Evans workaway, Thailand

When I first heard the host commentary for the Evans workaway I immediately said, "I wanna go there. Let's go there". It's the reason we ended up in Koh Phayam, and to be honest, probably the reason we ended up in Thailand at this point in the journey.  

Perched high on a hill (maybe the highest point on the island with spectacular views) is the home of Paul and Christina Evans. An English-Danish couple who came to the island not long ago, loved it, and decided to build a guest house/dream house. It's surrounded by cashew nut and rubber trees, green forest and a view to the more than one beach. 

It's also home to 19 dogs whom are mostly all rescued from the streets. Each dog has its unique personality and they all have a different background and story to tell. 

As the house has only been completed a few months ago, most of the jobs were finishing works, some maintenance and repairs, cleaning and caring for the dogs. The dogs were easy to look after. They are pretty much always well behaved and awesome to be around. We did have some larger projects to complete though which kept us busy and provided plenty of challenges.... The pump Island civil infrastructure is a bit lacking so the water pressure from the mains to the house isn't good enough (except at 5am), so we installed a pump to drive the water to a tank on the property. Water volume is also an issue so placement of the pump was important. We had a few issues along the way (including the pump itself) but water can now be pumped any time of the day (well mostly) and pressure and volume can be checked whenever. Dog sterilisation An animal welfare group called Lanta was visiting the island for a few days when we first arrived, so our first job was to get all the dogs that hadn't been fixed to the vet for sterilisation. Sounds simple enough, but transporting one dog after the other on the back of a scooter in the heat and humidity and on unfamiliar and poor roads was quite a challenge. It was fun though, in a way, and a good experience at the same time. Mandala painting I didn't contribute to any of this except offer my constructive comments.  Sabrina did it all and it was finished in a few days without any hiccups, except for when Rufus decided to chew down on one of the paint pots. 

Shelves There were two projects related to shelving. One was in the kitchen which presented challenges due to thin and fragile wall blocks and heavy timber slabs. And the other was in the store room. The latter was an easier job due to working with timber despite the fact it was as hard as steel.  

Wind turbine This was my favourite project! The Evans house doesn't have mains electricity so a petrol generator provides power to the home. This is obviously limited in output and the noise it makes disrupts the peace so we installed a wind turbine and batteries to provide some quiet and green power. We had plenty of challenges with this one....where to put the turbine for optimal performance, how to erect and fix it rigidly, how to wire the turbine and controller and batteries and inverter to the main power board. By the way, neither Paul or myself had done anything like this and the very limited instructions had been eaten by some hungry bugs. We typically didn't have all things we needed nor the right tools and the secondhand equipment made life tricky. You can't buy things like this on a secluded island but we improvised and pushed through. In the end it was faulty batteries that prevented us from total success. Once new batteries are purchased I'm confident the turbine (when the wind comes) will charge them up and electricity will be available.  

Screening the basement To provide some shelter for the outside dogs during the wet season, I decided to use some left over roof thatching as a screen on one side of the house. Fixing the frame to the concrete was the hardest job (and dirtiest) as I had to improvise again with fasteners.  

As far as workaways go this was excellent! The jobs were challenging and interesting, our hosts were awesome, our accommodation was great and the island is brilliant. 

In the morning we would watch sea eagles glide past us as we ate breakfast on the terrace. Then we would work for about 5 hours. In the afternoon we would swim at the beach. In the evening we would dine at a local street restaurant and watch beautiful sunsets. And at bed time we would go to sleep listening to the islands fauna with the volume turned up to 11. Frogs that sound like they were banging a million pipes. Masses of beetles, when all together sound like a thousand washing machines on spin cycle. Plenty of birds singing their own tune. A few geckos playing their part. Stacks of crickets chirping and the occasional dog barking at anything and nothing.

I loved it and would go back without hesitation if the opportunity arises.