Action packed day with the Thai-Danish Club

The Thai-Danish Club managed to gather more than 40 people to the second edition of the successful water rally in the weekend. According to the participants from the first rally in 2006 this one was at least as great as the first.

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The meeting time was set to 7 am in front of Tesco Lotus Rama II, and on a Saturday there is a risk that especially young people prefer to choose the bed more than a two hours bus trip with unknown people. Luckily it was not what happened on the second water rally trip arranged by the Thai-Danish club. Not only did everybody make it in time, also at least one third of the participants were young people from the Embassy. Even a young Norwegian trainee from Norway’s Embassy showed up

Well supplied with goodie bags containing croissant, coffee and juice we were told to “Grab a Thai” and find a seat in one out of four minibuses, that would take us to the Ban Na Koh Resort in the Kaeng Krachan National Park around 200 km south of Bangkok.

There was time for a short presentation and a chit chat before, speaking for my own bus, everyone around me spend the time sleeping the rest of the bus ride.

On arrival there was a quick introduction to the Thai-Danish Club and an appropriate thanksgiving to those who made the trip possible.

After finding a fitting life jacket we were divided in five groups, in which we would spend the next two hours on a boat, we were told. But before we could board the boats we were given detailed explanations on how to paddle, how to steer and not to mention how to survive in a group.

In particularly the latter we had great use of later.

From the laughing among the Thai speaking participants it was clear that the instructor managed his role as entertainer as well as the instructing leader.

Introduced to the rules of the game we went away in each our boat, and it would not take long before the team spirits appeared in the boats. Now for the serious business – who would win the game?

On spots along the river we were going to find hidden ingredients for a meal we had to prepare at the last point. In the beginning the boats were all equal, but later on the strongest boats put themselves in front. If it was due to physical strength and superiority or a forgetful coxswain who forgot one of the spots can never be told.

Around an hour of river rally later we went up from the boats to cook a meal from the collected ingredients counting two eggs, corn, rice pancakes, bananas, fish, coca cola and water. It seemed that all teams had an outdoor experienced member on their team, so in short time we were all having a great bonfire, where we could grill the fish, boil the eggs and prepare the serving in general.

After having tasted the group’s cooking results we were ordered out in the knee high river water for the so called water trains. Standing in lines and holding the back of each other’s life jackets each group was shaped as a chain. With the explanation in mind on the importance of the manoeuvre in case of flooding, we could lean back in the water, splashing our legs and see which team would reach the goal around 50 metres down the river.

Laughs and squeals proved that the challenge was a hilarious way to end the rally, which had lasted for approximately two hours at that moment.

Very wet and very hungry we went back to the resort, where a delicious lunch with chicken, fish, rice and salad was served. For those who did not have enough of the water there would be time for a swim, while the rest spend their time confirming each other in their team’s excellent effort or just a friendly talk to each other.

After a short view on top of the dam we found our seats in the busses and returned to Bangkok. Tired but excited after a great day in excellent company we split up and found each our way home.

See lots of more photos on the Facebook page of Thai Danish Club

 

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