Learning Center
Learn with us
We host courses, workshops, and groups to come and learn with us both in Thai and English on self- reliant living, organic gardening, community living, natural building and natural health throughout the year. Here’s a list of what’s coming up.
Events
LOGISTICS PERTAINING TO ALL COURSES
General Schedule
Morning and afternoon sessions will be held with an extended break after lunch in the hot part of the day. We will start at lunch on the first day of the course and finish after lunch on the last day.
The Project
All courses (unless otherwise specified) will be hosted at our organic farm, seed center, and sustainable living learning center in Mae Taeng, northern Thailand. We started this center to work to create seed centers to preserve our food biodiversity, grow food organically for ourselves in community and for those who come to stay with us, and host trainings and workshops on ways to convert to more self-reliant, sustainable ways of living.
Teaching team
Various community members from Pun Pun farm
Living situation
We will provide simple accommodation in one of Pun Pun’s earthen or bamboo guesthouses or dorms. A thin futon mat, blanket, sheet, pillow, and mosquito net will be provided. Accommodation is single rooms, shared rooms and dorms. All accommodation is in close proximity to each other. Outdoor toilets and showers are close to the guesthouses. All meals will be shared and eaten in the communal kitchen. Vegetarian and fish options will be available and we will try to use the most organic vegetables as possible from the farm. Food will be simple Thai food with brown rice. We try to use as much of our own produce and other seasonally available produce as possible so we tend to focus on a primarily vegetable and whole grain diet with added protein from eggs, fish, or tofu.
Community living
Evening activities and exchanges will also be included. A large aspect of the course also includes the experience of living in community with other participants as well as entering the community of members living at Pun Pun including children living in our community. We have found this element to be a major contributor in the experience of the course for participants.
Registration
Link to register: https://forms.gle/VQFBzzDzKFDpyRUM6
Bringing Your Group to Pun Pun
As well as offering workshops and courses for individuals to attend, we also offer the opportunity for groups to come and learn and experience the farm together. There are various ways we can facilitate your group, based on their needs. We can either organize a custom course for your group based on the topics we teach or we can offer a laid-back and beautiful space including delicious meals for your group to facilitate your own retreat or workshop.
Facilities include a rounded earthen meeting hall capable of receiving many sizes of groups from 5 to 50 people. Our kitchen can provide delicious, fresh, homemade healthy food and the Pun Pun Cafe serves fresh coffee, fruit shakes and homemade snacks if arranged in advance. We have simple, natural accommodation in the farm for various needs.
In the past our laid-back simple atmosphere at Pun Pun has been used to conduct group trainings of various sorts including NGO youth trainings, company volunteer trips, groups from Burma, regional organic farming network trainings, school field trips, exposure trips for villager groups as well as hosted meditation, yoga, dance, and massage workshops. We are happy to talk with you about how you may want to use our space for your group.
We facilitate both day-trip and overnight or multiple-day groups and are available to facilitate activities for your group based on the self-reliant living techniques we practice at the farm including organic gardening, healthy cooking, introduction to natural building, making your own soaps/shampoos/body products, natural health care, etc. This can be set up depending on the needs of the group and we can talk about what your group might be most interested in.
Pricing
Day trips
1,000/day for a full day’s activities (morning and afternoon session, includes lunch)
600 baht/person for a half-day activities (includes lunch)
Overnight and multiple-day groups:
1,800 baht/person/day includes a full day of activities led by Pun Pun for the group (morning and afternoon session), 3 meals, and simple accommodation, and transportation to and from Chiang Mai city.
1,500 baht/person/day is the pricing for groups that want to host their own activities at Pun Pun and use the facilities here. We include 3 meals, simple accommodation, and use of the meeting hall and dining area. Please note transportation is not included in this price but we can help you to arrange it.
If you would like a combination of your own activities and those led by us, feel free to email us and we can create a schedule together.
If you are from a grassroots or villager group with limited funds, reach out and let us know what budget you are able to contribute and we can work together to make a program based on your abilities.
Contact us to host your next workshop at Pun Pun at
punpun.farm@gmail.com (Thai)
punpuncourses@gmail.com (For English)
Visitors & Volunteering
Day visitors
Day visitors are welcome between 9am and 5pm. We have a coffee shop with drinks and local products for sale as well as seeds from the farm we have propagated and give away for free. Please understand we don’t always have people available to give you a tour or guide you around but we do have maps available in our coffee shop you can use for self-guided tours. If you have specific questions or would like to set up a time to have someone from the community available we ask you call us in advance at 081.470.1461 to set it up. If you would like to stay for a meal, we ask you to set it up in advance and request a contribution of 200 baht/person/meal. There are times we have people available to give tours and for these we ask 250 baht/person for groups of 2-12 and groups larger than that we can discuss based on your budget. It’s best if these are set up beforehand by getting in touch with us.
See this page for transportation details. If you’re coming for a day visit on public transportation, you will need to take the last option on this page for transport which includes the motorcycle taxi and ask the taxi to wait for you and bring you back to the road as there is no other public transportation leaving from the farm. (We have not had success getting Grab, Bolt, and other taxi hires to come this far but you can hire a personal driver instead.)
Full-time Volunteers
Volunteering
Our farm has thrived thanks to the contribution of the many volunteers from all over the world who have come to the farm. We enjoy the energy that each of our volunteers bring to our community as well as the unique skills that each of them can contribute to our community.
We take volunteers for a minimum of 2 weeks and as long as 2 months. The volunteer experience is a chance to see what it’s like to live on the farm and in the community. Every day we have a community member who will lead all the volunteers to help to do various jobs around the farm during your stay; from about 9-12 in the morning, and then 2:30-5:30 in the afternoon. This way you can learn hands-on about organic farming practices. Most of the year work will be weeding, planting, transplanting, maintaining garden beds, preparing new garden beds, harvesting food for the kitchen, seed saving, and other jobs on the farm. We also ask volunteers to sign up on the kitchen roster for helping with meals. This is usually a couple of times/week. As we get to know your interests and talents, we can accommodate different projects as well. We will provide simple accommodations, communal meals and direction.
Living as a volunteer with us includes you in the daily activities of our 20 community members as we share meals together and share the work on the farm as well. We have small children at the farm as well who are intricately involved in what we’re doing. If you have an interest in being with children, we welcome you to also spend some of your time with them as well. Depending on the time of your volunteer session, there also may be additional groups who come for day-trip learning experiences or longer. These groups are usually between 10-30 people and share meals and space with the rest of the community.
We ask for a small fee to cover the costs of food and accommodation. Some people have queried why we charge people who come and volunteer their time and effort to work at Pun Pun. Pun Pun is a not for profit farm, and it is also a learning center. Each year, we struggle to cover the costs of running our center while providing our seeds to the public for free. All the long-term community members at Pun Pun receive exactly the same minimal monthly income. We choose to open our community to volunteers for their help and also so we can share our experience of low-cost sustainable community living.
We put a lot of effort into hosting our volunteers and teaching them how things work on the farm. We also find that volunteers get a lot out of working with us and come away having learned a lot. We do occasionally provide free places to people from the Global South. We prioritize those who come from a background where global or even regional travel is extremely difficult and we could not offer anyone a free place, without the support of those who are able to pay so thank you for that contribution as well.
Our pricing changes if you stay longer because the longer you stay as a longer-term volunteer, the more you start to know how things run and how to take on different roles and responsibilities on the farm.
Pricing:
500 Thai Baht/day for up to 2 weeks
450 THB /day for days between 2-4 weeks
11,000 Thai Baht/month
400 Thai baht/day for days beyond one month
We understand that some people are interested in staying longer but we ask for a 2-month trial period to see how it works for all of us. Then we could consider an optional extension.
Part-time Volunteers
Understanding that many people would love to have this kind of experience but also may need to do other work, we also offer half-day working volunteer positions. For this option, part-time volunteers work a half-day along with the other volunteers and community and also still sign up for cooking each week. We have wifi in the coffee shop at the farm in which people can use if they need internet but it is also a public place so please know that other people come in and out.
Pricing for part-time volunteer positions:
700 THB /day for up to 2 weeks
650 THB /day for days between 2-4 weeks
16,000 THB /month
600 THB /day for days beyond one month
To register:
If you are staying for less than a month, we ask you to confirm your dates with us and we will hold you a spot. If you are staying for a month or more we ask you to send us a non-refundable deposit of 2,000THB to hold your spot since we do get a lot of requests. This deposit will be deducted from the payment of your stay. We ask all volunteers to fill in a registration form before your arrival. Please contact us for this form.
Please consider the following criteria to ensure that you enjoy your stay with us at Pun Pun.
- A keen interest in seed saving and gardening.
- Independence, flexibility and eagerness to learn.
- Interest in living in community and communicating, working, and living with others from diverse backgrounds.
- Openness to giving a hand with all aspects of running a farm/learning center and community
- Enjoy learning by doing and experiencing different ways of doing things.
If you want to apply to volunteer with us please email us at punpunvolunteers@gmail.com and please make sure to include the dates you hope to come and stay with us.