Itinerary
Day 1 (Tuesday): Relax and prepare for a world-class trip on Singapore Airlines. Prior to your departure, you will have received your pre-departure packet, which will include your Rustic T-shirts, airline tickets, and important contact information.
Once you arrive at your international departure city, our Flight Liaison will help you get checked in to your international flight. Working with our Flight Liaison will be your Flight Leader, who will escort you all the way to Thailand! Our Flight Leaders are most often school teachers or good friends of our organization who happily fill this role for us each year. Once you're checked in, feel free to relax and get acquainted with your new friends before boarding your flight to Thailand!
Day 2 (Wednesday): Today is lost as you cross the international dateline. Fear not – you will get this time back on your way home.
Day 3 (Thursday): Sawat dee, and welcome to Thailand! Upon your arrival into one of the world's most modern airports, you will immediately get the feeling that you have arrived in a place that is far different from the United States. Thailand is known as one of the most welcoming countries in the world and is affectionately nicknamed the 'Land of Smiles.'
As you exit the arrival hall with your friendly flight leader, you will meet our team of staff. They have been anxiously awaiting your arrival and will lead you up to the fourth floor of the airport, where you'll have a relatively quiet place to unwind and meet new friends who have arrived on different flights or are connecting from different programs.
Once the whole group has arrived, it will be time to board your flight to Chiang Mai. After some well-deserved down time at the hotel, you will go for a short walk to explore a nearby market. Then get a relaxing foot massage and have a traditional Thai-style dinner. This will set you up nicely for a great night's sleep, which you'll need for your big day tomorrow!
Day 4 (Friday): This will be a full day of exploring Chiang Mai! One of the most interesting cities in Thailand, Chiang Mai has so much to offer. We'll visit the mountain-top temple of Doi Suthep, talk with Buddhist monks at Wat Chedi Luang, and shop in the world famous night bazaar. After dinner we'll stop at a local Karaoke room and see who can hit the highest note!
Day 5 (Saturday): After a quick breakfast at the hotel, you will set off for a ride to the border of Burma. Along the way you will begin to notice the landscape change from paved roads and urban lifestyle to bicycles, dense jungle mountains, and bamboo huts. You'll have an opportunity to photograph local life at a vibrant market and taste some local Thai and Burmese cuisine along the way.
Mae Sot! Often referred to as the Western Frontier town of Thailand, Mae Sot is home to traders from Burma, India, Malaysia, China, and a wide selection of Thai ethnic groups. Mae Sot's street market is a great place to view local life - Burmese women with yellow powdered faces, hill tribe villagers anxiously selling crops, and Indian merchants trading jade – all come together to form a picturesque multicultural scene. After settling in, you will be able to enjoy a delicious local cuisine at a Burmese restaurant and get a good night sleep.
Day 6 (Sunday): As you settle into this frontier country you will get to know the way of life a bit better. You will spend the day touring around the city by tuk tuk, eating local cuisine, shopping in border markets, and speaking with local friends. You will get a better understanding of life on the border and inside Burma from those who have experienced it their whole lives. You'll have a chance to cook dinner with some Burmese friends and swap stories about your lives.
Day 7 (Monday): This is an exploration day! We'll drive from Mae Sot up the Burmese border. Tha Song Yan is our final destination but anything in between goes! We'll wander through villages, play a pick-up game of soccer, and work on our photography skills. We'll also make a quick stop at Mae La, the biggest refugee camp in Thailand which is home to 43,000 people.
Day 8-11 (Tuesday-Friday): From Tha Song Yan, you will continue north along the border, and as the drive takes you up into the mountains, you will feel as if you are driving into a green cloud. Nestled in this dense mountain setting is Nohbu, the small village that will be your home for the next week. For the next five days you will settle into the lifestyle of the Karen people, who hold friendship, family, and respect in the highest regard. You will be welcomed as a brother, sister, daughter, or son into this loving community.
Most of your work will focus on Nohbu Academy, where you will make friends with high school students from around the region. They will be eager to hear about your life in America and will share with you stories of their home in Burma, their time at Mae La Refugee Camp, and, finally, their journey here to Nohbu Academy. The stories they tell will help you add layers of meaning to your images and create truly storytelling photographs.
In addition to working at the school, you will visit the orphanage, stop at Mae La Refugee Camp, and get involved in the day-to-day lives of the Karen villagers who are hosting you. Each of these experiences will offer another chance to add a variety of photographs to your portfolio. A typical day might include working on portraits of students at the Academy, shooting pictures of children at play, or photographing a quiet moment between friends. You'll develop your technical skills and gain a deeper understanding of these amazing people who are eager to share their stories. Together you and your group will compile a beautiful book of memories from your week at Nohbu. You will design, edit, and print the book and then leave it for the community here to reflect on and enjoy for generations to come.
Bring these images home with you and share the stories of the students at Nohbu Academy with your friends and family. You will leave Thailand with a genuine love and understanding of the Karen people, their captivating culture, and their dreams for a brighter future. In your free time you will have a chance to give back to your host community through English lessons.
Day 12 (Saturday): Today it will be time to say good-bye to your new friends at Nohbu Academy and continue the journey. You will travel farther north along the border to Mae Sariang. This is a beautiful drive along the Salaween River, through peaks wrapped in mist and into valleys full of rice fields. Mae Sariang is the home of Rustic Pathways' Hill Tribe Orphanage, which is a home and support center for Karen students who go to school in Mae Sariang. You will meet the local students, as well as the Rustic Pathways students who are working here, giving you yet another perspective on Karen life. The Orphanage is set in a quintessential Northern Thai setting and looks out on a beautiful valley. In the evening, you can take a walk down to the bridge over the river and watch the sun set over this lush valley.
Day 13 (Sunday): Today we will continue to hone our photography skills by heading out into the ricefields and working on portraits. Then we'll drive to a small border town of Burma and take a boat ride down stream. Before the day is out we'll get to jump into some blue waterfalls near the hill tribe orphanage.
Day 14 (Monday): From the Orphanage, you will continue north to the town of Mae Hong Son. This beautiful town is set in a small valley hemmed in by tall peaks. The surrounding mountains are dotted with Hill Tribe villages, and even in town, it will be obvious that ethnic minorities make up a large part of the population here. Along the way we'll make several stops to shoot the amazing scenery and people that inhabit the area.
Day 15 (Tuesday): In the morning you will get to know one of Thailand's most revered and majestic creatures – the Asian elephant. You will head to a nearby elephant camp, where you will climb aboard one of these massive animals and go for a stroll through the jungle. Your elephant's mahout, or trainer, will show you everything you need to know for this one-of-a-kind ride, and you will learn a lot about these playful and intelligent creatures along the way.
Then, after lunch, you will visit one of the many Hill Tribe villages that dot the region. A 25-minute boat ride down the river will bring you to a riverside village that is home to the Karen long-neck people. This small ethnic group is known around the world for the copper rings the women wear around their necks. As you explore the village, you can make a few new friends, work on creating stunning portraits, and grab a couple of unique souvenirs for your family. The families that live here are a subgroup of Burma's ethnic Karen and are yet another group of refugees who have fled Burma's civil unrest. Although Thailand is home to a mere 600 members of this group, it is estimated that 130,000 remain in Burma.
Day 16 (Wednesday): This morning we'll wake up early to give alms to the monks on the streets of Mae Hong Son before catching a quick 30-minute flight back to Chiang Mai. Back in the city we'll relax in the pool at our hotel before having one final night of shopping and eating in town.
Day 17 (Thursday): Wake up, grab a quick breakfast and head to the airport to fly back to Bangkok, where you'll meet up with your next Rustic Pathways adventure or head home aboard our escorted group flight. Wherever you are headed, you are sure to always remember this journey!
The Wonders of Amazing Thailand
Mae Sot and the Burmese Border
A typical day might include working on portraits of students at the Academy, shooting pictures of children at play, or photographing a quiet moment between friends. You’ll develop your technical skills and gain a deeper understanding of these amazing people who are eager to share their stories. Together you and your fellow Rustic Pathways students will compile a beautiful book of memories from your week at Nohbo. You will design, edit, and print the book and then leave it for the community here to reflect on and enjoy for generations to come. Hopefully the images and stories you bring home with you to share with your friends and family will help spread the word about the situation in Burma. You will leave Thailand with a genuine love and understanding of the Karen people, their captivating culture, and their dreams for a brighter future.