Volunteer Programs in Cha-am, Thailand

I volunteered at the Thailand rescue centre and absolutely loved it. The location is a really beautiful, chilled out place with a really friendly little village. There was a good balance of work and relaxing and exploring time and on days off there is quite a few places nearby to visit with nice beaches and some good bars to go out in! The centre is well organized and run. There is a really interesting range of animals there and new ones arriving all the time but most importantly with the rehab program for gibbons you feel like you're contributing to a program that is actually making a difference and has a real future. We went on a jungle trip to the national park which was about 30 mins drive away and so we got to see some of the species at the centre in the wild plus some wild elephants and loads of other animals. The rooms are pretty basic but fine and meals are great although you do have to like rice! I wished I could have stayed for longer.

It was amazing to get so close to these gentle giants. The elephants are rescued from horrible situations so it was a privilege to be able to care for them. There were lots of other volunteers there and the work was really fun.