Interns meet Internships Thailand on Social Activity Day July

On Sunday, July 28th, was our monthly Social Activity Day in Phuket, what a cross-island Adventure...! 

For those of you who don't know what the Social Activity Day means, it is part of Internships Thailand's services for our customers, who are interns in 5 star hotels and hospitality related businesses. On the Social Activity Day we like to meet and greet with our multinational interns to catch up on their experiences in Phuket, their internships and everything else they would like to discuss. It's a great way to make new friends and connections within the hospitality as well.

In July, our Internships Placement Manager, Judith, met with four of our lovely interns in Phuket and took them on a cross-island trip starting with a nature hike to Bang Pae waterfall (9 kms from Thalang's Heroine Monument). 

After 300 meters of trekking up and down stone stairs and walkways, the group was ready for a swim in the refreshingly-cold ponds. 

Cooled-down and relaxed, the group continued their hiking to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project Center, where a friendly volunteer explained them about their amazing work with the apes.

The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project was founded in 1992 and takes care of gibbons who have been mishandled by greedy people, feeding the gibbons with drugs to make them tame and get them photographed with tourists in bars and touristic centres, in exchange for money. 

Please do not take pictures with baby gibbons! 
The Gibbon Rehabilitation Project takes these poor creatures and brings them back to the nature. They will be matched for mating and step by step, they are released to the jungle in the Non-hunting area called Khao Pra Theaw, where no humans can harm them.

After the visit to the waterfall and Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, the group had lunch at a restaurant on Khao Rang hill in Phuket town, and enjoyed a variety of Thai dishes such as spicy Tuna Salad, Chicken with Cashew nuts, Tom Kha Soup and Panang beef curry.


In the afternoon, the group ventured to the temple Wat Chalong and the Big Buddha Temple and learned a bit about Thai Buddhism, customs and traditions, such as walking around a temple in clothes that cover shoulders and knees (for the ladies) and taking off the shoes when entering the temple buildings.

Other important rules when visiting a temple are:

- Not to show affection in public
- Not to touch a monk (women should never touch a monk)
- Not to step on the threshold of the temple entrance
- To show respect to the Buddha (as in, not sitting on the stairs of a monument or making funny faces when taking pictures next to a Buddha statue)

About an hour before sunset, the group had another swim, this time in the Andaman Sea at Ya Nui Bay, which is a tiny but really pretty beach between Promthep Cape and the wind mills next to Nai Harn beach. 
A local life guard also instructed to stay close to the beach and informed the group where to watch out for rocks in the water.


The group then watched the sunset together at Laem Promthep Cape, the southern-most point of Phuket and popular place for couples and groups to take pictures in a romantic setting.