The Dorms

Meechai Dorm

Located on Meechai Rd, one of the three major streets/roads the city was built around, was this old house which provided accommodation for up to 10 volunteers at a time, including me. The house itself was pretty big with five bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, computer room, a common area/TV-room, one big balcony and a terrace. We all shared rooms with someone, even though I had my room for myself the first week I was there before two other guys moved in. It was pretty basic, a mattress on the floor and a fan next to it. Nothing fancy, but all you needed. It was only a place to sleep and store your stuff, maybe the occasional nap if there was time. Otherwise it was probably the place I spent the least amount of time in. It was on the top floor, which meant a lot of running up and down stairs, which, considering any physical activity would result in an enormous amounts of sweating due to the heat and humidity, sometimes made it kind of pointless going down to take a shower, when you felt like taking another one as soon as you got back to your room. That was pretty much the case with any activity in Thailand more exhausting than picking your nose, and the feeling of being nice and clean was a luxury that would only last from turning off the shower to closing the bathroom door on your way out. On the upside though, was the huge terrace just outside of our room where you could hopefully find some place in the shadow to relax, or watch the sunset over the park. Probably my favorite place in the house.



Green Dorm

The Green Dorm was smaller than Meechai, right in the city center between two of the main roads. The location was definitely better than the other dorm with walking distance to a lot of nice little restaurants and markets, and because of its closeness to everything it became the meeting place whenever there was something going on. There wasn't much more in the house than bedrooms, a balcony and an outdoor kitchen (a good place for BBQ's), but the balcony surrounded by palmtrees always provided a nice oasis in the shadow, also the place we had our thai-lessons at. There were hammocks at the green dorm, which we didn't get until the week before I left, and there was always the battle between which dorm was better than the other. We had more space and our computers, they had their nice location and their hammocks on the balcony. I guess it was a tie between the both, and they complimented themselves in a good way which resulted in people spending times at both dorms instead of just isolating themselves in one place. It brought the volunteers more together and made it feel like one, instead of two groups living in different places.