"It gives you home in a thousand strange places, then leaves you a stranger in your own land." - Ibn Battuta
Rustic provided an important and formative part of my journey to becoming who I am today. Without Rustic, it would have taken me a lot longer to find my wanderlust and I'd have missed the opportunity to complete over 100 hours of community service.
Over three years, I participated in four different Rustic programs in Costa Rica, Fiji, and South East Asia. Rustic offers a variety of programs that range in length and interest. There is a program for anyone interested in traveling in High School. They even have a gap year program for HS graduates who are not ready to begin college or are unsure what they want to do with their life. For the ultra adventurous and flexible, they have a mystery program where students follow the packing list and find out where they are going when they land!
One of my favorite things about traveling is learning the local language. While it isn't much, I find that taking the initiative to remember and use just a few simple words - like "hello" and "thank you" - goes along way when it comes to connecting with others.
Something unique to Rustic Pathways as compared to other teen tour organizations is the base house. In countries with many programs where Rustic has had partnerships for a long time, there are base houses. This is a plot of land with a house (like in Costa Rica) or numerous cabins (like Fiji and Laos) where program groups can spend the night rather than staying in a hotel. In the larger base houses, there is always more than one group. Each house has multiple rooms where students and trip leaders sleep, a kitchen, and common areas. The Costa Rica and Fiji bases also have pools. Bases houses are unique because they allow you to not only bond with your group but meet new people and see the friends you made on the plane (all programs with the same start date fly together).
Costa Rica: Soccer and Service
I chose the Soccer and Service program because I wanted to travel Costa Rica again (I had spent a month there the previous summer), and I did not want to stop training while I traveled. Through the program, my travel buddies became my team as we played local teams in a few different cities. When we weren't playing soccer, we helped communities with infrastructure projects, hiked, went water rafting down the Pacuare River, and took a surfing lesson. This program allowed me to visit the mountains as well as the beaches of Costa Rica, and I even got to spend a few nights in a homestay where my host parents taught me how to play 21. The trip's timing aligned perfectly with the World Cup, which we made sure to watch as a group in the towns' pubs.
We spent a few nights in Turrialba, La Fortuna, Manuel Antonio, and San Jose bouncing between hotels, home-stays, and the Rustic base house.
Fiji Islands: Escape to the Fiji Islands; Sun, Sand, and International Service
In total, I spent a month in Fiji on two different back-to-back programs. This is actually something quite common among students interested in two different programs in one region or who want to spend more time in a place. Personally, I felt that if I was going to fly across the world to Fiji, I should stay more than two weeks. Rustic is very understanding when it comes to this! When it came time for my first group to leave, I rode to the airport with them to say goodbye, then rode back in the busses with my trip leader and spent the night at the base house before meeting my second group the next morning. The remarkable thing about the base house is that there are constantly groups coming and going, with lots of overlap, so I had friends (and the opportunity to meet new people) in between programs.
My first program in Fiji, Escape to the Fiji Islands, was a blast! We spent nine days traveling all over Fiji from the highlands to the islands. With ten students and two extraordinary trip leaders, our group quickly became a family - we even called our trip leaders mom and dad. The trip began with a bumpy drive into the highlands, where we slept in sleeping bags in the guest house with a local family. While there, we helped the family with their garden, experienced a welcome ceremony (and Kava), and hiked to a waterfall. We eventually made our way to Momi, where we spent two nights in the base house (called the Ecolodge). It was here where we went skydiving, wandered the Sigatoka Sand Dunes, and explored Nadi. We spent a day at Natadola beach, a white sand beach next to a 5-star resort and a grouping of souvenir tents. The next day we took a boat out on the ocean to the spit and passed the famous Cloud 9 (which we stared at in awe) and Cloudbreak - a hot spot for surfers. Our last two nights were spent on Robinson Crusoe Island planting Mangroves, embracing the sun and sand, and watching a local fire show. We slept just steps from the beach on this small island and woke up to watch the sunrise on the water. Before I knew it, departure day had come, and I had to say goodbye to my friends and await new ones.
Sun, Sand, and International Service is a service and culture-focused program during which groups stay at the Ecolodge and engage in 60+ hours of community service. When it comes to service programs, I find the end of the summer programs more impactful. Rustic starts new programs each summer, and as programs come, each one completes a part of the project. This way, at the end of each summer, you can see the finished project. Cyclone Winston hit the Fiji Islands just before the summer season. This storm destroyed homes, schools, and ecosystems. That summer, Rustic mainly focused on rebuilding. My Sun, Sand, and Service group helped clean up an elementary school as we put tiles into the kindergarten classroom and finished painting the walls so the children could return to their classroom. We also rebuilt a chicken coop that had been destroyed in the backyard of a family who relied on the coop for income. We also spent a week making lesson plans for a local school. Each day we taught a different grade, kindergarten through sixth grade. When we weren't teaching, we worked with a local construction crew to fix the broken cement sidewalk connecting the classrooms.
If we were not engaged in a service project, we were experiencing Fiji. I took another trip to the Spit near Cloud 9, spent two nights near Pacific Harbor on a ropes course, spent the day at Musket cove (on Malolo Lailai Island), hiked and slid down the Sigatoka Sand Dunes (a different part of the dunes this time), and experienced the mud baths near Nadi. Each night we returned to the Eco Lodge for dinner, a swim in the pool, and to play card games. Once it got dark, we each grabbed a blanket and walked about 500 meters to a small hill with an unobstructed view of the sky so we could stargaze and play music. The stars shone brightly in the darkness as we stared at a totally different night sky from that in the United States. It was stunning.
Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, & Viet Nam: Backroads of South East Asia
Backpack South East Asia? I can check that off my bucket list! I chose this trip with my best friend and ultimate travel buddy, who decided to join me on my last Rustic program. In sum, we spent about three weeks exploring southern Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Northern Viet Nam. Our flight to Luang Prabang, Laos, connected through Bangkok, Singapore, and Frankfurt. After a long flight, we dropped our bags at the base house and set off to see the Asiatic Black Bear Rescue Center and the Tat Kuang Si waterfall before exploring the Night Market and the streets of Luang Prabang. After a boat trip down the Mekong Delta, we took a rigorous hike up to Pa Daeng Peak and a kayak tour further along the Mekong. That night we ate sticky rice for dinner and slept in bungalows over the Mekong before our trip back to Luang Prabang.
From Laos, we headed East to Viet Nam, stopping for the evening at the Adams Hotel in Hanoi before taking a bus and hiking half the day into the remote mountain of the Lac Son district. Over the next two days, we learned about the importance of rice in Vietnamese culture and agriculture, spent time getting to know the community - especially our host family - and played travel chess. Eventually, we said our goodbyes, hiked to the closest major road where we met our bus, and drove to Ninh Binh. Once in Ninh Binh, we toured the city by bike, during which we stopped at Tang An UNESCO Heritage site and hiked up to the Bich Dong Pagoda at the top of a large hill. We eventually made our way from Ninh Binh to Ha Long Bay. Filled with a delicious Vietnamese breakfast, we spent the morning on small boats cruising the bay. Then, we stopped to get off the boats and explore the island where they filled part of Star Wars! Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Hanoi for one last action-packed day. The following day we woke up early for our tour of the Hoa Lo Prison Relic, widely known as the "Hanoi Hilton," where the North Vietnamese kept US POWs during the Viet Nam war (including John McCain). Before heading to the airport, we made one last stop at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.
After landing in Yangon, Myanmar (previously known as Burma), we drove straight for the Shwedagon Pagoda to start our week in Myanmar. My first view of Myanmar consisted of larger-than-life lions and lots of gold. The golden Shwedagon Pagoda stood out against the blackness of the night. The view was spectacular. The Pagoda is enormous and has multiple places for worship. As we made our way around the premises, we met a Burmese school teacher who offered to show us around and explain the significance of what we saw. He became our first friend in Myanmar (although afterward, he wanted us to apply to his school, which of course, we declined). We spent the night in Yangon before flying North to Kalaw. From hiking in the rain to exploring the local market, Kalaw was beautiful, albeit cold. We made some furry friends and spent a lot of time in our huts playing cards. Once our time in Kalaw came to a close, we headed for Inle Lake. to spend the day. Inle Lake is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
We split into small groups and took teak boats onto the lake and through the canals to lunch and a textile shop in a remote section of the lake. During lunch, we learned about thanaka, a mud paste Burmese women put on their faces to protect their skin. On our way back across the lake, we stopped at Alodaw Pauk Pagoda. Next stop: Bagan! Dressed in our longyi - traditional sheet cloth worn around the legs - we settled into our hotel and set out in tuk-tuks for dinner on the Irrawaddy River and a night tour of the famous pagodas in Old Bagan. The next day we crossed the Irrawaddy River and walked to a small village near Myitche where our in-country trip leader was born. After our day excursion, we watched the sunset from the top of the Bulethi temple.
The subsequent morning, we made our through the winding dirt streets of Old Bagan by bike to see the different pagodas and temples. One highlight was the Dhammayangyi Pagoda. We stopped for lunch and a cooking class at the Sanon Restaurant and Training School. The following day we left Bagan and drove to Nyaung-U Township, where we helped distribute water. Towns in Myanmar that run out of water and do not have access to water can apply to be placed on a list where NGOs will deliver water to them. Once we finished carrying buckets of water from the truck to local's homes, we hopped back on the bus towards Mandalay. In Mandalay, we walked along the U Bein bridge - the longest teak bridge in the world - enjoyed the hotel pool and wandered through a local market.
Lastly, we spent the last few days in mainland Thailand, with a brief trip to Ko Yao Noi. After landing and fooling around in baggage claim while we waited for our bus, we made it to Chatuchack Market an hour before it closed to grab dinner and explore. Once we filled up on Thai food and bought a few souvenirs, we made our way to our hotel for the night. The following morning we to a short flight to Phuket and took the ferry to Ko Yao Noi, where we spent two nights at the Baan Tidlay Vacation Bungalows. While on Ko Yao Noi, we biked the island, drank coconuts, kayaked and hiked around paradise island, and did some yoga on the beach. Before I knew it, the trip had flown by, and it was our last full day in South East Asia. We woke up in time to catch the ferry back to Phuket, where we spent the day at the beach and shopping on the streets of Phuket. As with every Rustic trip, we ended the trip with a Rustic ties ceremony and spent all night playing games and laughing as we prepped for our long journey home (and the layover in Singapore where we explored one of the most incredible airports I have ever been in).
A big part of Rustic Pathways is the community. At the end of each trip, after becoming more like family with people who were strangers a month before, we gather together the last night for the Rustic Ties ceremony. The idea is to reflect on the experiences which will tie us together even after we leave (and to depart with a small souvenir).
