As I hopped into the bus for the airport, I felt a flutter of excitement as it was my first trip abroad without my parents. There were 56 of us from St Mary’s and St Xavier’s schools representing Nepal at the 25th Asia Pacific Jamboree. This was the largest contingent of Scouts ever from Nepal.

We were fortunate to have the chief of Nepal Scouts Sri Lam Lamichane lead this contingent.

The Asia Pacific Jamboree is a meeting of Scouts from the Asia and Pacific region to share views and experiences. Altogether 30 countries participated in the jamboree including the guest countries like the US, UK and France.

The slogan for the 25th Asia Pacific Jamboree was ‘Scouting – the road to peace’. It was mainly focussed on peace as it is for the general welfare of people, which is brought by friendship, smile and love.

We reached Thailand after around three years and stayed that night at Hotel Mido in Bangkok.

The next day we were taken to the campsite in Had Yao, Pattaya. The drive was tiring but after reaching the site we were full of energy.

There were different kinds of activities that we could participate in through which lots of knowledge, fun and experience was gained.

The activities we were involved in were peace and culture where we learnt about different

cultures, global development village. We learnt about health and city of science and got to learn different things related to science.

Other activities included hiking where we learnt how to use the compass. At Sea Paradise we got to see the Ocean for the very first time in our lives since Nepal is a landlocked country. We also climbed towers and did challenging acts.

We did some community service for the local Thai people.

The Siam’s Discovery was very interesting where a lot of knowledge on Thailand was gained.

We made lots of new friends and had an opportunity for cultural exchange. The jamboree was overall educative and full of fun. We did experience a bit of language problem but besides this the arrangements were marvellous. The food was good but quite spicy. I enjoyed learning new things and making friends. The fireworks during the New Year celebration was my favourite part.

The jamboree has helped me develop self-confidence, how to cooperate with others and respect other cultures. I strongly feel that such kinds of jamboree should be held regularly to provide opportunity to others like me in the future.

The next jamboree is to be held in Philippines in 2009. I hope that it will be as good as this one.