Hallo Kabouter,

My friend's girlfriends sister volunteers in Thailand helping out the victims of forced prostitution, but im not sure if you will get an upscale room.
It is volunteering after all

I think this volunteering issue should be explored more- does anyone know of any good groups or opportunities that are out there? I don't think many of us would be willing to pay to do work like some of these upscale volunteer tourism companies. Anyone with experience?
How would you go about finding these opportunities. I wouldn't mind paying for housing and such but not paying to do work. Even helping out with local children/teaching would be good.

it will cost you a lot if you get amazon to ship to Thailand. Some items you have to pay very high tax/duties for, but minimum seems like it is 37% (30% import tax and 7% VAT) of declared value. And you have to pay the same rate for the shipping costs.

Are you sure Amazon even want to ship to Thailand? I'm just asking because I'm trying to get some motorcycle parts from some US companies, but they dont want to ship it here

i think the estonians who were here a year ago ordered a lot of books from amazon. dont know if they paid taxes for them though

I met a guy in CM who volunteered at the orphanage, just going for the day and playing with the kids and stuff.

He said if you want to do it you go and give ID (prolly fill out some forms) wait a day and then youre good to go once you get clearance.

It sounded awesome and i wanted to do it but in the end i never did

I just checked to see if Phuket had the same thing but apparently you need a work permit even for volunteer work at their orphanage.

great tip, need more books for my neuroscientific research ÷]

i didnt pay any tax or duty for books ordered from amazon

Sorry what I meant is I don't really need housing as I can arrange something for myself (most organizations include housing in the price)

It seems to me that every volunteer organization asks money, what's not clear to me though is if this money is for food/accommodation or if a certain percentage goes to the organization itself.

I've ordered a bunch of books from Amazon and never paid any taxes on them. The fastest shipping option ships them in two days.

then books are exempt, but electronics(kindle) is certainly not.

We'll I'll find out soon enough. I ordered the new Kindle a few weeks ago but it's not released yet so gotta wait a few more weeks.

This will be difficult because you need a Work Permit to volunteer - WP's are not easy to come by.

Hmmm the strange thing is that all these volunteer sites claim that a tourist visa will suffice?

Ok well if they are legit maybe they know something I don't. I would definitely ask them about it before starting 'work' though.

BTW can you get coffeepads in Thailand for a senseo coffee-machine?

pls update about this when you get it. i should probably just stop being a nit and order it, realizing that whatever bull**** tax they impose is worth it.

btw, i would probably pitch in to help a cause like this. I know that we don't really interact with this kind of thing being foreigners, but I know it's out here, and it bothers me quite a bit.

hey couple questions

im coming to Thailand in late September backpacking around

whats a good backpack to travel around south east asia?
im gonna put a laptop in it but i will be traveling pretty light so any suggesutions for pretty cheap thakns

A travel backpack is not something you want to get cheap. Really sucks to have a zipper break...say, when you are about to check your baggage at the airport, for instance.

I got a North Face bag for ~$100 in 2005 and it is still going strong, not a buckle or zipper or strap has broken on it and I've beat it up pretty good.

i did a little bit volunteering myself in a very small village in the mountains, teaching some english. but a problem was, they wouldnt let me teach at the school because i had no certificate, only at a temple where i supported the monk teacher, and it kinda felt like im not making much of a difference, it was a nice experience though.
i have it planned to do more things, but its always such a fight against my laziness to put in the effort of finding a place and then of course going there the first time


your confusing it, often you need to do volunteering to get a work permit. i never saw any requirement for standard volunteering except teaching english at government schools.


it absolutely depends how you look for it. if you google and go by the sites that list a lot of opportunities, some are ridiculously expensive, i remember prices like 1k USD for 2 weeks taking care of animals etc. that 1stop thailand site shows good ways to find a volunteering opportunity.

what matters to you will be different than what matters to others. my priorities when looking at a bag:

1. front opener and not a top loader, to give easy access to the entire contents of the bag

2. has a detachable day bag

3. outside pocket(s) big enough to carry wet towels or shoes, and big bottles of water

if you're going to spend a good amount of time hauling it around. i'd man up and go to an REI store, have the guys who know what they are doing measure you for a bag, and make sure you get the right size. you'll pay full price, but REI is pretty awesome. i had a broken clasp after a year and a half of use, and they fixed it for free. if you're a member, you can buy a bag and return it if you don't like it, even after use.

another valuable thing is for the bag to be small enough that you are allowed to carry it on to most planes.

having double posted, i figured i'd make the most of this now unnecessary real estate

in regard to getting things shipped to thailand from amazon, you can order off the UK version of the site https://www.amazon.co.uk/ and, in my limited experience, avoid customs charges/extra BS charges.

I want to get a Thai bank account or an additional credit card (for backup reasons). Can you recommend any Thai bank accounts or credit cards? Or european/US credit cards for which you can apply in Thailand and get them sent to Thailand?

Thanks, I checked out the site, when it comes to a visa, your fine with the normal one it seems:

Didn't found any volunteer work on the site besides the gibbonproject.org