General volunteer at Spicy Villa Eco-Lodges

Location description

Spicy Villa Eco-lodges are handmade bungalows built of natural and local materials. We have an organic farm on the property and we need volunteers to help us there. Aiming to produce as much as we can on-site, we have herb and vegetable gardens and are constantly expanding.

What we offer to our volunteers and fees

Our volunteers work in exchange for food and accommodation, but we need to charge a daily fee to cover transportation costs and free days. Daily fee for volunteers is 300 THB. The daily fee is paid for one week in advance. In addition to the daily fee, we also charge a one-time fee of 100 THB for compulsory accident insurance. At pickup, you should have a total of 2,200 THB ready to pay to your driver. If you extend your stay after the first week, the fee for next week will be 2,100 THB.

 As our volunteer, you will stay in simple but clean bamboo bungalows or dorm rooms depending on how busy we are. You will have three meals per day.
Sundays are free days and your daily fee also covers food, accommodation and activities on your free days. Read more about this under volunteer schedule.

What kind of volunteers we look for

We are looking for volunteers who will participate with their heart, are motivated & willing to help. Volunteering for us is an opportunity to integrate with authentic northern Thai culture and we look for people who are open minded and interested in learning.

We need you to be willing and able to take on any work we might have for you and you should be able to do daily tasks without being reminded by our staff. Volunteers must understand the rules and adapt quickly to the variety of tasks they may be responsible for.

Chores for volunteers

These are some of the responsibilities you might have as our volunteer:

Help with Eco project, Gardening, Farming, General Maintenance, Cooking/shopping, Building, Painting, Helping to take care of our guests during their visiting and activities (cooking, cleaning, trekking, hiking, cycling, bamboo rafting, tubing, art projects, etc…), helping local villagers, planting banana and grass for elephants and rice planting and harvesting.

 Help with Media project, making reels, clips, promoting the concepts of responsible tourism. 

Rules for volunteers

Read the rules carefully and consider if you can follow them. If not, do not come to volunteer with us. If you volunteer with us, these are the strictly enforced rules that must be followed. They are based on years of experience with volunteers and what works best for a communal living. By following these rules, you are a part of our community and welcomed to feel like at home.

If you break these rules, we can send you back to Chiang Mai early and there will be no refund for your volunteering fee.

General Rules of Conduct in Community
1. Most important: You must be happy to come and help. Do not come to volunteer if you are just looking to save money or have a free stay and do no work.
2. Personal hygiene is very important, and you must observe it while you stay with us. Our guests expect our staff and volunteers to be clean, well groomed, and have a pleasant scent. Shower every day after work to ensure good hygiene. Do not go to bed dirty and damage the bedding.
3. Do not chat excessively or too loudly when you are working in the kitchen. You could disturb guests taking a cooking class.
4. Don’t take advantage of other volunteers and do not be selfish – we all share the work. Help others, do not sleep or chat while other volunteers and staff are working.
5. You are here to work and learn something new -so listen first. Be observant and then you can share your opinions and ideas.
6. Learn how to share with the community, help others around you, and give.
7. Do not try to convince others to do what you would like to do or to follow your way of doing things.
8. Respect the guests who are with us for their holiday. Guests always come first.
9. Respect the local village people and staff members. This is their home and/or place of employment.
10. We live in a community, so we must always consider what is good or bad, what is right or wrong for us and for others who share this space with us.
11. Keep your accommodation tidy and your possessions safely looked in your room or on your person.
12. Be friendly with our guests, but do not disturb them on their holidays.
13. For vegans/vegetarians: there are always meals available for you. However, even if you don’t eat meat, you must be able to help us cook, so you will need to handle and prepare meat for others.
14. Smoking: there are designated smoking areas, you cannot smoke elsewhere.

15. Drinking: you are welcome to drink when not working but are expected to be able to work the next day. Loud & inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated.

Rules Related to Daily Chores
1. Get up early and be ready by 7:30 AM or 7:45 AM at latest. Do not wait for our staff to wake you up.
2. Start by helping with daily morning chores, such as inspecting and cleaning the toilets, communal area, bungalows, feeding animals, etc. Do not wait for our staff to give you daily chores, they are the same every day.
3. Help set up for all meals, clear & wash dishes after every meal. Do not wait to be called to eat.
4. Assist staff cleaning bungalows & bathrooms and feed our chickens and pigs.
5. If you have ideas and suggestions, please share with us.
6. Prepare for the tasks of the day. Take initiative. There is a lot of work to do, tasks may vary day-to-day. (farming, gardening, building, teaching English, working with local people and more)
7. When our staff teaches you how to do a task, please listen and follow their instructions exactly. This is for your own safety.

Schedule for volunteers

Work expectation is a minimum of 5 – 6 hours daily. Projects and needs change so the schedule below can change as well. Some days you might work less, some days more. However, 7:45 AM is when we expect the volunteers to be ready for work every day.

Saturday and Sundays are free. There are several activities that you can do with miminal costs on your days off. We can take you for a trek in the jungle, visit a local waterfall and teach you how to prepare a jungle style lunch, we can also take you cycling, river tubing, canoeing, bamboo rafting, bathing with elephants, or teach you Karen weaving.

Most activities on free days are free off charge and depend on what other volunteers would like to do. Water sports are only available during rainy season. There is a fee for a visit to the elephant camp, but it’s considerably lower for our volunteers. The fee is 500 THB per person.

Mostly, the itinerary for free days will be as follows:
Jungle trek -> Visit local Karen village -> Visit jungle waterfall -> Cook jungle style lunch -> Trek back to Spicy Villa

General daily schedule

This is the usual schedule, timing can vary depending on the tasks we have:
7:30 – 7:45 AM – volunteers should be ready to help with morning tasks, such as helping in the kitchen, watering plants, cleaning bungalows
8:45 AM – breakfast
9 AM – 12 PM – Main daily task
12 PM – help in the kitchen, prepare lunch
1 PM – lunch and main break
2:30 PM – 5 PM – Main daily task
After 5 PM – free time, but please help with dinner and clean-up

Duration of stay

We can initially accept volunteers for seven days. We cannot offer shorter volunteering terms. After a week, we can extend your stay on a weekly basis if you would like to stay longer and if we are happy with your work and how you fit in our community.

What to bring with you

You will need to bring your own drinking water – we can suggest where to buy and stop to pick up if needed.

Other items you may need: bug spray, flashlight, sunscreen, mosquito repellent, raincoat, shoes and clothes that are suitable for work in the garden, swimming suit, warm clothes for the cold season, toilet paper, toiletries and snacks. We do provide linen and pillows – but (depending on the time of year) temperatures can drop at night. A jacket and socks are also suggested during the colder season.

WiFi and cellphone reception

There is free WiFi at Spicy Villa unless there is a storm that interrupts the electricity supply. Such interruptions are temporary and should not take more than a day to resolve.

If you need to stay in touch with your family and friends while you volunteer with us, buy a Thai SIM card. We recommend Dtac or AIS SIM cards as they have a reception in some areas around Spicy Villa.To send a message or place a call to a foreign country type + or 00 followed by a country code, then omit the first zero in the phone number you are calling and type the rest of the phone number.

Arrival and transportation to Spicy Villa

 Usually, our volunteers will take local transportation to Baan Kart and meet the driver there, but sometimes we also have a driver available in Chiang Mai. Either way, you will stop at a local market on the way where you will have a chance to buy water and anything else you might need for your stay.

 Sometimes we also have a driver available in Chiang Mai. Either way, you will stop at a local market on the way where you will have a chance to buy water and anything else you might need for your stay.

We schedule to pick up volunteers at Baan Kard Market (Mae Wang)  every Monday and Thursday. Pick Up on other days, you will need to pay extra 500 THB to the driver. 

Important – please include in the application

• Your age, nationality, education, background, experience (in a curriculum vitae file).
• Recent photo of yourself.
• Tell us why you would like to join our project.
• If you have a friend(s) coming, make sure they all know our rules and expectations. Please include the above information for each volunteer interested in our project.
• Arrival date; we cannot accept volunteers who don’t know their arrival date. Write to us when you know your schedule, not before.

Application Procedure

1. Apply by filling out the application form below. If, for some reason, you cannot fill out the form, send us an email with all requested information to spicywildpumpkin@gmail.com
2. We will review your application and send you further instructions, which will include a chat with us over WhatsApp/Facebook
3. After the chat, confirm your start date over email. Do not confirm your start date on WhatsApp or Facebook. Our staff cannot see messages there and might not arrange transportation.
4. Wait for transportation instructions a day before you are scheduled to volunteer. If you do not receive the instructions, remind us by sending us an email.

For those that abide by the rules, work hard on our projects, and contribute to the teaching/learning the stay at Spicy Villas can be an incredible experience. Not only will you learn about local culture in a beautiful mountain setting, but you will also leave with new skills and new friends.