2009 Come With Nothing, Go Home Rich
Program Itinerary

First and foremost, Come With Nothing, Go Home Rich is the most intense and advanced program that is offered by Rustic Pathways.  While is also globally one of our most popular and fastest growing programs, it is very intensive and involves a lot of hard work.  Generally, students who are not prepared for the ‘rustic’ conditions on this program have some difficulty getting used to it. Despite being different from what we’re used to, living standards are quite clean in every location, and staff will make sure the students are well informed in each location they go. While this may test some students at times, the vast majority of students really enjoy the fact that they get the chance to live like local people in three different locations. Students can and should expect their comfort levels to be tested in many ways - we are not trying to scare you away, but the success of this program depends upon having participants who are ready for this kind of experience. Students expecting a comfortable, relaxing, 5-star holiday will be in for quite a surprise. Thus, we would like to state the facts clearly so all participants know what to expect:

* Mornings come early, and students must wake up with their host families who     will be preparing breakfast and getting ready to start their day.
* Personal space is very limited in many of the Hill Tribe villEdad that we visit
* All students will be in places that do not have western style toilets or showers for extended periods of time
* Students will always be well fed, but picky eaters will not always have lots of options to choose from. Participants who do not eat the local cuisine (which is generally pretty simple and tasty) can expect ramen noodles, eggs, peanut butter sandwiches, rice, rice soup, and fruit.   

If you are not comfortable with any of the above facts, than you should probably check out another program (Tribal Trekking & Service is a great, less intense/more adventure-oriented alternative).  On the other hand, if you are up for an adventure and seeking a dramatically different service program that will get you fully immersed into fascinating cultures and places, Come With Nothing, Go Home Rich is the program for you!
About the day-to-day itinerary:

The itinerary is different for nearly every Come With Nothing program, as each group visits a different combination of villEdad. Typically we only visit each village between 1 and 3 times, depending upon ongoing service initiatives in each location. Because of these facts, it is impossible to provide an accurate day-to-day itinerary.
This program visits some of the most rural and untouched places in Thailand. Your first couple of nights will be spent in guest houses as we work our way towards our first village. Typically, the program stays in each destination for 4 to 5 nights, many times working on and finishing a substantial service initiative during this time. When the group arrives in a new place, we take some time to explore the village and talk with community elders and leaders about what we can do that will best suit their needs. Their input and cooperation is a critical part of this program, as it ensures that our time and energy is going towards a worthwhile project that the local people want. In some cases, students may be the second Rustic Pathways group to visit the village, and the group may work to finish a more substantial project initiated by another group.
In between villEdad, each group usually takes a day or two to relax, get refreshed, and check out one of the cool northern towns that we pass through. These places include Mae Hong Son, Pai, Chiang Rai, and Chiang Mai. As each program’s itinerary is different, not every group will stop at the same places, though most groups will see 3 of these 4 places.

When we stop in Mae Hong Son, Pai, and Chiang Mai, students will stay in simple guest houses or at one of Rustic Pathways’ Base houses, where all students will be able to take hot showers and do their laundry.

For all of you ready for a dramatically different service adventure with plenty of unscripted surprises, welcome to Come With Nothing, Go Home Rich 2009!

Day 1, Tuesday          
Relax and prepare yourself for your adventure on world-class Singapore Airlines. Meet other students, watch on-demand movies and unwind. A Rustic Pathways Flight Leader will accompany each of our escorted group flights from JFK, LAX, and SFO. Our staff and flight leaders will make sure that your journey is easy and enjoyable!

Day 8, Tuesday through Day 10, Thursday
Good morning! Yes, its early, but this is life in the mountains. The roosters have been crowing for hours now, and as the day's first light arrives, the village is already in full swing. After some morning tea and hot cocoa and a simple breakfast, we'll head out for a tour of the village. Our main objective here (as in all of the villEdad in which we'll stay) is to live the life of these people while being humble ambassadors of our own culture, all the meanwhile searching for service projects and work which we can do that will improve their quality of life. As we tour the village, students be observing everything around them, and assessing the obvious needs of the village. After our tour, we'll sit down to a meeting where we'll consult village elders and leaders to see what ideas they have for us to work on, as designing service projects without their input would be ignorant. After deciding with them which project and work would best serve the community's interests, we'll roll up our sleeves and get to work! This work will vary day-to-day and village-to-village, and may include working alongside villagers in the fields, playing games with children, teaching in local schools, building shelters, painting schools, and herding animals. At other times, students can expect to help around the homestay house, hanging out with families, and generally live the life of a Hill Tribe villager. In the evenings, fellow villagers (many of whom have never been out of their province!) are always stopping by to catch a wide-eyed glimpse of us - visitors from a world away who have somehow come to their small place to share a smile and help the community for a few days.Other activities include hill tribe fashion shows, buffalo rides, traditional music and campfire dances. Most nights we'll have a group meeting to discuss what we’ve seen and learned, and think about what more we can do to affect even more positive change in the community durig our stay.

Day 11, Friday
After the morning routine, its time for a sad goodbye to our host families. Village elders will come thank us for a job well done, and perform a special ceremony where they'll tie strings around our wrists and wish us good luck on our travels. Next we’ll pack up the vans and continue our journey to Mae Hong Son, an area also known for its many hilltribes. Along the way we’ll stop in Mae Sariang to hit up some more cool Thai markets for some more gifts to give the next village we'll visit and anything else you may need before having a delicious barbecue lunch. We’ll arrive at Mae Hong Son in the evening where we will have some free time to relax and have a walk around the lake in the center of this relaxed town. Afterwards, we'll get dinner at a local restaurant and enjoy the comfort of a real bed again - you're guranteed to sleep well tonight!

Day 12, Saturday
After a nice breakfast, its time to do some touring! From the local pier, we'll hop aboard a small fleet of some traditional longtail boats and head upstream through the jungle and mountains of Thailand's most exotic province. The scenic ride will lead us to a 'Long Neck' Karen village, where women still wear traditional golden rings around their necks as they have here for hundreds of years. Rustic Pathways has been visiting this village for many years now and has many friends here that are always happy to see us. We'll have some time to wander the village, shop for some locally made handicrafts, learn how to weave silk scarves, and talk to the villagers about their way of life. When everyone is ready, we’ll say goodbye an jump back in the longtail boats which will bring us to an elephant camp on the side of the river. Here, you'll swap your boat for a pachyderm, and hitch a ride on the back of an elephant through the pristine rainforest of northwest Thailand. You'll be amazed at how easily these animals can manuver their way through these windy jungle paths. After this wild ride, we'll load up the vans again and head to a local market to gather more supplies for our next village stay. Once we have everything, we'll begin the scenic ride through misty peaks to a Lisu village, where Rustic Pathways has friends who will welcome us with open arms into their homes for the next few days. Meet your new family,introduce yourself with a smile to the local children, and help out with dinner before saying goodnight.

Day 13, Sunday through Day 15, Tuesday
Back to mountain life! Early mornings aren't so bad when you wake up to one of the most beautiful views you've even seen from a front porch. Just as in the first village, we'll take our time getting a good look around the village and talking to elders to decide which service projects will be most beneficial for the community. While similar to the first village stay in some ways, you'll quickly see significant differences in the way these people live, as they are a different ethnic group with a completely different language, history, religion, and lifestyle. We'll spend our time and energy working alongside villagers for the betterment of the community, and this in itself brings us directly in to the swing of village life. As in the first village, we'll have regular meetings to assess how our projects and the village-stay in general are going so that students can always be an active part of the process, and so we can be sure we've done the most with our time here.

Day 16, Wednesday
After breakfast, its time for more heartfelt goodbyes with our new Lisu friends. Before leaving, acquire some colorful new bracelets from the village elders as a thank you and a wish of good luck on your travels. We have a big change of pace in store as we'll set off for the largest city in northern Thailand, Chiang Mai. After some serious time away from the modern world, expect to be overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells of all that is modern, tasty and delicious. We’ll a chance to check our internet and make a phone call before heading off the famous Night Bazaar for some great souvenir shopping and a look at what most tourists see of northen Thailand - quite a bit different than the Come With Nothing experience!

Day 17, Thursday
In the morning, after another epic sleep on a real bed, it’s off to Thailand’s northern most province, Chiang Rai. Here we’ll be staying at the Rustic Pathways Chiang Rai Base House, located in the 'heart' of a traditional Akha village. Today will be a rather easy day of cruising in the van and listening to some good tunes while taking in the scenery of Chiang Rai province. In the evening, we’ll settle into the house and have a chat to see how everyone is holding up so far and what we’d like to achieve during our third and final village. After the meeting, we’ll cook up a feast and relax at the Base for movie night.

Day 18, Friday
After another luxurious night's sleep, pack up your bags and get ready for the last village of our trip. Today we’ll be heading to Ban Thoet Thai in the far north of Thailand near the Burmese border. This area is settled by a combination of Thai, Shan, Chinese, Akha, Hmong, Lisu, and Lahu people, making for a very diverse population. Once we get into town, we’ll go to the local markets and get our supplies for the next few days. This afternoon we’ll be met by our 4x4 drivers, who will take us up the steep mountain trails to a tiny Lahu village perched on top of a mountain, where we’ll do our last Hill Tribe homestay. We’ll get settled into our homes and then have time to play with the children and help out with dinner. It’s always very exciting entering a new village, and this one is a small, quiant place that has known very few tourists in the past - a great way to finish off the trip!

Day19, Saturday through Day 21, Monday
Our next few days will be spent in living Lahu life. Watch the sun rise each morning over the distant peaks of Burma, just across the valley to our north. This village really is perched on top of a mountain, and you can see every direction from the field at the top of the village. We'll dive right in to service projects again, and even have the chance to ride horses down to the terraced rice fields to show the villagers your now well-refined skills in the fields. Each village introduces us to unique personalities, faces, and service work challenges that you surely won't forget anytime soon. All the while, the more effort you make to really share yourself with these people, the more they will share in return. You will be amazed at how much you'll learn about smiling to friendly (but shy) strangers, and how it can make all the difference when bridging language gaps. Further, those who continue to practice their Thai language will be amazed at how much progress is possible when you combine a little effort with cultural immersion.

Day 22, Tuesday
Once again its time to say goodbye to our new friends in the Lahu village. We’ll load up the 4x4 truck and carefully make our way down from the top of the mountain. Our next destination is the town of Mae Sai on the Burmese (Myanmar) border, where we’ll be able to cross into Burma for a second time and tour the markets and temples of this bustling border town - you'll be amazed at how different this town is than Mae Sot!. After, we’ll head back down to Chiang Mai and stay at the Chiang Mai School House.

Day 23, Wednesday
It’s an early start today as we prepare food and donations to give to the monks at Wat Sri Soda. Watch as many barefoot monks walk past you with their alms bow in hand to collect morning alms from the many people who wait to give them food. After we give our donations to the monks, we’ll walk to a waterfall where we’ll have a picnic breakfast in the middle of the forest. Our next destination will be the top of Suthep Mountain and Thailand’s famous Doi Suthep Temple. Walk up the huge staircase to the entrance of the temple and then awe at the magnificent view of the city. We’ll arrive back to the School House before lunch, where we’ll have a closing ceremony to talk about the past three weeks. During this meeting, we’ll discuss all of the issues and problems that we have seen and how we can help. Then, as a group we’ll decide how we’d like to distribute our donation funds to the villEdad, NGO’s, and schools that we visited over our tour. This evening we’ll catch the overnight train to Bangkok.

Day 24, Thursday
Arrive to Bangkok in the early morning and transfer to Bangkok’s sleek new airport. Transfer to your next Rustic Pathways adventure, or say your goodbye’s and board the flight home. Kap kun kaaap and safe travels where ever you may be going!

It shouldn’t take you long to pack for this trip since all that you need to bring should fit into your carry-on  backpack that you bring on the plane.  Basically what you need to pack for your trip is what you’ll need for your first night (plus or minus a few other things).  During our orientation in Ayuthaya, we will give students the money they will need in the markets ($50) and also their new Thai-style bags.  During our travels we will be stopping at all kinds of markets along the way where you will be able to find the things that you will need for your trip (and for cheap too!).  The idea behind “Come With Nothing” is to live simply like the people we are visiting and also to learn about the value of the things we have and / or will buy.  The more you let go, the more adventurous your trip will be.  There are some things which are important to bring (these items are listed with a ***).

Things you should pack (PIAPB = Pack In A Plastic Bag):

Things you think you should pack but shouldn’t because we’ll be buying it in the markets:

Should I bring these?

Some important questions to ask yourself while packing or shopping:

1. Where and who will kids be staying on this program?
Rustic Pathways has been to these villEdad and met with the elders already. They know that you are coming and are expecting you to come as well. We have friends in the villEdad and you will not feel awkward here. Usually, we stay in about 3 or 4 different houses, boys and girls are separate (boys in one house w/ the family and male leader, girls in another house w/ a female leader). Usually it is the village elder's house and some of his friends and family or nearby neighbors. We all gather for dinner and eat at the same house. In the houses (either made out of bamboo or teakwood), we sleep on simple mats under mosquito nets. In between villEdad we will be staying at small guesthouses and Rustic Pathways Base Houses along the way. All bedding and new mosquito nets will be provided for.

2. What is the ratio of staff / guides to students?
This trip has a capacity of 15 students. There will be 2 western staff (1 male, 1 female) as well as 1 or 2 local staff. We will also have our 3 van drivers (2 passenger vans and one small van for bags / equipment) with us at all times who also help out with dinners and other activities.

3. What kind of food will the kids be eating? What if my child has certain diet retrictions?
While in villEdad students will be eating local food prepared by our van drivers, villagers and students. We cook Thai food that the students are comfortable eating and also throw in a local experimental dish for the students to try out. We also cook vegetarian dishes as well. We have catered to Vegans before too and other dietary restrictions. In between villEdad we eat at local restaurants.

4. Will there be clean water to drink?
Yes. During this trip students will be drinking out of bottled water at all times. Before we enter a village, we visit the markets to buy our supplies. Depending on the amount of students on the trip and how many days we will be staying, we buy several large packs of bottled water. Kids write their names in permanent markers on the bottles to make sure they are drinking out of their own water bottles.

5. Will kids be able to do laundry?
Yes. Student can either try to wash their clothes the local way in the village, or we will also have laundry stops during our days between villEdad.

6. Will kids have a place to store their bags if they do another program? How will they pick these up?
Yes. We usually pick up their extra bags when they arrive in BKK and deliver them to the students when they connect to their next program.

7. How much spending money do you recommend?
We usually recommend about $150 / week. This money can be used to buy souvenirs in local markets. They will also need money for internet, laundry, phone calls home, massEdad and snacks for road trips.

8. Where is the closest hospital? Will I need any special vaccinations?
From each village the farthest hospital is only 45 minutes away. If we ever needed to evacuate someone, we can do so right away as our van drivers our with us for the entire trip. There are major western hospitals in Chiang Mai and also in BKK. If you have any questions about what vaccinations to get, please consult your local doctor. You can also check out the Center for Disease Control website (www.cdc.org) as well which gives detailed info on what vaccinations to get.

9. Will kids have access to internet / phones?
Yes. In between villEdad we will stop at internet. Although students are allowed to have cell phones, they are not encouraged to use them. Staff will all have cell phones which students can use to call home at reasonable rates.

10. How will the weather be?
Although it is rainy season in Thailand during the whole summer, the weather is still very nice. If it rains, it will usually rain hard in the late afternoon for 30-45 minutes and then stop and be sunny again. The weather in Thailand is also very hot and can be humid at times too.

11. Are there a lot of bugs?
Although it never seems as if there are a large amount of bugs, students must always be protecting themselves from them. It is important that students have bug spray (which we can buy in Thailand).

12. What kind of service will the kids be doing on this trip?
During the CWNGHR program, students will act like NGO’s (Non Government Organizations). After students settle into their homes, we have a meeting with the head of the village and several village elders. Here, we ask them questions about their village and where they feel they could use some help. The next day we tour the village and assess the needs keeping in mind Short Term Projects and Long Term Projects. They visit the school, local clinic, several houses, village water sources and any other areas we feel may need help. Short term projects can be teaching at the school, running a camp for the students, working alongside villagers in the ricefields, etc. Long term more sustainable projects can be building a library, toilets at the school, repairing the village’s water holding tanks, etc. All the projects are up to the students and leaders help guide them through the decision process. Students are also in charge of a $1,000 budget which they will need to distribute amongst the three villEdad and the projects we do. This money is used for donation materials (school supplies, medicines, farm equipment, etc) as well as supplies for our projects. We work as a team to and have discussions on how to use this money in the best way. This program needs students to be involved in the process and decision making.

13. What is village life like?
Life in the villEdad is very simple, relaxing and slow paced. Many of these people are farmers and they spend long days in the rice fields or farms. Many elders stay at home with the young kids and lounge around all day. Students will be able to help out with family chores, cooking, cleaning, and a lot of game playing with the local children.

14. What are the bathrooms like in the villEdad?
Bathrooms in the villEdad are very small and simple. All of them have squat toilets that need to be flushed by hand (pouring a small bit of water into the toilet). Also there are no hot showers in the villEdad. Showers are cold water "bucket showers". There is a big tub of water where students take a bucket and pour the water over them. Don't worry, everyone gets used to these types of showers and after a while they are fun (but they also make you appreciate a hot water shower in our guesthouse in between villEdad a lot more)!

15. How will the kids communicate without speaking Thai?
You'll be amazed at how far sign language and body gestures go. Also, don't worry, you will have bilingual staff to help you communicate to the locals. Along the way, you will also be taking a few lessons in Thai that will help you get by and make friends with the locals.

16. What will the kids be doing between villEdad?
In between villEdad we will be taking long road trips through winding roads in the mountains and countryside. These van trips are a lot of fun. Students are not allowed to bring their Ipods into the village, but they are allowed to use them in the vans so it’s a lot of fun making playlists and sharing music. We also stop in several towns and may sleep in a guest house or Rustic Pathways Base House. While here we may get massEdad, go to local markets, check emails, do laundry and get a tour of the town and local temples.

17. How long are the drives?
Drive lengths can vary, but may be up to 6-8 hours on our longest days. Don’t worry, we are always stopping for snacks, food and other surprises along the way!

18. Why is this trip only for older students?
Because of the intensity of this trip, we are looking for smart, mature, focused and active students who show good leadership skills and are committed to the Servicio comunitario projects that we will do in the villEdad. This trip has several meetings with NGO heads, government officials and village elders and we would like the students to be active in asking questions and listening. Also, during this trip we will be talking about some major issues such as refugees, migrant workers, malaria, sustainable development and more. The students will also be in charge of a $1,000 budget where they will be responsible for distributing this money how they see fit for different service projects. We would not want a younger student to feel lost, left out of discussions or feel that the program is too tough. Please understand that this is an advanced service project which is best suited for older students.

19. Will we be able to charge our cameras?
Yes. Although the villEdad that we visit are in very remote areas, there is either electricity supplied to the village or solar cells. Students can charge their cameras in the village if necessary. It is recommended however, that students charge their electronics in between villEdad when we stay at guesthouses and Rustic Pathways Base houses.