C H A M B E R   C H O I R  
T R I P   T O   T H A I L A N D

At the invitation of the British Ambassador to Thailand 8 pupils, 8 Old Russellians and 3 staff left school bound for a three centre tour taking in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand and Bangkok further south. 
Our first performance was at the Christmas Dinner of the Seven Fountains Foundation, a charity supporting local children’s education.  We raised over £1000 here.  The following day after Mass the sales of CDs sponsored the transport and education of 3 children for one year.  A spot of elephant riding and a ridiculously cheap lunch (£32 for 19 people) completed our stay in Chiang Mai. 
We drove north to Chiang Rai which is located on the border with Burma (now Myanmar) and Laos.  We stayed at Maekok River Village, an educational adventure centre, where we enjoyed making rafts out of inner tubes, bamboo poles and lots of rope!  We sang ‘Ding Dong’ as we floated downstream to the amusement of the local people. 
In the hills above the centre is a series of seven Buddhist temples. We were taken up the hill by Jeep, then walked down, stopping to sing carols in a resonance chamber with the sound bouncing around and around.   
The Tour Members then cooked dinner for everyone, some forgetting how hot chillies are!  The concert here was at a local school complete with market stalls to entice an audience.  We sang ‘We wish you a merry xmas’ with some local children and sang unaccompanied after the keyboard power failed after 2 notes!  Our accommodation was in bamboo lined chalets complete with Balinese bathrooms, surrounding a swimming pool, paradise! 
Flying across Thailand back to Bangkok showed the enormity of the country, and how sparsely populated it is away from the major cities.  Bangkok was another matter.  The traffic was appalling, making rush hour on the M25 look like a picnic.  Our four star hotel was next to a HUGE shopping mall and if that wasn’t enough we ventured to the Night Bazaar complete with a thousand stalls.  The kids had been dying to try the Tuk-tuks, a sort of taxi powered by a moped.  Bartering being the order of the day they tried to get back to the hotel for as little as possible, some paying more than others, but the journey was fun.
The main event, the Carol Concert, was attended by some of the most influential people in Bangkok. The singing was beautiful and our audience very appreciative.  A visit to the Bridge over the River Kwai and the Cemeteries was a poignant reminder that many people died while constructing the Death Railway.  We saw many of the beautiful temples that would have been originally covered in precious stones both at close hand and from the river aboard a converted rice barge where we ate dinner one night.
It was difficult to believe that it was a week until Christmas and 30ºC.  We saw a different culture, sang for some very appreciative audiences and were well received everywhere. 

The tour members were:  James Ransom, Matthew Greenwood, Anita Flynn, Elise Maile, Sophie Walsh, Charlotte Bell, Tori Jordan, Darrel Shand, Alice French, Tom Wilkinson, Matthew Waters, Folarin Akinmade, Oli Fernandes,  Rosie Bryan, Chris and Helen Knight.