Summary of Chiang Mai

19.11.2014

Ancient walls right next to the giant sunday market in downtown Chiang Mai

Link to video

In this post we want to tell you some pros and cons of Chiang Mai. Our time in CM was 2 weeks, so there's plenty of more to see than we did. It felt like the first week was just getting used to the relaxed and happy atmosphere and wandering around. We are 100% going back there one day!

There's not really much bad to say about CM, so we'll just save it for the last, so first up, the pros.

Some of the spots mentioned below.

+Markets

In Chiang Mai you will find big big markets, especially the giant sunday markets starting from the Tha Phae Gate, the western entry to the city, which turns an otherwice busy street in the middle of the city in to a walking street full of handcrafts, clothes, food and almost what ever you might need.
More about the markets: http://www.visitchiangmai.com.au/markets.html

Busy street turned in to a walking street market at Rashadamnoen Road

Handmade rice sunshades

+Food markets

Very large food markets where you can find just about anything to eat. The prices are low and locals mainly use these places. You can have 3 courses of food for 110TBH (2,7€) that's less than 40TBH a dish! We can highly recommend the See Yaek Sanam Bin Food market, at the southern outskirts of Chiang Mai, close to The Fortune Residence which we recommend too.

See Yaek Sanam Bin Food market on the road 108 going south, just after the road 1141 junction

+Temples (Wats)

There are over 200 beautiful temples to see in and around Chiang Mai, why not try to check each one out? I promise to buy you a beer if you do and can prove it.

+Transportation

It's super easy and cheap to get around in Chiang Mai. You can get just about anywhere with 100TBH, songthaew cost only 20-30TBH if you don't specify a destination. Tuk Tuk is the way to go if you want to get where ever fast. It's also easy to get to CM by plane and it won't cost you more than $50 from almost anywhere in Thailand.

Songthaews are easy and cheap form of trasnportation and they are easy to get in Chiang Mai

+Uncorrupt outskirts

Rent a motorcycle and get out of town, find the small restaurants where locals eat. No tourists which is always a good sign. In one place we were so rare sight, a small boy in restaurant came to took photos of us eating. The best food places don't usually even speak English, or if they do, very little.
With motorcycle you can travel to the mountains and the national parks or just to see real country life.

Beautiful outskirts of Chiang Mai

+Most tourists in one place

Most of the tourism in Chiang Mai can be found from specific parts of CM (western downtown if I remember correctly), so if you want inside tips or just to hang out with other farangs and change travel stories, you can do that too.

+Price range

The prices in CM are low and there's lots of good places to shop for clothes etc. Like said before, the food is cheap and one of the best in Thailand.

The food is one of the best we've had in Thailand, excluding Khanom and it's fresh seafoods.

From CM you find  lots of clothes and it's not that same same -shit every tourist trap sells.

+The locals

Tourism is not the only livelihood and the locals aren't fed up with drunken farangs (yet), which makes them truly happy to see tourists and don't only put up with them for the money.

Bond with the locals in the nightlife

+So much to see

Wheter you like it in the city or in the quiet outskirts, you can find all this in CM. Lots of museums (bug-, butterfly- etc.), snakefarms, tigers and all that. You can also find golf courses and archery from CM.

There would be lots of more to tell you, but we want to let you discover it for yourself. The last and the least the cons. Or should I say the con, we really loved this city and can't find anything else bad to say about it but this:

-No sea/beach

If you're only looking for a beach vacation, Chaing Mai is not your place. That doesn't mean that if you don't have extra time on your beach vacation, you shouldn't go there. Like we said earlier flying to CM is cheap and takes only 1,5h from almost anywhere in Thailand and won't eat your budget much.
Book a hotel/resort (The Fortune Residence ;)) with a swimming pool. The days get really hot up there with no sea breeze to cool you down, but a quick dip in the pool every now and then keeps you up and going!

Oh wait, there's one more, but you can't really take it as a con because it's just something you have to deal with. Especialy in the outskirts.

-Big one-way streets

It's hell trying to get over these bad boys, three lanes with speeding cars and motorcycles. You might have to walk a long way to find a crossing and sometimes getting a ride from these is hard! Especially if your destination is on the "wrong" side of the road.

Ready! Set! Go! 20m hurdles from hell!

Chinese BBQ and hospitality at it's finest

18.11.2014

Our resort's general manager, his family and the resort staff.

Today is the day of the big barbeque party that our resort's general manager called Jamie, had invited us to couple of days before. We had no idea what's the occation but we felt honoured because we were the only customers that had been asked to come. We thought it was just a nice gesture from them, for us and for the resort staff.

We woke up pretty late but luckily we already knew where to find a good gift for the manager and the staff. They invited us so we had to go get them something nice in excange. We exit the bungalow and saw that they already had set up a giant barbeque grill in front of the restaurant and everyone was running around, getting the party started. All of the staff seemed happy and exited for the incoming party.

We took a songthaew to the Ringping shopping mall maybe 1km away from the resort. We got there fairly quick which was good, because the party would start soon. I went to get some bird's nest soup and Make and Milla went to get some flowers. They couldn't believe their eyes when there was only two bouquets made from real flowers, all of the others were made from plastic.
Like "What do you do for living? - I sell plastic flowers at the florist's". Each for their own, I guess. We also had some finnish "Turkin Pippuri" -candy to give them so we think we had it all covered.

Getting a songthaew back was much harder than to the other way and we had to wait for a good 15 minutes to get one. On the way the songthaew picked up some people and we had to wait while they were dropped at the airport on the way, 'cos that's how songthaews work, unless you pay them extra to take only you from a point A to point B. While we were stuck in the traffic at the lights, Milla saw something you might not see everyday in Thailand. Out of nowhere some dude ran from the bushes with no clothes on. He just ran across a parking lot and disappeared after that. Who knows what's the story behind that, and do we even want to know...

Finally we got back to the resort and they all came to greet us. We gave our gifts to Jamie, and told them that it was a little show of gratitude for them inviting us to the party. They seemed touched for us to bring them gifts, but it was the least we could do.  We felt like our gifts hit the spot and we recommend everyone to bring something special from their own country, it really impresses the people you give them to. Nothing is more unique gift than something you brought all the way from across the globe.

Jamie, the resort's general manager with the huge grill and all sorts of seafood and other goodies.

No shortage of bewerage, just the way we like it!

We were escorted to the table and were served with Chang beer, fresh fruits and salted nuts. They told us with a twinkle in their eye, that all the drinks and food was on the house. Not bad!
We sat just the three of us in the table, confused from all that was going on. There was only the resort staff and the managers family members and friends. We couldn't believe how lucky we were to be invited.

While we were drinking the first beers and eating nuts, they brought some beef to the table. The beef was the most tender and mouth watering meat we've ever had! It was grilled medium minus, sliced to thin slices and served as is.

Nuts, fruits, beef and Tom Yam Goong -soup.

The staff told us that we could just go on and pick anything we want from the grill, but as Finnish as we are, we desided to sit for a while and drink some more. Next up was the Tom Yam Goong -soup. All of the food tasted great and you could tell all the different tastes. We were used to good food in Chiang Mai, but this was over the top!

After we finished our drinks we had enough courage to go talk to the people and eat with them. All of the sudden everyone started putting the tables together to form one big festive table and they asked us to come sit with them.

Love all these happy happy people!

There was so much food, more than anyone of us could consume and Jamie just kept on cooking more. It was so nice to see that the guy who runs all this and is so well respected, showed his gratitude to his employees by cooking to them and throwing this party. The owner and his family are Chinese so that makes it even more impressive, knowing how much they respect their superiors and how strict the hierarchy is there. We also found out that only Thai working there were the chef and the resort taxi van driver, all the other were Chinese.

While we were eating more beef and all the creatures of the sea, we learned that the "beef" we were eating, was actually beef tongue. Wow, so tender and tasty and what I've heard it's super expensive!

After this image in our minds, Make desided he'd had enough of it. We also had squid, shrimps. Milla also had her first clams, cooked in the grill, opened and topped up with green fish sauce.

While the night was falling and the party went on, eating turned in to a friendly drinking game, where everytime someone was served a drink, they had to finish it when they yelled "cheers" in Chinese. After a few gintonics and many beers, we could only be suprised how much they could drink! We also taught them "cheers" in Finnish (Kippis) and we would hear it many times that night.

It was nice to see how all of them were happy and you could see the community, hospitality and nonchalance in them.

Such fun, much drink. Wow!

Milla with the ladies.

Jamie had done his cookings and joined the others for drinks. He had heard about our trip and that we didn't have any particular plans, except for to go to Nakhon Si Thammarat to Milla's origins. He asked if we wanted to get to China, one of his friend and sister was going to drive there through Laos and they would be happy to give us a free ride. They had more resorts in mainland China too. They would leave at 26th of December and we promised to think about their offer. It would be an unique chance to get to China with some locals, but we couldn't say for sure because all our plans was still open and we had no idea of which part of Thailand we would be at that time. Nevertheless we were totally suprised and honoured for the offer!

Kippis!

The night was late and it was still hot, not sure if it was the laughing, the eating or the drinks or all of the above. It was time to take a dip in the resort swimming pool. The managers sister was the only one to come with us but we had a ton of fun! She told us that she can't swim but the pool was only about 120cm deep and Make promised to teach her how to swim. We love that they have their own pool at the resort, because there's no ocean or beaches in Chiang Mai, so a little dip in the pool every now and then cools you up pretty good.

At some point Jamie came by the pool. For some drunken idea of the employees, Jamie ended up in the pool too, fully clothed with his iPhone and wallet on him. We could see him grabbing his pockets mid-air and that's when we realised that he wasn't going to have a phone anymore.

A quick dip in the pool with the rice hat on.

It was time to go change on some dry clothes. The party was closing to it's end. Everyone was full and a bit tipsy so it was time for the people to check out. We got in dry clothes and went to thank the staff and Jamie for an amazing party. It was so nice that the taxi driver who drove us to Viengping couple of times were there too. It was also nice to meet Jamie's family and friends too, they're beautiful and lovely people. Us Finnish people have so much to learn from their hospitality.

When we met the chef and the others in front of the restaurant, they were already waiting for a ride home. We told them that we would go across the road to The Next Bar to play pool, they said we were crazy to even think of drinking more after that party. But hey, we Finnish!
After The Next Bar we went back to the resort to get ready for tommorow. we would start packing and getting ready for Bangkok and Make's big 30 year birthday!

Packed and ready to go.

Late night snack before we leave to Bangkok

Shrimp chips, yummy!

Orphans, charity, donations and what not

14.11.2014

"Hold me!"

Cock-a-doodle-doo! Went the alarm off on my ancient Nokia phone. I use that old faithful for two reasons: the speaker is loud enough to wake me up and the cock-a-doodle-doo -alarm wakes up Milla, she hates it so much! We were super tired, it was 7am and we had a bit of a party last night. For that reason Make desided to skip the trip to Viengping.

Just before 8am our taxi with Mr. Lucky, the same driver we had at the first Viengping trip, was waiting for us. We had asked the reception to call him the day before, so we wouldn't be late again.
Because the clock wasn't even 8am, the hotel chef wasn't working, so we had to stop by 7eleven to get our delicious and nutricious breakfast. The selection at 7eleven won't dazzle you, but we still managed to find coco-drinks, juice, sandwiches (they had even cut the crust out for us, yey!) and some apple- and cornpies.

We ate en route to Viengping, because there was no time to waste. At Viengping we went straight to the office and signed our volunteer rosters. We was there at 9am, so we would do 2 hour shift, ending at 11am when the kids go for lunch. After signing the rosters we were guided to a building that had a small pond in front of it, in the pond we could see big, almost a meter long carps.

Soon they brought couple of the girls (sorry, can't remember their names) to us. One of the girls was almost 3 years old, and the other one had just had her 4th birthday. The caretakers gave the girls a big plastic box full of dublos and other building blocks and a bamboo mat to play on. They pointed us to this cute little bamboo hut, that would be our playhouse.

When we got to the hut, girls had already rolled down the mat and were pouring on the blocks. The girls weren't a bit shy, you could tell they're used to play with strange people who do charity work there, some only for few hours, some for months. You could also tell that it was nice change for them, in the middle of their routines to get some one-on-one attention.

Here would be a picture of us playing with the girls, but we wanted to respect the moment by concentrating on them only.
But here's a nice pic of a fish tank, made in an old TV,
we came across this in one small grocery store.

The girls started to play, Milla and I were more confused, but there was no other choice but to dive in and start building! The plays went well, even tho we had a massive language barrier, they were too young to know English and we were to farang to know any Thai. At some point the dublos flew around and we felt silly when we tried to tell them "No!". All you got back was this rascally grin like "I can't understand you". Yeah right, Milla stopped for a minute and stared one of the girls deep in the eyes. Slowly the grin faded when they realised that we're not the ones to dance for them.

At some point the dublos were old news, when they found brooms. That play lasted a long time when they made sure the hut was clean of all the sand. Also sitting in the toybox when I lift it up like an airplane was much fun for them. But like for every evolutions creature (well mammals at least) the time came when the girls had to go to pee. We escorted them at the building door, where a caretaker came to take them to toilet. There's pretty strict rules of outsiders going in to these houses.

When the pitstop was over Räikkönen.... I mean we, went to the playground. Milla took the older girl on her lap and told me it felt like a little koala bear had took a grip on her, making sure she wouldn't let go. The younger girl saw this so I had no other choice than to take her clinging to me. At the playground we went through different swings and racks. At the end they seemed too dull for the girls, compared to being held in our laps.

We started walking around the yard holding the girls, it was over 10am and already +30 degrees and no signs of clouds. We must've swet liters holding the girls. They wanted to touch every wind chimes and tree as we walked. Funny thing was that when we asked water for the girls (it was hot, like really hot) the caretakers told us that the kids aren't allowed to drink in between breakfast and lunch. Don't know why and we didn't want to ask, so we wouldn't come across like we questioned their ways.
Well we did but you know what I mean.

Milla with the girls.
They just had to had these flowers from the bushes.

The time was nearing it's end when the girls had to go to lunch at 11am. The time with the girls felt shorter than it was and it felt like we just couldn't help enough. But when we saw the girls with the big red flowers in their hair we realise that they're happy just for us holding them and answering to their smiles.

It was 11 o'clock and we said our wistful goodbyes when the girls disappeared inside the dining room. Tired from all the playing and the heat, we head back to the office. At the office we asked again about the donations and if we could see the girls we had collected money for. They were just outside the office at a small cafeteria, ran after school by these two promising girls.

They seemed a bit shy but obviously grateful after we handed them each 250TBH from our friend Jonna. Thank you so much, we wish you could've been there to see their faces when a complete stranger from the other side of the world, gave them money. We also asked the names of the girls to make a bank transaction to Viengping's account, but direct that money straight to these two girls' school fees. Big thanks also to my mother Seija for giving a 2000TBH donation to these young ladies!

Either one of these girls couldn't speak English, but the office worked told us that if we write email to them, the office will help to answer back to us, until the girls learn enough to reply us them selves.

If you would like to help, go to Viengping Children's Home's webpage and find out more:

http://www.baanviengping.go.th/en/help.html

The girls we gave the sponsor money.
The cafeteria they run in the backround.

Roadside diner suprises

12.11.2014

Boys at the pool.

When we finally got back to the hotel from the Viengping visit, it was a time for a well earned dip in the pool and a few beers. The weather was sunny and something over +30 degrees celsius, just the way we like it! This was the first time we got to swim, because they had been cleaning the pool for us. The pool at The Fortune Residence is not one from the biggest end, but it's big enough for cooling down, hanging and to swim a few laps, just enough for us.

Not a worry in the world!

Milla taking a dip after a long and emotional day.

When the sun started to set, it was time to get ready for dinner. We decided to stay close to the hotel after a long day. We crossed the road from an overpass and started walking. We ended up at this little roadside diner, that looked like one for the truckers. It was right across the road from our hotel, separated by six lanes of busy road in between.

The diner's name in Thai up and left from Milla's head.
We highly recommend this little diner!

We sat at the table inside and had to immediately change the table. The music was so loud that you couldn't sit by the speakers. There were few locals drinking beer and the place looked liked they didn't even have kitchen. We asked for menus which they only had in Thai.
The owner didn't speak much English, but we managed to order 3 different dishes. Chicken, beef, crab soup and rice of course. For drinks we ordered a 0,7 liter bottle of Sangsom and some cokes.

When the owner/chef took our orders, we finally saw where the kithcen was. It was a little 2 x 1m booth where you can barely turn. But as usual, the crappier the place looks, the better the food!
The food was amasing and had plenty of spices. Not so much that it only burns and can't really taste anything after that.

The near by toilet we used, not the kitchen!

We sat there for many hours, just drinking and talking, they even put some English music on for us, not only Thai music. Only bad thing was that the music was Justin Bieber which we soon asked them to change. Maybe they were just trying to get rid of us, who knows, right?

The clock was running and it was time to head back across the road to the hotel. We bought another big bottle of Sangsom to go (yes, you can do that in Thailand, and the price is close to that in the grocery store and yes they sell hard liquore in grocery stores! Sick right?) and 6 big bottles of Chang Beer. The locals looked at us like we crazy. We only Finns yo!

When we got the check, we dropped our jaws. The check was only ~1200TBH (24€) for 1,6 liters of whiskey, all the mixers, almost 4 liters of beer, 3 courses of food and rice. WOW! That's cheap!
We highly recommend this place if you find yourself hungry at the Mahidol Road.

Roadside diner at the red circle on Mahidol Road.
Our hotel at the red pin point.

Back at the hotel!

Back to the Viengping Children's Home, after 18 years.

12.11.2014

Milla at the age of 3, in Viengping Children's home.

Link to video

All of our blog posts are written roughly through memory and Milla's diaries, translated to english by Tuukka. This one is especially about Milla's emotions of being back to Viengping where she was adopted from, so this one will be written from Milla's perspective.

At the morning the panic hit me, I didn't know how to react. The children's home was a 30 minute drive away from the residence. We had the minivan already waiting for us after the breakfast. 

Few misunderstandings and a bit of negotiating went on about the time when we had to be there. On the way we stopped at the Rimping supermarket to buy a gift for the lady in charge of the children's home. We bought her bird's nests for about 550TBH (13,5€), it's a delicacy in Asia. Nests are collected from the cliffs and made in to soup. It's a common gift and very valued one. We also bought flowers and had a bag of  Turkin Pippuri's, a finnish candy to give them.

On route to Viengping.

When we finally arrived at the gates (only 5 minutes late, oops!) a social worker was there to guide us in with a big smile on her face. She asked my name (Chanamon) and as soon as she opened my file she yelled "Bai Tong! I remember you, you was so little!"

I got even more confused when more and more of the nurses came to look my files and laughing how I've grown so much. I had totally no words for the situation, it was somehow so beautiful.

The social worker on the right , other one of Milla's caretakers on the left.

Pictures of Milla at the Viengping and after adoption.

Milla's files

Close up of the file.

How cute is that?

The side of the children's home which we visited was for children from  newborns up to 6 years old. There's also housing for over 6 years old girls and another house for the older girls (up to 22 years of age). Boys from the children's home go to house for boys when they hit 6 years. Boy's home is on the same property. They showed us the room which I lived when I was in Viengping. All of my roommates from the days had also been adopted. It was nice to hear that I wasn't the only lucky one.

Children sleep in different houses, depending on their age.

We walked by a playground and all of the children came boldly to say hi to us. All of us had at least a few kids hanging from us. They looked at our cameras and especially at the boys's tattoos. You could see how they just wanted attention and to be held and played with.

Make surrounded by the children

Milla found a new friend.

All of the kids knew this gesture

After a quick stop at the playground, we got to see the babies' house. It was a 2 story building and in the upstairs there was a room of approximately 60 square meters. The room was full of cribs in lines of two, on the each side of the room, total of maybe 20-30 cribs. We have no photos inside of these buildings, because of the Thailand's strict children protection laws, which prohibits taking photos or videos inside of these housings.

All the babies had clean sheets and blankets, own nursing bottles and toys. There was only five nurses for all of the (20-30) babies, which is pretty few. At the night time there would be only two nurse. It's quiet at the night, but when the mass crying begins, there will be a shortage of hands!

I felt affection to these little dark eyed darlings, but at the same time felt a grasp in my chest and water in my eyes. The feeling of standing inside of a room, where from a month old to a year old babies reach for you as a sign of a need to be held, it leaves you speechless. Especially when you yourself have been in that same exact room as a baby. There's no words when they look at you like you could be their next friend and play with them.

All of the babies in the room looked healthy, except for one boy who had oxygen tubes going in to his nose. He was suffering from a serious respiratory illness (which name we didn't catch). The boy was brought in when he was only couple of weeks old. Afterwards his mother had came to see the boy, but had to leave him there. She had no money to take care of the boy because of his illness.
After all the little boy had gone through, when I held his tiny tiny hand and gave him a smile, I still got a little shy smile back.

When we left the room with water in our eyes, we got to spectate 1-4 years old's lunch time. The dining room (or actually a building) was roomy. It had benches made from aluminium and the younger kids had their own iron plate and a spoon. Older kids had plastic plates and got to practice using a fork with the spoon. (in Thailand you eat with a fork in your left, and a spoon in your right hand. Not with a fork and a knife like in western countries)

Lunch time with the 4 year olds.

Milla 18 years ago at the diner.

Milla in the same dining room, 18 years later.

A lady comes out of the kitchen, she reaches out and introduces herself as the "chief of the kitchen". When I was still in Viengping, she was a social worker too and took care of me, but now runs the kitchen. "Bai Tong, you were pretty naughty when you was a kid", she says and shakes her finger in front of my face. But with a smile she crabs my arm and told me she always knew I'd be tall and beautiful.

The chief of the kitchen in the middle, in black and white shirt.

At this point few other kitchen workers gathered around. One of them stars laughing and tells me how funny it is to see me 20cm taller than her and that she had changed my diapers many times when I lived there. It almost made me blush, but my skin tone saved me from that. I looked her in her eyes and squeezed her hand and managed  only to say "thank you". It felt so good. She asked me what do I do now days and when I told her I was studying to become a nurse, she squeezed my hand even tighter and said "you're welcome".

It felt hard to leave the dining room. Due to the language barrier it was hard to ask a many questions. I was speechless anyway, so it felt like I almost couldn't speak any English. After the thanks and the goodbyes with smiles it was time to move on.

Next stop was the learning room where the kids from 1-6 years, learn basic skills and manners. The room was pretty big and had all these items in an neat order around the walls and the tables. There were beans, dishes, ropes and flags. In the middle of the room there was a big circle where the kids would wait when the lessons started and ended.

When you first enter the room, one would think it's a playroom, but when you look closer you can find all these puzzles and brain-teasers. The older you get, the harder the puzzles, starting from putting beans to a string and all the way to eating with sticks, tying shoelaces and using zippers. Everything basic and everyday stuff that a kids learn from their parents, except that  these kids need to learn it here for obvious reasons.

Which came first, the egg or the chicken?

Easiest of the tasks.

Buttons, zippers shoelaces and snap fasteners.

In the other side of the room there was a world map and all the flags of different countries, basic calculation and English problems. I thought it was great that all of the rooms had a strict rule; everyone needs to be absolutely silent and obedient. There's a line between learning and play and I think it's great, it helps the kids to concentrate and give harmony to others too. In Finland you learn by play, it's good sometimes but it's not always enough.

We left the learning room and met a clinical nurse outside. She takes care of all the kids and was a trainee in Viengping when I was still there. She also said she always knew I'd be tall, but not THIS tall (174cm).

She was also pleased to hear that I was in school to be a nurse like she is. I felt proud. It was also good to know that the kids had a person to turn to if they got ill.

After that we went to the office building to talk some more. There we met the leader of the whole Viengping community. We asked her about the donations and how could we sponsor some of the kids. In Thailand you have to pay to go to school, it costs about 500TBH (12,3€) for one kid to go to school for a month. There was an office dedicated to the donations only, but we didn't want to donate directly to the Viengping Children's Home, but rather to sponsor couple of the kids in person. 

If you donate directly to Viengping, the money goes to their account. Then Viengping workers plea the money for different things, like new toys or blankets, school material or what so ever. After every month a panel of outside officials gather around to address these pleas and either allow or deny the use of the funds for these matters. This is to prevent corruption and the money from going to anyone others pockets than the Viengping's.

The social worker on the left, the chief of  staff of Viengping in the middle.

We gave the gifts to the lady in charge and received gifts as well. Boys got hand made stone bracelets, made by the kids in Viengping Children's Home. I got a hand sewed small purse. We also promised to come do some charity work the next friday, day after tomorrow.

Birds's nest, turkin pippuri's and some flowers to pay our respects.

Hand made bracelets from the kids.

When we left I felt a great joy that even though there's so many kids in the children's home, they all have good places to sleep, play and eat and many people who work there and take care of them. There were also lots of western charity workers who play with the kids. Everyday chores feel easy when you have someone to help and guide you, but there's only so much employees, help is always needed.

I have no words to describe the feeling when you think that you've been in the same situation than these little kids. They all have a shelter and food, but still most of them can't even dream of having a real family! It would've been great if my family had been there with me to go through this, but in the other hand all this is very personal and you can look it a bit different when your here "alone".

If you wish to participate in charity work, donate or just to know more about Viengping Children's Home, you can go to their website 

@ http://www.baanviengping.go.th/en/index.html

or to their facebook page 

@ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viengping-Childrens-Home/124012657642576