Mulit-Country Rustic Pathways Gap Year

Why did you decide to travel abroad with Rustic Pathways in Asia?

Allie: My goal for my gap year was to travel to as many countries and experience all they have to offer.

After hearing raving reviews from my brother who went to Costa Rica and my friend who went all over Asia with Rustic, I had to see what all the hype was about.

I had a taste of Rustic after spending a month in Fiji with them during the fall. The second I got home I was ready to leave again and explore more countries.

The trip included Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and India, 6 countries in 3 months. I had never been to Asia. This was the perfect opportunity.

What was the most interesting cultural difference you encountered?

Allie: While traveling, every country had something different to offer, but the one country that stood out from all the others was Burma. Burma was always an enigma to me. I could not wrap my mind around the fact that they just lifted the ban on tourism in November 2010.

Tell me about one person you met.

Allie: My trip leader, Kevin, could not contain his love for the country. He educated me on the National League for Democracy and their fight against the military regime.

Living as an ex-pat in Thailand, Kevin has the privilege to travel to Burma frequently. He would talk about how in Burma you had to go to the black market to exchange money.

He told us how the currency is constantly changing because of the military as well. He is extremely passionate about Aung San Suu Kyi and her struggle to become the democratic president.

Kevin turned Burma from a mysterious world of tyrannical rule to a country filled with culturally rich loving people. He and fellow trip leader, Kinga, planned a photo scavenger hunt for our group. Some categories were such: walk hand in hand with locals, drink Burmese tea at a tea shop, and perform the job of a local.

Was it difficult to navigate around language barriers?

Allie: The hardest part was trying to communicate with the locals to have them take a picture with us. Usually we just got stares, but if they understood they joined right in.

Burma has this stigma of being seen as this unknown land, but that’s because we learn so little about the country. Experiencing it first hand, no one mentions the military, just the love the locals have for their country.

What was the best moment of the entire trip?

Allie: The best moment of the entire trip was a night we spent in a village in Laos. Once the sun set, it was time to go to bed. As we walked back to our house to sleep, a fellow student, Brooke, and I heard music playing.

So naturally we started dancing. The rest of our group joined us. Curious kids came to watch, as did the adults. Soon enough everyone was dancing, only with the moon as the spotlight.

What is your favorite travel memory?

Appropriately, I am fond of my own gap year! In 2008 I lived and worked in Nicaragua as a volunteer volcano tour guide. The travel and service in Central America was one half of a gap I took between my sophomore and junior years of university. Beyond the usual responsibilities of young-adulthood in the United States, the months in Nicaragua were the first time I found myself completely independent and responsible for helping operate a small non-profit organization. There are experiences, people, and memories from that Summer volunteer program that I continue to be positively influenced by today!

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

In my role, I strive to achieve timely, clear, and helpful customer service to students and their families while they are planning their gap year. As a company, however, I believe the most effective factor is that we run incredible, life-changing programs. Our operations and country teams put their lives into running great programs. Every day, I am amazed by the sacrifices they make and the performance they give for our programs. I could deliver the world's best customer service before a student's program but, at the end of the day, what matters is how the program is run and how it will positively impact that student's life and the areas of the world they visit. That consistency in running incredible programs is what has been the secret sauce for more than thirty years!

Describe a time when you felt especially proud to be part of your current team.

Since I am not directly on the programs as much in my role of Gap Admissions, I don't always have a chance to be with students while they're traveling. Last Spring, however, I worked as an airport coordinator to help departing gap students make their connections and check their bags on their way to Fiji from LAX. Meeting and talking with those students and seeing, first hand, their excitement and nervousness to depart, reminded me of the reasons students, myself included, take gap years. It made me really proud of our organization and my team for coordinating the trip and making those experiences possible. I'm hoping for the same airport experience this Fall!

What is the best story you've heard from a return student?

I am always impressed by students who return home from a program so moved by their experience that they to continue to serve. One of my favorite examples is a student who returned home and started her own website, to benefit the Save the Elephant Foundation. Just the other day, a colleague shared with us the story of another alum who traveled a program in Cambodia six years ago. Recently, she graduated university and presented her research on land-mine disarmament in the region to the United Nations! Similarly, I love hearing when coworkers of mine had been Rustic Pathways students in the past. It shows that their travels and service impacted them so deeply that it become their life's pursuit to share that with others.