Thailand: Come With Nothing

Introduction To Thailand: Come With Nothing

Welcome to one of our most intense service programs in Southeast Asia! The program name is not a joke. You can only pack one light bag, including just one change of clothes, a few pairs of underwear, your necessary hygiene items and medicines, and no more than five things you feel might be important during your program. These might include a camera, a notebook, a tape recorder, or a book – it’s up to you. Just leave everything else at home. When you get to Thailand, you’ll be given a locally made backpack and $50 to buy clothing for the next three weeks. You’ll be surprised how far this money goes at the local market. You may also be surprised that many families in villages around the world live on less than $50 per month.

Travel With Friends, Not Things

Rustic Pathways has friends in these villages, so you won’t be a stranger. We have long-standing partnerships with these communities, and you will be welcomed like family. They have opened their homes for you to visist and learn about their culture, and invited you to work together with other locals on meaningful service projects. They are all waiting for you to arrive.

Live Like a Villager

You will visit three villages, for about 4 days each. You’ll meet with local NGOs, village leaders, and respected elders along the way to give you insight into the needs of the area. Build lifelong friendships in the villages where you work, and develop skills that will help you organize service projects back at home.

Discover what it is like to live in a small village far away from the influences of modern society. Your leaders will arrange clean food and water, but expect living conditions to be very rustic and humble. People here don’t have many things, and students find their sincere approach to life refreshing, and love to spend time with these close-knit families. After just a few days, you will find that you have left behind the world you know. You will soon begin to groove to an entirely different beat here in the mountains of Southeast Asia.

Go Home Rich!

This trip has a way of leaving lasting impressions and positive memories with students and villagers alike. You will likely go home inspired, with a desire to continue service long after you have left this program. The villagers will also be left with wonderful memories, and they will be grateful for all of the hard work and dedication you have put into these projects.

You’ll return home much richer than you arrived – and if you’ve used your heart and your head well, you will have given something substantial to three villages. You will not only go home a richer person in friendships and experience, but by doing your small part you will have made this world a better place. You’ll never forget this experience.

Are You Up For the Challenge?

Come With Nothing: The Rustic Expedition is an intense experience that involves a lot of hard work. Generally, students who are not prepared for the rustic conditions on this program have some difficulty adjusting.

Despite being different from what you are used to, living standards in remote Thai villages are quite clean, and staff will make sure you are well informed in each village you visit. While the rustic conditions may require some adjustment, the vast majority of our students really enjoy the opportunity to live like local people in three different locations.

However, you can and should expect your comfort levels to be tested throughout the trip. We are not trying to scare you away, but the success of this program depends on having participants who are ready for this kind of experience. If you are expecting a comfortable, relaxing, five-star holiday, you will be in for quite a surprise when you arrive. Here is what you can expect:

• Mornings come early in rural Thailand, and you must wake up early. We’ll be getting ready for the day as soon as the first roosters crow.
• Personal space is very limited in many of the hill tribe villages that we visit.
• You will find yourself in places that do not have Western-style toilets or showers for extended periods of time. You will learn to use the same facilities the villagers use – you’ll be using a “squat” toilet and showering with a bucket.
• You will always be well fed, but picky eaters will not always have a lot of options to choose from. Students who do not eat the local cuisine (which is generally pretty simple and tasty) can expect instant noodles, eggs, peanut butter sandwiches, rice, rice soup, and fruit.
• You will be out of cell phone and internet range for the majority of this program, and electricity may even be limited, as generators shut off in most rural villages at about 9:00 PM.

If you are up for an adventure and seeking a dramatically different service experience that will fully immerse you in fascinating cultures and places, Come With Nothing: The Rustic Expedition is the program for you!

Accommodation

The students will stay in several different types of accommodations during their program. The order of the accommodations and exact details will vary slightly by group. Here are the highlights:

• Hotels: Comfortable, three-star hotels in cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Mae Hong Son. Rooms are shared by gender, with Western-style amenities like air conditioning, hot water, and private bathrooms.
• Guest Houses: Shared accommodations in smaller towns, offering basic amenities with gender-separated rooms.
• Homestays: Immersive stays with local families in villages like Mae Ta. Students will live in private rooms (separated by door or curtain) with basic facilities, including squat toilets, handwashing stations, and clean drinking water.
• Village Stays: Basic rural accommodations in hill tribe villages, with mattress pads on the floor, mosquito nets, squat toilets, and bucket showers.
• Temple Stays: Male students may stay in Buddhist temples while female students stay with local families in certain villages.

Service Projects

The students will provide 60 hours of community service while on the program – the most available on any Rustic Pathways program. This time will be spent working on infrastructure projects and gardening projects, along with teaching English to local children.

The locations for this service are among the most remote places where our students travel. The service projects occur in three villages in northern Thailand in rural areas well outside the city of Chiang Mai.

Here are some details about each of the villages:

Khun Wong Village: Nestled in the lush forests, this Karen village is located in the mountains above Mae Sariang, on the scenic Mae Hong Son Loop. This upland area is known for its tea plantations and stunning views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. It’s also a popular place for trekking and caving amid the limestone landscapes. Past projects of Rustic Pathways students include building a water tank, other infrastructure improvements, and conducting education enrichment activities at the local school.

Mae Ta Village: This village is located about one hour south of Chiang Mai near Khun Tan National Park. It’s well known for its organic agriculture collective, which the village community set up on its own. Villagers were looking for alternatives to chemically intensive farming techniques. The collective is community-owned and dedicated to growing healthy, organic produce using traditional farming techniques. Immersed in this scenic village, Rustic students get their hands in the dirt and learn the wisdom of the land, working alongside locals on seasonal gardening and farming projects.

Mai Sabae Village: Students will also travel the scenic Mae Hong Son loop that skirts Thailand’s mountainous northwest border. There, they’ll be immersed in the Mae Sabae village. This is a Red Karen community, one of Thailand’s largest hill tribes, with a unique culture, language and history. While living in the village, students participate in infrastructure development initiatives. Previous service projects have included building community bathrooms and fixing a concrete floor for a village community center.

The Karen people who reside in places like Mai Sabae are members of Thailand’s largest hill tribe group. There are many different subgroups of Karen, including Red Karen, White Karen and Long Neck Karen. They are traditionally very good elephant caretakers or mahouts.

It’s believed their tribe originated in Tibet but then settled in the highlands across Myanmar and Thailand. In Myanmar tribal members faced persecution with the Burmese military burning many of their villages. That led to many of them fleeing to Thailand for safety, where some now live in refugee camps.

The Thai Karen have fared much better. They have lived well using the many natural resources around them in the mountains and forest.

Since 2009, Rustic Pathways students have been working with partner Karen villages in this region. They’ve contributed to ongoing community infrastructure development and education enrichment initiatives.

Assistance with these village projects goes a long way towards improving day-to-day life. 2013 traveler Maddie Goldberg says working on these initiatives is quite impactful. She particularly enjoyed interacting with the local villagers and their children during the service projects.

“Although I anticipated this to be a challenge, the Thai children and teachers made me feel completely at home as soon as I walked in the door with their endless smiles and welcoming hugs,” Maddie said. “I came to find that no matter how different these countries are, kids are kids. They fill you with joy and are full of joy themselves, no matter where you may travel.”

“I am very fortunate to have met the kindest, coolest, and most interesting people on these trips…It has changed my life in so many different ways, and I am so thankful.”
– Gabrielle Antolovic, Fiji | Thailand | Laos | Peru Alumni

Accommodation

Students will be able to try standard foods that Thailand is famous for, such as pad thai. However, they also can grab something really different like fried crickets, roaches or other insects while traveling.

Overall during the program, students will have an opportunity to eat foods from the diverse regional cuisines across Thailand. That food will be prepared by onsite chefs or at local restaurants. However, there’ll always be western and “comfort” food options for less adventurous eaters.

“During the trip to Thailand, I had so much fun tasting exotic cuisine and experiencing local Thai culture… For me, the trip was all about being independent and open-minded.”
–Tingyuan Chen, Thailand Alumni