Mercy House Orphanage in Pranburi

[bluezephyr]

Hi Bluezephyr

We were at the orphanage again yesterday to give them the photos of the boat trip - took a few buckets of KFC with us for the kids and they loved it.
Their foster father said he'd never seen them so quiet on a Sunday.

Would they like cadbury creme eggs aswell? I bought some today, But just emailed Cadbury see if they wont to donate a box of them to a good cause. I mentioned Hersheys aswell just to see if it would grab their attention!. Spose its what your brought up on but i'd rather eat our cats whiskas crunchies

Glad it was a good day and look forward to seeing the pics , In April/May, Would it be better to come see you in HH or the other office? Where are you most likely to be?
A friend of mine who's coming along when we visit Mercy house would like a chat with you Barry about owning a boat in HH, Says he's after a Fairline Squadron but wants to speak to a local with a boat.

[dtaai-maai]

In April/May, Would it be better to come see you in HH or the other office? Where are you most likely to be?
A friend of mine who's coming along when we visit Mercy house would like a chat with you Barry about owning a boat in HH, Says he's after a Fairline Squadron but wants to speak to a local with a boat.

Hi, BZ - I know Barry's not around at the moment, so you may not get a reply for a few days. I can't speak for him, but I can tell you he's a good man to talk to about buying boats, and the Mermaid Cruises set-up in PakNamPran is worth a look, as they have private moorings, so I'd arrange to see him there with your friend. (And no, all you cynics, I'm not involved in the business!)

[bluezephyr]

Thanks DM, The only place ive seen near HH to Moor a cruiser was a port but it looked a bit run down and not very safe. I Remember turning off a road with lots of pineapples growing in fields, going over a large bridge or flyover and down a hill to it.
I told my friend when he was in the uk seeing to things and he's keen to meet Barry and talk about boaty things!

[dtaai-maai]

To get to Barry's place you turn left before the bridge, you should see a Mermaid Cruises poster. Keep your eyes open and you may see some pheasants round there.

[barrys]

Hi BZ

You're very welcome to come and see us -
you obviously know the old marina at Paknampran - we're less than 1 km past there on the right - immediatel after the S-bend.

And thans for the help D-M, except those pheasants are actually peacocks

[dtaai-maai]

... except those pheasants are actually peacocks

[BaaBaa.]

... except those pheasants are actually peacocks

I'll bet there's a few peasants though?

[bluezephyr]

Still looking for a few people if they want to come, Would be nice to meet forum members in the short time i have in HH. Where do you all drink when you're in town? I have extra cadbury creme eggs if you havent had one for a while

I only visited the old Marina when another friend was taking me about showing me various places, Im sure there was an army boat in there, Not much else, We stopped for a coke and was on our way. I remember not far away was a small town and near the river mouth were lots of poles to dry the fish/squid catches?

[barrys]

Hi BZ

Those pics were taken not too far from our place by the looks of it.

When will you actually be here?

[bluezephyr]

Hello Barry.

Where the pics were taken the road stops and theres a wooden Gazebo thing with seats. We sat there and shared ice lollies with Soi puppies.

Arrive 26th April, Will come see you within couple of days and have a chat about plans.

[DawnHRD]

At long last we're posting the photos and report about the day out for the Mercy House kids with Mermaid Cruises. Apologies for the rather small pics. I did this as a thread on another forum & Barry asked if I would reproduce it here. Due to the quantity of pics, I felt it best to resize them to save bandwidth.

On Saturday 7th March, Barry Stone the owner of Mermaid Cruises here in Pranburi and his colleague Abel took the kids from the local Mercy House Orphanage in Pranburi out for the day for a cruise on Mermaid's large boat, The Peacock. He'd asked for volunteers to help out, so I went along (with littl'un, as it was a Saturday).

There were 24 kids on the trip. 2 stayed at home - a boy aged 3 who was slightly sick and a girl of 21, who is still with the orphanage while she finishes her university studies. The other kids and the house Mum and Dad all joined us.

The first stop, before we got to Mermaid Cruises' jetty in Pak Nam Pran (on the Pran river) was a Chinese temple, high on a hill, with some gorgeous views of the river.




We got the kids to line up along side this croc, with house mum & dad


My littl'un's the one on the far right, trying unsuccessfully to keep out of the picture...


After a short stop at the temple, we went to the jetty and the kids boarded the boat




To get to the Gulf of Thailand, we first had to exit the Pran river and go past the fishing fleet




Not the cleanest water in this part of the river, as you can imagine...

Here's another pic of a couple of the kids as we headed out of the river

[DawnHRD]

The kids could really spread out on the boat & took full advantage of the sunloungers

Once we were out to sea a bit, some of the lads took turns driving the boat



Others just wandered over the boat or admired the view (or posed for photos! )


We headed out to the area of water off of Sam Roi Yod, past 'Monkey Island', which we returned to later, so the kids could try their hand at a bit of fishing. The House Mum takes a couple of the lads and one of the girls to fish in the klong, but this was the first time they'd tried sea fishing


And here is the 'first catch'! Sadly, a crab net with a few very dead crabs in it.




Things did get better, though. The girl who goes canal fishing caught 2 fish. The lad who caught the crab net did get a fish, as well...



My littl'un tried his hand...



...and managed to catch a tripod fish - the only one to get thrown back. I told him how proud I was that he managed to catch the only fish that went back to swim another day

Prize for the biggest fish of the day went to this young lad...

[DawnHRD]

The kids had been kept well fed with crisps, fruit & drinks all morning, but it was now time for lunch. I thought it was time for me to actually do something. The children were so well behaved and polite, there was no actual watching to do, so I thought at least I could help serve lunch. Wrong!!! As soon as I had taken one thing up to the upper deck, there was a queue of willing helpers taking things out of my hands.

Anyway, here's a picture of lunch


It was extremely tasty. And none of the kids touched a thing until told they could do so! OK, I'm lying. I found my littl'un with a chicken leg before anyone else had started eating... *sigh*

Next, we went back the way we had come, towards Monkey Island.

We passed our fishing spot...

and anchored off this beach


while the dinghy took a few of us in at a time

[DawnHRD]

Now, we have pics of the kids and monkeys at Monkey Island.






The kids playing 'piggy in the middle' with a monkey...


We did some tidying up of the beach, removing plastic, glass and other harmful objects and headed back to the boat

[DawnHRD]

Barry & Abel really had thought of everything. On the way to our next stop, the karaoke was switched on...


Next stop was Kao Kalok for those who wanted to wai nam or play on the beach. I went across with those that wanted to go.

Here's the beach from the dinghy


I was so pleased there was some shade! Guess who had sunburnt shoulders???



The girl in the orange top & I had a nice converstion while sitting in this rockpool. She's just finishing high school and will go to Uni next school year with a view to becoming an English teacher. Her English is really quite good. She's one of two girls I talked to that day of approx the same age & the same ambition. I think it's wonderful that these kids are allowed to stay at Mercy House to get further education, not forced out to get the first paying job they can. In fact, the other girl said they were a big family, and that's exactly the impression I got, watching and interacting with them all day. They love their House Mum & Dad and each other and get the support that a family would give.

This is the youngest girl who was on the trip


And here's my littl'un again (front) with his new best friend


Littl'un loved the day & playing with all the kids. He was in his element