A party of Swiss guests who stayed at Gecko Villa in August kindly offered to employ their teaching skills for a day at the local primary school.

As the school was celebrating a special occasion at the time, and is proud of recording and documenting traditional Isan (Northeast Thai) farming methods over the years, the guests had the opportunity of encouraging good English conversation amongst a delighted and surprised group of schoolchildren in the rice paddies, who then promptly decided that, as part of this cultural interchange, the guests should learn to plough the waterlogged rice paddies with the time-honoured water buffalo.

The guests kindly wrote: "We've been home for a week now and I really wanted to take a few minutes to tell you that we had a great time at Gecko villa. Ten and his family have been wonderful hosts. We 've spent 4 days in paradise, enjoying the house, having fun in the pool, and walking around in the different villages. Ten, his wife and his sister in law have been wonderful cooks and we couldn't wait to see what amazing dishes that had prepared for us. Ten took us to see the local pupils who were working in the rice fields. It was so much fun, we felt like part of them. Please tell Ten and his family how much pleasure we had staying at Gecko villa. We'll come back one day."

It is still unclear who gained the most knowledge: the guests, the students or the  water buffalo...