We arrived in Thailand on January 18th, we were obviously very very excited to see what Thailand had to offer. Although, we had applied through www.WorkAway.info with DinDang in Paksong. A "workshop" that was going to start on the 20th. DinDang is Bow's and Martha's dream, a sustainable way of living. Their main goal is to spread their message about that way of living and also inspire others that are willing to learn about building mud houses, renewable energies and nature conection. Pedro has became more and more interested in this kind of construction and also in renewable energies. Therefore, we thought it would be a great opportunity to put our hands on a project that could teach us so many different things that we have never experienced before. We paid 70$ each to live there for a week, accomodation, food and teaching were included.
As we arrived at 4h30am in Bangkok, we decided to catch a bus straight to Ranong, the closest city to Paksong. We thought that one day wouldn't be enough to explore Bangkok and we didn't want to "ruin" the first impression by being exhausted plus carrying the backpacks.
As we landed in Thailand, we were invaded by a huge culture shock.. we were used to dirty streets, being ripped off all the time, bargaining and all the crazy nice things that happen in India, but here everything was different...
Initially we struggled a bit because people don't speak english at all, so we had to learn how to communicate with very simple words and gestures but we ended up in the right way to get a bus to Ranong. Before taking the bus we decided to eat something, as we were coming from India we thought we didn't have to worry about spicy food... wrong assumption... we chose a dish based in a picture and we didn't even worry if it would be spicy or not... when we tasted it, we felt fire coming from all the holes in our body.. our faces were red and we immediately started to sweat and to get a runny nose... we finished the dish but at the end we felt that our stomachs were on fire... I even had to put a cold water bottle next to it to calm it down while looking for Eno in the closest 7-Eleven.
The trip to Ranong was more or less 10h but we were so exhausted that half of it we were sleeping... we noticed that Thailand seamed very developed. The roads are big and well maintained, the cheapest buses are 5 stars in india and people own big truks and nice cars.
We arrived in Ranong at night so we just had some food in the local market and enjoyed our amazing and clean room. Next day we tried to explore the city a little bit but Ranong has not much to do except the morning market... Ranong is just the city where people get boats to Koh Payam and Koh Chang and that's it.
On the 20th we took a morning bus to Paksong where Bow, the owner of Din Dang was waiting for us. As we arrived we met the other volunteers, Maria, a spanish girl that had just arrived to Thailand and Clohe a 17 year's old girl from Holand that has been travelling by herself for 3 months. We also met Abby, a girl from UK that is living in New Zealand but she wasn't a volunteer, she was going to a yoga course for a week in the building next to DinDang.
After a small ride in the back of Bow's pick up we arrived to DinDang and we immediately met Martha, Bow's wife that is originally from Canada and the dogs (Arthur, Sithan, Summer and Blackie). We sat in the smoking area and introduced ourselves, we talked about our trip, plans and expectations. After the introductions, they offered us an amazing Thai lunch and taught us how to say "thank you for the food" in Thai.
The first day was relaxed, Martha started by making a tour through their land and their farm. In the farm we helped her picking up some herbs for our dinner. While picking the herbs, she showed us all type of plants and food that grow in their garden, she also started to eat and to offer us a bunch of wild plants and leaves... she even ate a red ant.. according to her, they taste like lemon... we tried everything except the ant.
We were all amazed by the beauty of the place, DinDang is in the middle of the jungle and almost everything is made with mud, bamboo and stones. Martha and Bow can be seen as mud builders but they are true artists. There was so much criativity around us and everything was in perfect connection with nature. They believe in sustainability and simplicity, we could see that everything was made with love and passion...
Later that day, we went to the jungle with Bow to cut some Bamboo, we had to cross a small river and walk a little into the jungle. On our way we tried another plant that numbed our mouths, according to Bow, Thai people use that plant when they have tooth aches. Bow taught us how to cut Bamboo, it was definitely not easy and it requires a lot of technique as the bamboo should be perfect. We all tried to make our own bamboo cups but we were not very successful as the top of the cup never stayed smooth but at least we tried.
The rest of the days were more dedicated to build a mud house. Martha and Bow accepted a project for free to build a mud house that would serve as a tourism office for the town, so we were lucky to be there to build it.
We started our second day at the mud house preparing the mud, it was really funny to be walking on the mud and prepare it for the walls... to make it thick and strong we had to mix straws. Obviously during the mud preparation there were some small mud fights. After preparing the mud, we started working in our tasks... I worked with Maria building the windows and making the wall thicker. Pedro and Clohe, started to build a wall from scratch, Martha helped them building the bamboo structure but they were responsible by building a strong wall.
Our third day was a bit crazy, during the morning we had more or less 10/15 kids wandering around our little mud house. They were there to help but they didn't even want to get dirty... we prepared more mud and continued the tasks from the previous day..
The fourth day was different, in the morning Martha and Bow took us to their family plantation we picked up some coffee and a fruit that is used as some sort of tabaco to chew. It was much harder than expected, the land is very steep and bugs were everywhere. I even touched with my head on an ants nest and had dozens of them in my hair... Bow had to rescue me as they were biting a lot. In the afternoon we had to continue on the mud house, this time I worked in the wall with Maria, creating a patern with bamboo and bottles. Pedro rubbed the exterior wall and gave it a shiny look.
On the fifth day we worked together building the bottle wall... we were really getting into it.. paying attention to the details becomes an obsession and we were trying as much as we could to make the wall presentable for the TV event on Monday. While all of us were giving the last touches in the clay house, a bunch of thai people were preparing the outside look by putting some flowers, straw blocks and other decorations.
Our last morning was spent in the TV event, even with rain, everybody was super excited about the mud house and the western volunteers (us). We think we showed up in hundreds and hundreds of pictures. People almost made a line to take pictures with us and the mud house. We could see that Bow and Martha were also happy, it was a nice way to promote their work and way of living. During the TV event we assisted to a typical Thai dance (Menora Dance), where Thai girls dressed in really beautiful outfits danced really slowly but achieving very hard positions.
The afternoon was spent in the TCDF restaurant, next to DinDang, playing cards with Maria and Clohe. The TCDF restaurant was the place were we used to spend our nights chatting with Maria, Clohe, Abby and the other girls that were in the yoga course (Valeria and Brigitte).
DinDang ended up being a great experience for us, it was not the "workshop" that we were thinking it would be but Bow and Martha tried as much as they could to show us their simplistic and sustainable way of living... we got the opportunity to build a wall from scratch, get connected with the Thai Nature and culture and we also made friends that will stay for life.
After Paksong we will be heading south, to the Andaman Coast... Maria and Clohe will also go with us so wait for more updates on beautiful Thailand!
