Classroom Without Walls

Rainforest Stream

Ok, so it wasn’t the beach, we didn’t see any ruins, and Brooke was not with us, but last week’s trip to Pang Soong Lodge and Doi Saket with my fourth graders was all any teacher could ask for in an educational overnight trip. On Monday, January 25^th, we were driven in two vans into the midst of a tropical rainforest nestled in the mountains, about one hour’s drive from Chiang Mai city, not to return until Thursday afternoon. My 14 students, Ms. Bee and I then spent the next 3 ½ days learning things no traditional classroom setting could offer. This is Classroom Without Walls – a week when grades 2-12 at APIS leave books, desks and uniforms behind to gain some real-life experience with the people and places of Thailand.

Our trip leaders, Kun Shane (or Luang Boo as he affectionately called himself), along with his sidekick Kun Otto, a Thai man with excellent English and terrific skills with children, tirelessly led our class through one activity after another. Shane is the co-owner of this ecotourism outfit called Track of the Tiger, T.R.D., responsible for two lodges in northern Thailand that offer international school students, corporations and other groups the chance to experience nature at its finest while learning valuable team-building skills. What did we do while we were at the lodge?

Day One

We were brought to Pang Soong Lodge at around 10:30am, where we settled into the “classroom” area under one of the accommodation buildings. This was an open-air room with a long table and about 20 chairs. Shane gave our first instructions in his Irish-born, South African-raised accent, and we were off on our first adventure – a hike through the forest, past deep ravines with towering banana trees reaching for the sunlight, over rushing, clear streams via bamboo and rope bridges, carefully treading past coffee plants and tea bushes, and finally arriving at a 30-meter tall waterfall, rushing impressively despite the fact that it is the dry season. For the entire walk, every student was engaged with the beautiful surroundings, taking in all of the awesome trees and plants, many much bigger and taller than what we see in the immediate Chiang Mai area. The bamboo groves looked like they extended forever, and we noted all different sizes, some as wide as North American maple trees. The birds and frogs could be heard all around us, and there wasn’t a sign of motorized vehicles anywhere. On the way down, Shane asked the students to draw a rudimentary map of the trail, noting significant landmarks along the way, such as the creeper fig slowly devouring another tree as it reached for the sky, and the coffee plants or giant rocks moved by tectonic-plate shift.

At the bottom of the trail, we had a delicious Thai-style buffet lunch, and I sipped freshly ground, locally grown Arabica coffee, one of many cups to come. After we’d been nourished and refreshed, we were driven to the Mae On Dam to partake in our first team-building activity. Two teams of students, with gentle encouragement from the staff and a helpful knot-tying lesson, were given materials to make a raft that would float 7 students and 2 adults. They had several bamboo poles, six rubber inner tubes, and a bag full of rope. Students struggled and fought, but ultimately they prevailed as both teams built rafts that were sailed beautifully around a buoy and back to shore. As a reward, we let the kids swim around in the reservoir with their life jackets on and they floated in the tubes. For many of them, this was their favorite part of the trip. One boy asked me, more than once, “Are we going to make a boat again?”

That night was possibly the biggest adventure of all. We transferred to a campsite where waiting for us were several large tents complete with sleeping bags, mats, pillows, towels and soap, and a shallow stream for play. So the kids played in the stream, I pitched a tennis ball to some as they tried to hit it with a giant stick of bamboo, and then we enjoyed a BBQ dinner of chicken and corn on the cob. After some fun evening games led by Kun Otto, we retired to our tents. The weather had been gorgeous all day, but soon we heard thunder in the distance, and then – BOOM! The first crack. And in an instant, the rain came pouring down relentlessly. Kids were screaming, boys were yelling to me “Can I sleep in your tent?!”, tents were blowing and leaking, and before I knew it, one of the Thai staff had begun rustling everyone up, bags and all, through the rain and into this scary old wooden house. This would be better than the tents? As it turned out, all of the girls slept comfortably on one floor of the house with Ms. Bee, while the boys and I slept in the attic. The kids were so excited that they swore they wouldn’t be able to sleep, but once we turned out the lights the gentle snoring began and then everyone was asleep. The rain had already stopped, but it was too late to go back to the tents – the rain had been coming down too hard, so the tents were all soaked. So much for camping in tents for one night!

Day Two

We woke late since the storm had kept us up, and the ground was still wet. We had a nice morning breakfast of cereal and fire-grilled toast, and headed off to the lodge. After choosing our rooms, we set off with Kun Shane to explore and map the Pang Mano village. This is a small village consisting of only about 40 homes and fewer than 100 people, who have long made their living harvesting tea leaves that are meant for chewing, like gum. They put these particular tea leaves in an oven, boil them, and then wrap them with bamboo, selling one huge roll for 7 baht. I tried the tea, which is usually only chewed by the elder generation, and found it bitter and sour at the same time, and not much like tea at all. I was glad that they’ve also started harvesting coffee. Delicious, nice-smelling, easy on the palette, coffee. Chewing tea is not my cup of tea.

This local man has chewed a lot of tea.

Kun Shane is a fluent Thai speaker, and many of the proceeds from his endeavors go directly into sustaining this village, so we easily spoke with the villagers about daily life and growing tea, as well as roasting coffee and running a small shop. Possibly the most interesting thing I saw on this day was a pickup truck filled with all the things a farmer could need, and a little extra. It was a mobile farm-supply store, complete with machetes, rope, batteries and clothing. The distance between the village, the steep mountain roads, and the fact that most families have motorbikes and not cars makes travel into town for supplies difficult, so the supplies come to them in the form of this small truck loaded to the top of the cab.  Best of all, the driver was wearing a New York Yankees hat, so we must’ve had some karmic connection, as I had my New York hat on too.

Checking out the mobile farm-shop.

Later that day we played some team-building games up in the field, the most fun being the “Human Minesweeper” game, and the most challenging being the “Move These Tires from One Pole to Another But They Have to Stay in Order from 1-5 and You Can’t Put a Lower Number on a Higher Number” game. Before dinner some kids played in the brook, then after dinner we had some more games, a movie, and much needed sleep. It was fairly easy that night to get most kids to sleep, since the storm had riled us up and kept us up late the night before.

Day Three

We spent the morning learning to be scientists, which basically meant playing in the stream with nets and bowls. In the span of about 40 minutes, it was amazing how many insects and other creatures the students managed to capture just by moving a few rocks and sticking a net under them, and they were limited to a 10-yard square in which they could search. They caught water beetles, tadpoles from small to strangely large, shrimp, spiders, centipedes who feasted on the other insects, and even fly larvae which looked like they would make some massive flies when they matured. We took these critters up to the lodge with us and learned how to use a flow chart to identify insects based on their characteristics. That evening, many students enjoyed looking at the insects under the microscope and honing their identification skills even further. The insects and tadpoles were happy to be released into the stream the next morning, if they had not already been eaten by the centipedes. Three students who generally struggle in the classroom were true superstars during this portion of the trip, so it was a pleasure to see them gain respect as leaders from their classmates.

In the afternoon the students were told that they had crashed on an island and that they must make a shelter, a fire, cook some food, and go hunting. They made a bamboo shelter, started a fire with twigs (and a lighter), and then boiled water to make mama (ramen) noodles inside a bamboo shoot. Then they ate the noodles out of another bamboo shoot that just so happened to be carved into the shape of a long bowl. Finally, they used slingshots to try to hit targets resembling wild boars and other animals in the trees. They didn’t do so well, so I think we may have starved if it weren’t for the noodles. At the end of all this, we headed down the stream for a whole-class activity where everyone tries to plug up the holes in a “leaky pipe” as one person tries to fill the pipe to the top using a bucket filled by the stream. Along with the bamboo raft, this was the other most-popular activity of the week. One student who had complained about activities before stood his ground wholeheartedly as he kept his fingers over the holes no matter how much freezing water came pouring over his head from above. We never did fill the pipe; there were not enough of us and the students’ hands were too small. But after finally giving up we had a water fight to end all water fights. Nobody left that stream with a dry patch of clothing! Fortunately we had hot water showers.

Grade 11s try the Leaky Pipe Challenge

That evening, after dinner and games, one of the Thai staff thought it would be a good idea to share ghost stories to the students, so the non-Thai kids slept just fine while the Thai students needed some extra assurance before bed that there were in fact no ghosts in their rooms. I tried to dissuade their fears by playing the part of the clumsy, coughing, can’t quite find his scary voice ghost as I moved from room to room to say goodnight. I think it worked, because I slept well, which means I wasn’t worried about the kids still being awake.

Day Four

This was a shorter day, but still exciting. We decided to do the same hike that we had done on Monday, to relive the beauty of that first day. This time we went without any maps or pencils and just took in the sites and sounds of the forest. Many students played in the waterfall at the top, and then we made our way back to the lodge, packed up, and headed out. On the way home, we had one more stop – at one of His Majesty the King’s Royal Projects. This project is called the “Teen Tok Royal Project” and its main focus is the growing of vanilla. So the students were able to see vanilla in various stages of growth, and we learned that it sells at 30,000 baht per kilogram, or about $900. Now that’s a cash crop! They also grow dragonfruit here, but it was not in season, so we only saw the vines.

After all this, the kids and teachers were ready for some rest and a long weekend. We arrived at school by 2pm, were dismissed, and had the day off on Friday. So it was tiring, and sleep was difficult at times, and a few kids acquired minor injuries, but overall the trip was a great success. The students learned a lot about themselves, the rainforest ecosystem, getting along with others for an extended period of time, how villages operate on a daily basis, and more. No parents showed up to cart their kids away and nobody demanded to go home. I am very proud of this class and all they accomplished on our Classroom Without Walls trip, 2010. Thanks to Shane, Otto, Stuart, and everyone at Track of the Tiger. I highly recommend their services, and you can support them by eating at their restaurant, Just Khao Soy, in Chiang Mai just west of the Mae Ping River and south of the Night Bazaar.

As usual, you can see more photos here.

Note: There was a professional photographer along with us for the entire trip, so tune in for his photos when I receive them. Mr. Chawp Jai lost his camera on the Ruins and Beaches trip in early January.