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Thailand,
the experience Having left
England on the 21st December 2002, Daniel and I flew across the
world to Bangkok, where we spent 4 days acclimatising and exploring the
capital, staying in the largest Hotel in the World.
This included a visit to the Emerald Buddha and Lying Buddha,
several of the Royal Palaces and the Largest Outdoor restaurant in the
world. As this stay included
Christmas day, we attended a Christmas reception for the entire UK
contingent - 3,000 hungry Scouts and Guides all eating Christmas Dinner at
once!! Together with a
‘flying’ visit from Santa ‘David Bull’ Claus giving his own
version of the Queen’s speech, followed by a selection of video messages
from various celebrities. Friday saw our
invasion of the Jamboree site having travelled by coach for 2 and half
hours. We set up site on our
sandy patch in the midday heat (40˚C).
Units arrived throughout the rest of the day and the next, and the
opening ceremony was held on the evening of the 28th.
This was a cultural event with speeches from various dignitaries,
and a special appearance from the Crowned Prince of Thailand. The Jamboree itself
saw us participating in a variety of cultural and educational experiences
including: A ‘Heritage’ day – a chance to visit a tropical garden;
The ‘Global Development Village’ – a chance to talk about issues
like human rights and cruelty to children; ‘Exploring Nature’ – a
trek through the Thai jungle; and a ‘Community Action Day’ – a visit
into the Thai Community to lend a hand on a Community project like
building a school playground. Each evening also had
a program of events, like our New Years Celebrations, an Inter-Religious
evening, and a Thai Festival. The closing ceremony
was held on the evening of the 7th of January, and some of our
unit members took part in the presentation.
The next day saw many of our newfound friends leave, but we stayed
until the 9th when we flew to stay with our host families in
Korea. We arrived in Korea on
the morning of the 10th, and were hit by the rapid drop in
temperature, down to a freezing minus 13˚C.
We were taken to the local Scout hut to meet our host families.
Over the next 3 days
our Families took us to visit various places of interest including a
Traditional Folk Village. On
our last evening with our Families we were taken to a very unusual
restaurant, where the meats were cooked on a hot plate at our table.
We travelled home on
the 13th, eventually arriving back late that evening to be met
by our parents. That was it, our
Thailand experience was over, an experience we will never forget.
We would like to
thank everyone who helped and supported us in making this experience what
it was. Stuart Reed and Daniel Hunt
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