WOOFing in Thailand

[mrkapom]

Hello,

I'm hoping to volunteer on a farm in Thailand when my job ends in January, ideally staying for a few months. The idea is to go live in beautiful countryside, work outside, hopefully learn some stuff about farming or animal husbandry or whatever it is they do on that farm (i'm not terribly particular), and most importantly, get a lot of practice speaking Thai. Ideally, my hosts would speak little to no English, and have little interest in learning it. A few solid months of 100% Thai would really help me improve, and that's kind of the driving force behind this idea, although I quite enjoy country living, too.

I'm familiar with WOOF, and that's more or less what I want to do (work on the farm in exchange for room and board), but the WOOF site is mostly filled with foreigners who speak English. I suppose most Thai farmers probably don't know about WOOF, so it's not that surprising, but it's an obstacle for me.

So, does anyone have any suggestions on how to find a place like this? Is there any Thai forum about this, or volunteering organization that someone could recommend? I plan on asking around with my Thai friends, maybe someone has a farming uncle or something, but I'm not sure that will bear fruit. I may be willing to pay a small fee, but ideally i would pay for my keep by working on the farm. I'm in Chiang Mai now, and would prefer to stay somewhere in Northern Thailand, but am also considering Central Thailand because I want to learn standard Thai, not the Northern dialect, and especially not a hilltribe language. Isaan could potentially be okay, too, as long as I could stay with people who were speaking the Central Thai dialect. I don't want to go to the South, I'm afraid they'd speak just too quickly for me.

Pun Pun Farm is a well-known farm around here that is run primarily by Thais, and I'm considering going there, but I'd like to find more options.

I know that this foreigner-dominated forum may not be the best place to ask this question, but I'm not sure where else to go. If someone knows a better place, please let me know. I can read and write Thai, so an all-Thai forum would be fine.

Thanks a lot!!

[KonaRain]

We just built a small house on Thai land above Chaing Mai..(Mae Rim..paralell to water road..) I'm totally lost away from computer.. Plenty Thai speakers all around..Just brought 50 truckloads of dirt..poor frogs...(actually I can hear them..they escaped.. Aloha

[tim armstrong]

We live near Nakhon Sawan. If that interests you send me a PM.

[KonaRain]

I have no idea where...You are..I got moved out enforcing good practices on my very afflicted lady (liver fail)..I understand that the set of Johnson baby lotions was a gift, but when I re.over it from our room where they were doing work on Her..I got booted..I was lble to see Her today in Hospital..where to cut it..You can find Her and talk about being a help on Her land..New house.. New dirtYou could possibly work there for Dr. Kandis ( Blakely, ^ Google Her Rainforest paradise^ Croatia..Australia, the girl is awesome..well were in our sixties..from the sixties....check.out the tree mounding post if You haven't.. Good info..I need help in Hawaii..She Kandis, might.help improve my rainforest land in Hawaii..please send me an email..the app is better..<<email removed, please use PM function>>

[KonaRain]

I'mpretty spaced from fatigue, if You email me I can use skype to talk..

Alohz, Brad

[FiftyTwo]

Great idea, if only the farmers spoke central Thai, which is unlikely.

They speak Lanna, Lao, and an assortment of languages local to their village.

Strangely enough city Lanna (CM) and village Lanna are also almost entirely different languages.

I know loads of farmers in the Central area, but they don't speak central Thai either.