A week ago I came back from a fantastic school trip to Chiang Dao in Northern Thailand. We spent a couple of days rafting down the Mae Taeng River. Apart from the marvellous scenery, there are two things I want to commit to memory from the trip, which could come in useful again in the future:

A. The ‘Fish and Chips Paddle Game’ (pronounced ‘fush and chups’ by our Kiwi guide). This is a nice one for warming groups up before a day on the water:

  1. Get into a well-spaced circle.
  2. Make sure everyone is holding their paddle upright.
  3. On the command 'fish' everyone needs to move to the right and grab the paddle of their neighbour, whilst letting go of their own.
  4. On the command 'chips' everyone needs to move to the left and grab the paddle of their neighbour, whilst letting go of their own.
  5. On the command 'mushy peas' everyone does a 360-degree spin and re-catch their own paddle.
  6. If you drop a paddle at any stage you're out.
  7. The winner is the last paddler left standing.

B. Klop - a Finnish twist on boules, which is easy to play and good fun. It can even involve children in making the game pieces for themselves before playing so creating a decent half-day activity: