CAS Trip to Chiang Mai

 

Last month we visited Chiang Mai, the second largest state in Thailand after Bangkok. As our CAS creativity activity and service work, the teachers organized this trip. It was an 8-day tour to Chiang Mai we enjoyed a lot. We explored and developed various skills and knowledge while completing some real-life problems and physical activities which were tough. Every single day we had to be ready sharply by 7:20 am for breakfast and 6:00 for dinner. Some days would be really challenging as most of us would be exhausted after the activities we did.

On the first day, we learned how to speak and write Thai languages and later we learned kickboxing which was very fun and tiring. The last activity we did on the first day was the amazing race where we had to complete as many tasks that were assigned to us in two hours. My group was the winner of the amazing race as we completed most of the activities. The activities in the amazing race were hard as we had to learn how to coordinate with our team members in order to complete the assignment.

 

On the first day, we learned how to speak and write Thai languages and later we learned kickboxing which was very fun and tiring. The last activity we did on the first day was the amazing race where we had to complete as many tasks that were assigned to us in two hours. My group was the winner of the amazing race as we completed most of the activities. The activities in the amazing race were hard as we had to learn how to coordinate with our team members in order to complete the assignment.

 

On the second day, we departed for Mae Kapiang to visit the Karen Hill tribe Village. After we reached our destination our classmates and seniors walked up a dried-up rice field. The ground was very uneven and had many pits. Also, we noticed a lot of insects in the field so we had to walk carefully. One of my classmates hurt her legs as she made a wrong step and sprained her foot so we had to go up again and bring her carefully using the safest routes to get down. We left the rice and explored the Karen Hill tribe Village. The Karen Hill tribe village told us what they live off and explored what they grow and produce locally such as their dye, and cotton, and tried the different plants from which spices that grow here are made. Our lunch was made by the Karen Hill tribe and it tasted amazing, especially the spicy chili curry. The experience was insightful. Later, we departed back to Traidhos to do a Low Ropes & High Wall Challenge. Those challenges were the toughest assignments in our entire trip. A lot of us cut our hands and got hurt. At night we departed for night Bazar and we were split into groups. The teachers gave us some money to buy some things or have food from the local market which tasted amazing. It was a very fin exciting, exhausting, and hectic day but all of us enjoyed it. Later at 2 am in night, we watched Brazil and Argentina both games with our teachers.

The next day we went back to the farm which was very close to our dorms. It was a 10 mins walk. On the farm, we picked the leaves and the coriander plant and got the eggs from the hen. After collecting the necessary items for our cooking we learned how to make our own fire using coal and pine sticks. The work for preparing the food for our lunch was divided among all the students and we had to cook our own lunch. The activity was called jungle cooking. My job was to cut the tomatoes and cut the chickens and later marinate them with the sauce that Fiona had made using some local organic indigents. After all of us were done with the lunch that was cooked by us we went for a trek in the mountains, at the beginning it looked easy but later it got tough we went through the jungle and the route was very narrow. Some of us couldn’t fit the route. We went deeper and deeper into the forest. One of the hikes was on a 90 degree slope. The trek was for 2 hours and all the students got tired and we didn’t have any more energy to complete our last assignment of the day which was shelter building. The students were divided into groups and we were told to make a shelter using bamboo sticks and bamboo ropes. Most of us failed the assignment but one group did it fine. After we were done we had to fit inside our shelter. One of the teachers got a hose out and sprayed water into our shelter to see how durable and protective the shelter is from water. I got completely wet because we had one of the worst shelters made.

On 11 December, we went ziplining and later went kayaking. I was in group B accompanied by Mr. Rajib, Mr. Assad, and Sabrina miss. The first activity we did that day was ziplining, there were 28 zipline activities. I managed to do all 28 of them. It was one of the best activities which we did on our entire trip. The obstacles in between each zipline such as walking on a shaking bridge to cross were daunting. The distance from one zipline to another was quite a few distances and it was very exciting and fun. After we were done with the zipline we went for lunch with Group A at our meeting point, later we went kayaking, and group A went for the zipline. Kayaking was fun. We had to kayak as pairs and despite my tiredness, I managed to kayak. My Kayak partner and I learned how to coordinate our strokes to move smoothly. Our boat even got stuck among the floating plants in the middle of the lake. We had to figure out how to turn our pad to move back and after a few trials, we did it. Some of us jumped into the water which was 150 m deep. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences ever. 

On the second last day, we explored the old city. We had a map and a bunch of tasks we had to complete in each location. We were in a time crunch. Sometimes the pathways would look confusing so we would sometimes go to the wrong place. We also had to make sure we completed each task when we reached the site such as taking pictures of the graffiti and donating to the temple. We finished the exploration by noon. We then went to the famous temple in Chiang mai, the temple was located on the top of the mountain and we had to walk 365 steps to get there. The flight up the steps was challenging but the view we got was worth it. From there we went to one the best shopping malls in Chiang Mai and most of us shopped a lot.

On the last day, we went to a school where we watched the kids perform a traditional Thai dance before we got to work. We had to make a grave from scratch. I had to collect water, rocks, and cement sand. Each of our teammates took turns stirring the mixture. It was very methodical; I hadn’t concentrated and used a lot of physical force to complete the stirring. Because of this strenuous work, we would take breaks one by one to complete the task. I let myself try a variety of tasks-not just stirring such as pouring the mixture, splaying the gravel over the bricks, and collecting and lifting the components from one place to another. This leads me to have a greater appreciation of the laborers who do this work on a daily basis.

These are things we did on our entire Chiang Mai trip. I feel fortunate that I could spend such a wonderful time with my friends and teachers. It was truly a memorable trip for batch 24 and batch 23 of AusIS. We had built a very strong friendship bond in just a few days and some of us have overcome some great fear of heights, water, fire, etc because of different activities involving various skills to achieve the skills. As an IB student, I have developed some important IB learners profiles that I think will greatly benefit me in the future if I go abroad for further studies or do any kind of business. It helped me come out of my comfort zone as I communicated with a lot of people and also I had to be open-minded. Some other IB learners’ profiles I have developed are balanced, knowledgeable, principled by being on time, and risk takers. International mindedness helped us to work in harmony with the Traidhos faculty which benefited us from a wide range of knowledge and experience. It promotes respect, encourages collaboration, and sees students develop high levels of empathy and compassion. By exploring, I would like to thank all the teachers who organized this trip in such a nice way with everything we did. We had fun at the same time we learned a lot of things that can be beneficial for us in the future.