Hi All,
I want to take my 11 year old (Half thai) daughter to an eye opening experience, we go to thailand often,usually to the islands,and we visit the villiages and towns where her granparents are,but this trip i want her to see more of the down side, i need a orphange and maybe the name of a children with aids or similar type hospice,Bangkok is good or if we have to travel up north thats fine, i think at this age it would be good for her, ive worked at Mother Teresa's in India, but i dont want to really scare her, just for her to have a look at life for another angle. I would love for her to spend a couple of days at a primary school too, i think it would be possible

ok, don't know why you want to stress her out on her holiday. chances are an orphanage that we know about about will be fairly financed and not the horror story you want. if just wanting her to see the other side life has to offer, simply take her to your nearest children's cancer ward at local hospital, that should be depressing enough.

i understand where you are coming from, but maybe the wrong approach, in my opinion, and it's just that, mine. your daughter, so obviously your decisions. i sort of did the same thing with son when hanging out in san diego. made a day out in tijuana, which was eye opening for him, a different culture and standard of living. which, coming from philly and memphis, wasn't necessary, as we could go to any inner city neighborhood and see the same depressing situation. but can't be argued, and stop, just a way of thinking, i know it's not real, but some would consider inner city ghetto a symtom of their own life, i know it's not, but mexico leave that option out, so he got to see what life had to offer, rather than decisions that make their life.

but, in my opinion, bum her out at home, let her enjoy her holiday.

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LA
http://www.geocities.com/laphanphon/hp.html

I think that i have to agree with La.
She is old enough to be told and explained to whilst she is on holiday that this is the nicer side of life and not how people always live their every day life.
I too understand what you are trying to do.
I know that it s slightly different be we took a friends foster son to prison to visit my Son. The aim was to show him an adult prison, not young offenders and to frighten him back on the straight and narrow as he was getting himself in all sorts of trouble. I could tell whilst he was there that he was dumb struck. The result - nothing - he is now tagged and in and out of the courts on a regular basis and no doubt destined for a cell of his own.
When she is a bit older she may well go travelling and do as you did, learn to look at the world through different eyes.

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Kiss
God laughs at people who make plans.

It is to let his children know how lucky they are, so they grow up aware of what third world really means?

Why not look up the Mercy Centre in Bangkok, the charity my reservations site sponsors. They are in a really poor area of Bangkok and basically take children off the street and give them a life past you know what.

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There are two categories of travellers, those that experience a country and those that take their home with them wherever they go.

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Thanks guys "I hear ya",
Im a lone father and going through the options on how to bring her up, i want her to appreciate how lucky she is living in Australia, she knows Thailand well, we come often and she lived there the first 3 years of her life, but your right I dont want to scare her too much. but i dont want her to be selfish either we all need to see the 'bad things' to appreciate the simple things that make us happy.
Thanks for your advice La and Jacx i now where your coming from and I will think about it over the next few months, we have a month in Thai this time so a few days out of her holiday wont spoil her holiday too much. Mark, i think a visit to Mercy may be a good choice for her to start with thanks for the advice,
any further advice greatly appreciated

Your a good Dad. Making choices to bring our kids up is always hard. She can't go far wrong with you at the helm.

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Kiss
God laughs at people who make plans.

Mark

Where is the Mercy centre located? If we wanted to support them, what is the best way of doing this?

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Alison

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It's Better to Burn Out than just to Fade Away!

Here is their web site: Mercy Centre
Hopefully that will answer everything. They are in Klong Toey, which is a really poor part of town but do not be put off and in fact the market there is an experience and a half if you want to make a day out of it (but do not expect to find many souvenirs).

__________________
There are two categories of travellers, those that experience a country and those that take their home with them wherever they go.

Be warned, as with any forum, picking a fight with the admin guy is not recommended!