Thursday 19 March 2009

V Star Centre, Pathumtani Province, Thailand

After our breakfast, we went on an hour trip from Khao San to the Pathumtani Province, which is located north of Bangkok, to check out V Star Centre, the tentative venue to run our project. The V Star Centre is a place where youths, called Virtuous Star members, gather to meditate and participate in activities. While the main buildings are in place, some others are still under construction.

The administrative building which also houses conference rooms and halls.


The building is new and clean. The facility rooms are spacious and suitable to run retreats, conferences and other activities. They are equiped with PA systems and projectors.


A hall that has been used as a dining area.


A room where a youth camp was in session. We were asked to introduced ourselves and bigR briefly talked about our project to them, hoping to draw them in either as participants or volunteers. I actually felt overwhelmed by the energy of these youths. They were excited to meet us as their eager smiles reached out to us. They responded with enthusiasm in their voices and laughter. It felt like a church youth retreat in my mid-teens all over again.


This is the female hostel building. Shoes are to be kept outside.


From the size of the building, it seems that a thousand people can fit in it!


This room on the first floor is furnished simply with beds aligned in neat rows. It could fit about sixty to eighty people in this room. As residents are here to meditate, the facilities are simple, basic and clean. The rooms on the ground floor are for facilitators and mattresses are provided instead of beds.


Right outside the administrative building lies a huge lotus pond with bamboo trees on one side and patches of green on the other.


It was lunch time and youths were seated in cliques on the grass by the pond to have their lunch.






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