy the sunset and the amazing view.




When we arrived again on the campsite we had dinner together. After dinner we tried to make a campfire, unfortunately it did not really work out the way we wanted. That is why we decided already early to go to bed. In other words, ground, because we did not have a bed at all. Luckily we could enjoy the freezing cold which made this the most unforgettable night of our lives! At 23.45 hr we all came out of our tents to countdown for the NewYear. We celebrated it with some Chang beer, Thai Whiskey and some little firework. Overall we have to say, this will be a NewYear celebration that we will never forget! After having almost no sleep at all, Reinier and Martine were the only ones who were able to go to another top of the Chiang Dao in the very early morning to see the sunrise. The weather was terribly cold, but it was definitely worth the amazing view, we have never seen before such a beautiful sunrise. The others woke up a few hours later and after breakfast we started our trip down. After 3 hours walking we finally arrived at the car. Yeah, we made it!!
Climbing the Chiang Dao Mountain was a great experience that we will never forget!



In the afternoon we arrived again in Baan Hua Tung. We had time to shower and relax. In the evening a New Years party was organised for the whole community. There was food, music, many presents and a lot of people, so it was very nice!
After a long night sleep (we never slept that well!), we had a day off. We used this Sunday to relax, do some preparation for the school sessions and being together with our host families.

Monday we gave English lessons to the primary school students of Baan Hua Tung. In pairs of two we prepared sessions of 40 minutes to teach the students. In total we all had 3 classes with 3 different groups. It was really fun to do and the students liked it as well. After lunch we did some games with all the students of the school outside. The day was a great success!
That afternoon we changed again from homestay and in the evening we were free to do what we wanted.

Tuesday was a busy day. In the morning we went to the nursery where we helped with preparing the food for the children. In the afternoon we visited the frog farm, the pig farm, the honeybee farm and we went to the chicken fight, which was held in Mister Ed's garden. It was amazing to see the chicken fight, but also a little bit sad. After that, Mr. Pai had a little surprise for us, he took us to the hot springs, where we relaxed for a while.

Wednesday we had another free day to prepare ourselves for the evening as we had our presentation and we had to cook some Dutch food for the villagers, as well we had to prepare a performance for the culture show. This day, Reinier, Nienke and Jonien were busy with preparing the hutspot and the bitterballen. Marlon, Martine and Susan were preparing the presentation for that evening. Meanwhile, we have also practiced our cultural performance and from paper we made clogs.

The farewell party started with the dinner and surprisingly many villagers liked the hutspot and the bitterballen, as well as we did.
After dinner we had our presentation followed by the cultural show including our own performance. At the end of the evening a lot of villagers gave all of us a kind of bracelet to bless us. Finally the villagers told us that they had a great time and they would miss us. We told them that they have a great village, suitable for Community Based Tourism and that we had an amazing and unforgettable experience.

The next day, Thursday, we left the village in the morning. We said goodbye to everyone and we left to Chiang Mai.

These last days in Chiang Mai we are very busy with our report. Together we work the whole days on our report (even on Jonien her birthday), so that we can have the presentation on the 12th of January. Every pair of 2 got a few research questions to answer. Furthermore, one was responsible for the article, 2 others for the interim report and the last 3 remaining were responsible for putting the report together and looking it through. Overall, the teamwork goes very well, every team member participates equally to the report. No problems did occur during the teamwork.






Assessment CBT-I

Name Capacity building & Training Manager: Pai
Date: 10-01-2010

Members Group:
Reinier van der Veeken Jonien Vrielink
Marlon Sikkema Martine Koonstra
Susan Roelfsema
Jonien Vrielink
Martine Koonstra
Nienke Marije Schaaf

The questions and answers from every table will be send to Brigitte her email.

Total (maximum 100 points) 89 points.
The students should have more than 55 points to be able to produce a report of significant academic quality.


As can be seen from this assessment, the team work within our group is going very well. We meet deadlines and the group results and efforts are good so far. Especially within Baan Hua Tung, we did wanted to help the locals as much as possible, to experience the real culture of the villagers. We often divide the work that we have to do, but so that we all know our roles and responsibilities. Moreover, we do not mind to do some extra work or spend more time in something. As said in the assessment, we added another program day when staying in Baan Hua Tung, to see and explore even more of the community.
We have the highest rate for our behavior and presentation as a group. We have a lot of fun and we do everything together.
Concerning our knowledge about Community Based Tourism, in the beginning we were a little confused about the real definition of Community Based Tourism. However, since we have working with it for almost 2,5 months now, we do know exactly what it means and contains. Our knowledge about participatory planning in relation to CBT is very well.
Dealing with the cultural differences during the field-work as a group was not really a problem for us. We all could adapt quite easily and joined all the activities with the villagers. However, Pai thinks that we did have a little cultural shock, but we solved it and could deal with the situation well. Furthermore, our knowledge about research methods and skills that are required in the field-work is good as well as our ability to develop interpretation tools for Baan Hua Tung.
Finally, the quality of our work so far is very good, little mistakes, accurate and overall good work.