First I would like to thank you for allowing me to have this experience and discover this country. I had a lot of good times and good experiences, but I don't want to be silent about the bad ones. I am thankful for all the conversations I had, for I learned how to speak up for my rights. Therefore, that is what I am going to do now, to understand and make clear of the things that have happend this year.
First of all I am very grateful that we had the opportunity to discover the southern and northern parts of Thailand, and with that , we discovered more about the country we have been living in for so many months.
The southern landscapes made me so happy and speechless, but I wished that the hotels would have been as beautiful as the scenery was. Especially the hotel for our second night; Pang Nga Bay Hotel and Resort was really everything else but clean nice and comfortable. It was very unhygenic, dirty and unhealthy. As my room partner wanted to use the bathroom, a coackroach walked towards her. We wanted to ask for help at the receipton, but only the cat was awake (not the workers), although it says 24 hours reception service. After that night, we wanted to enjoy our breakfast but what we saw was really unpleasant; ants were all over the food. Our rooms were full of stains (blood and other unknown liquids) and the bathrooms were full of mold, and the hallways full of dead insects. The following day some of us started feeling bad and vomitted. In total, about 8 people got very sick ( food poisened) and nobody really seemed to care about that. Rotary told me not to be so money based, but for me, 650 US Dollars for 4 nights at a hotel and 2 nights spent in a bus (for free) is a lot of money. Especially considering the fact that Pang Nga Bay was a hotel that was not only unpleasant but also endangered our health.
Unfortunately I have to say, that Rotary wasn't there to help us and didn't care, nor did they apologise.
I have heard about Rotary trips all around the world and usually they are very expensive, but you also get a lot in return; good food, good and clean hotels, and many fun activities. In this district, our food was all right( I once found a stone in my food), the one hotel was traumatising, and unfortunately we didn't have that many activities. This is really strange for me, due to how we paid so much money that should have covered the costs for all of the expectations listed above. Furthermore, with this, I am requesting receipts from our trip to understand where all the money went to, because as much as I am trying to do the math, it does not add up in the end.
Also, I am making a request that in the future, Rotary does not go to the hotel at Pang Nga Bay anymore with the Rotary Bus South Trip, to protect the next inbound and outbound students and the team from food poisining and uncomfort.
I have another reason to write you, and that is the following concern; Since the beginning of the year, every time I write an E-mail, I never receive an answer. I have heard that this has occurred with the other inbound students as well. This makes me sad, and gives me the feeling of being so powerless because it seems that this district does not care about the inbound students due to the lack of response. This leads me to the next question of why this district, 3350, participates in the Rotary Youth Exchange program. It feels like Rotary is not interested in our views of the world, our questions, our needs, our worries, while it should because it leads to promoting peace and have a better world.
Possibly your district has a different view on matters mentioned above, however this is how I got to see everything, even after discussing this with the other inbounds. Maybe an answer will make me understand this behavior by Rotary more and will explain all the obscurities.