Jamie Conlan and Daria Barnhart spent their vacation this year slathering mortar over concrete-block walls in the hot sun, helping tsunami victims in southern Thailand build new homes.
College student Chelsea Norell, from the United States, volunteered nearby in an orphanage for children whose parents were swept away in the tsunami.
Just down the road, I took a Thai cooking class, rode a long-tail fishing boat to a gorgeous beach and floated down a river on a bamboo raft.
Yet I, too, was helping the recovery effort.
My activities were operated by survivors in a village an hour north of Phuket, a village devastated in two ways.
The villagers’ boats and homes were destroyed by the tsunami that ripped through the area three years ago, and most of the village’s best wage earners were killed: Adults who spoke English worked in beachfront hotels, making them the most vulnerable to the tsunami’s waves.
With the help of non-profit groups, the village is seeking recovery by creating fun activities for tourists.
Seeking recovery
Meanwhile, with the help of a foundation set up by the Thai king’s youngest daughter, another village is seeking recovery by providing tourists meals and accommodation.
Whether your tastes run to physical labour, nurturing children or interaction with locals, post-tsunami recovery efforts can still be part of your next vacation.
The casual tourist visiting southern Thailand will see no signs of the 2004 tsunami that destroyed both fancy beach resorts and modest villages.
Major hotels and resorts along the southern coast had insurance and quickly rebuilt. Yet the disaster lives on.
Norell said she learnt during her work at the orphanage that “restoration isn’t merely the construction of new buildings”.
Norell, 21, says orphans saved her life. “Voluntourism” is a long family tradition but her family always follows up with a traditional vacation.
In late December 2004, they were volunteering at an orphanage in Vietnam, with plans to fly to Phuket, then drive an hour north to a beachfront resort in Khao Lak for Christmas.
Blessing in disguise
The family was so intrigued by the volunteer work that they extended their stay in Vietnam.
Otherwise, they most likely would have been lying on a beach on December 26 in the part of Thailand hit hardest by the tsunami.
More than 4,000 people in Khao Lak died that day, including many tourists and the grandson of the Thai king.
Nearly three years after the tsunami, Norell finally made her trip to Khao Lak.
She chose to stay in the resort town, travelling to a village about an hour away each day to volunteer at an orphanage operated by the Duang Prateep Foundation, a Thai non-profit agency.
Norell stayed for two months, forming close bonds with many of the children, despite the language barrier. The children are from the town of Baan Nam Khem.
On Christmas three years ago, 10,000 people lived there. One day later, half of them were dead, said Rotjana Phraesrithong, who is in charge of the orphanage.
Norell has since returned to her studies at Claremont McKenna College in California and recently described her last day at the orphanage.
“Goodbyes were tearful and difficult to explain. Some of them said: ‘See you tomorrow,’ not comprehending I was not coming back tomorrow.”
