TEDx Krungthep

I went to a TEDx talk today in Bangkok, its an independently organized TED event with a number of really interesting and inspiration guest speakers.

TEDx Krungthep

The talks were, as said, absolutely inspirational, 2 especially. After the talks I also got to meet these 2 speakers and they were really interesting people

The first guy, Shin Fujiyama

Shin Fujiyama was born in a fishing town in Japan in 1983 and immigrated to the US shortly after with his family. During his third year at the University of Mary Washington, Fujiyama decided to volunteer for a week in Honduras at a girls' shelter without giving it much thought. He had no idea that the short trip would ignite his passion to help vulnerable children so much.
A few months later, he launched Students Helping Honduras in his dorm room with his classmates and younger sister, Cosmo. Since then, Fujiyama’s organization has taken more than 1,000 volunteers to Honduras and has raised more than one million dollars to help vulnerable children raise themselves out of poverty. His goal is to create a chapter of SHH in every single university in the US.

I've become more and more interested in volunteer work abroad and in Thailand and I have been planning on getting properly involved as soon as I leave uni or during the 3 summers I have left as students. After having heard Shin 's talk and after speaking to him after, I am now, more than ever, so keen to do this and take it seriously.

I want to travel all over and experience all these different culture that the world has to offer and truly understand different perspectives.

This leads me onto the next speaker, Florian Witulski

is a 24 year-old freelance journalist and blogger from Germany. Using new media and social networks, he has reported from a variety of political hotspots such as Iran, Afghanistan and more recently from the midst of Thailand's worse political violence in decades. His work appeared on various international news channels, in magazines and newspapers. Aside from his work in South East Asia and the Middle East, focused on human rights and censorship, he is very passionate about traveling. He spent most of his life on the road and has traveled to over fifty countries. Florian's TED talk will emphasize the importance of travel in self-development and cultural relativity, and will shed some light on his adventures in foreign countries. (more on www.vaitor.com)


At the beginning of the talk he gave us a quote that I find really inspirational

"When you want something you never had. You must do something you have never done"

Just inspirational. When he was 11 he traveled to Greece with his parents on a holiday and decided that he wants to explore the country on his own. The next day he got on a bus, on his own and went to a different town for the day.

Afterwards, I asked him at what age did he start travel ling on his own....his answer was...hmmmm around 13 or 14?

ummm.... I'm 20 and I have done nothing like that


These two guys are so humbled and so approachable. The only problem was that they have done some truly amazing thing that I felt so nervous talking to them. I mean, its so intimidating, all I could say to them was.....I've done nothing like that but I want to start. They didn't judge me but only welcome the idea and encouraged me to do it.

Shin said he had never done anything like what he is doing now until he was 21...okay...I have a year left....

but he said to me...if you want to start volunteering...just start anywhere. go anywhere and begin there. The thing with volunteering is that you can start from doing something as little as just showing up and you will soon, without trying, will get sucked into getting more and more involved.