Coming up in October, our Teaching English and Teaching IT volunteers in Thailand will be able to see some of Thailand’s amazing festivals, including the celebration of the Naka Fire Balls and Loy KraThong Festival where hundreds of lanterns are released into the sky. The “Bang Fai Phaya Nak,” Festival celebrates the amazing natural phenomenon of the Naka fire balls which mysteriously rise from the Meakong River on the full moon night of the eleventh lunar month every year. Phon Phisai, the home base of our volunteers, is the best place to see the fireballs and people from all over Thailand gather on the Mekong River to watch the spectacle. Read the rest of this entry »
Originally from Thailand and transplanted to Costa Rica, uVolunteer staff member, Meaw Chanphum, loves to tell everyone about her beloved home country. Her hometown in Thailand is only 30 minutes from our Teaching English project in Phon Phisai and she spent a lot of time in Phon Phisai while growing up in Thailand. Here are some tips from Meaw for future and current volunteers about things to do in your free time in and around the town. It may be small, but it is packed with culture: Read the rest of this entry »
We woke up in the lodge early, ready to pack into the van and explore the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. By 8:30 we were back on the unpaved road out of the Lodge and on our way to the remote beaches and rainforests of Tortuguero.
I always find you can learn a lot about a country just by driving through it and Costa Rica is a perfect example. We drove through banana plantations, pineapple fields, pastures of grazing cows and tiny Costa Rica villages that could only be distinguished by the different names of the local bars, always marked with a sign of Costa Rica’s local beer, Imperial. We drove by mountains and volcanoes in the distance and I was amazed by the diversity of the terrain that one little country contains.
For previous entries about the trip click here or read the rest of this entry:
Travelers from the US will have a much easier time getting to Ghana with the recent inauguration of new flights from Atlanta and Washington. Virgin Atlantic also added a new flight to Accra from London, and Brussel Airlines just began flying from Belgium. Already, Ghana’s main airport, Kokota International, is “becoming the hub of air transport in the West African sub-region as nine new international airlines have expressed interest to operate in Ghana in the near future.”
I posted Samuel Condon’s experiences from his first two weeks teaching English in Kathmandu and after reading his week 3 report, I’ve almost decided I need to pack up and catch a flight to volunteer there. He is building bonds with the monks, immersing himself in their way of life and he’s really dedicated to his teaching project, which is certainly paying off.
Monday morning fourteen volunteers, Camilo and I packed into a van and hit the open road, prepared with snacks and lots of bug spray. We drove for three hours through beautiful winding roads, narrow with over-hanging trees that opened up into vast fields with clouded mountains in the distance. The road was sometimes bumpy and unpaved, and more than once we had to stop for cattle crossing, but nobody minded when we were surrounded by the amazing scenery of volcanoes and palm trees and sometimes both.
At uVolunteer we are all about finding that happy medium between work and play. Last week, our volunteers in San Ramon fully experienced the meaning of a volunteer vacation on a whirlwind tour of Costa Rica, and Camilo and I were lucky enough to go along with them. Schools in Costa Rica were closed for holidays so we planned this trip for volunteers to experience other parts of the country and partake in different volunteer projects.
Most of the volunteers had never been to any of our destinations – Rio Celeste, Tortuguero and Puerto Viejo – and none of us really knew what to expect, except of course, a good time.
In subsequent blog posts I will give you details and highlights of the amazing trip, but first, here is a quick overview – from rainforests in Rio Celeste, to wildlife in Tortuguero and finally, to relax on the beaches of Puerto Viejo:
Amanda Ellis spent five weeks in San Ramon this winter (summer in the US) and she can’t believe all of the amazing experiences she crammed into a month and a half. Her first weekend here she was already bungee jumping off of the Rio Colorado Bridge and swimming under waterfalls at Las Musas Waterpark. After working hard during the week teaching English, Amanda took full advantage of her 3-day weekends to travel around Costa Rica - to volcanoes, cloud forests and beaches. Here are her weekend itineraries with recommendations:
Aaron recently finished teaching English with uVolunteer in Thailand. He lived in Phon Phisai in a homestay with Jack, our local coordinator, and traveled around Thailand on weekends. Read weekly highlights from his trip, including traditional Thai food, motorcycle riding around a tropical island, and meeting the Thai Minister of Education.
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