My Gap Year experience

Program

Southeast Asia Explorer with Gapforce

By Kate Warner on 11/28/2018

Ratings

Overall

Housing: 3

Support: 4

Fun: 4

Value: 4

Safety: 4

Review

I really enjoyed this expedition overall, it was an amazing experience and a great way to start my gap year off. I would really recommend this expedition to anyone who is looking to learn about different cultures, ways of living and try some amazing food! This expedition is definitely for people who love the outdoors and who love being active. The rest days you have will be very much appreciated! I felt that going through a company like Gapforce was really beneficial as it meant I was able to experience these 3 amazing countries with no stress about travel or accomodation. The safety of the trip was pretty good overall. Some areas felt more safer than others but that is the beauty of travelling. As the trip progressed I found I was embracing the local cultures more and more and I felt a lot more comfortable. Being with such an amazing group of people really made it easy to settle in and avoid homesickness. To give some highlights, I really enjoyed our trip to Angkor Wat and our trip to Koh Tao island in Thailand. The volunteering was also an amazing experience and learning about the education system in Cambodia. Halong Bay in Vietnam was also an amazing experience and a great way to end our trip!

Year Completed

2018

Private Note to Provider (optional)

I would have liked to have spent less time in some places and possibly gone to Phuket in Thailand. I also felt that some of the accommodation wasn’t placed in the best areas. For example in some places we were very far from the nearest city with shops and restaurants meaning we had to pay a lot of money for transport. In addition a few of our group members fell ill and had to go to hospital and considering part of our payment to gapforce included 24hr medical care I did not expect to have to pay for my own transport to the hospital and have to stay overnight with a friend of mine and have to get an overnight bus by ourselves whilst the rest of the group left. I would have preferred the leader to have accompanied us to the hospital.