Thailand Summer: Sustainability and Spirituality in the Land of Smiles

The focus of the trip was sustainability and spirituality. We engaged with people who were working with the land through permaculture, tea making, and agriculture. In each place we stayed, we were able to participate in caring for the land and learned from the community. We tried new fruits and learned how to cook Thai dishes. We visited temples and monasteries, focusing on learning Buddhist teachings and meditation. I found community not just with the people that we met while in Thailand, but with the members of my group. I felt supported by my group throughout the trip as we all got pushed out of our comfort zone. Where There Be Dragons has many connections in the places it travels, and the leaders have great knowledge of their programs. This was evident in the selection of places we traveled, or the instructor's in-depth answers to our questions about anything from fruits to history to language. This program inspired me to think of a future for myself around traveling and exploration. A month in a place lets you settle into a routine, almost like you are living there, even if just for a short amount of time. This trip was an amazing experience for me, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to explore a country, learn from its experts, and travel with intention.

I loved my trip with Where There be Dragons to Thailand. I was fully immersed into Thai culture. I learned about their language, customs, and traditions. We even participated in a week long homestay in a rural village. My host mom was amazing and I was so sad to say goodbye. After our homestay we city hopped and visited some super cool monasteries, night markets, and museums. Parts of the trip are definitely challenging and way out of your comfort zone. As long as you keep an open mind to change you will have an awesome time!

Like most of my soon to be friends, I was filled with nerves, worries, and excitement for my program with Where There Be Dragons. Also like my friends, my month in Thailand is one I will forever cherish and credit for revealing the hidden wonder of the world outside of home. This program allowed me to connect with Thai Culture, nature, and people in a way that wouldn't be possible at home. I will forever remember fumbled through the broken Thai that I had just extracted from a dictionary to let my homestay mother know that I was leaving. I will forever cherish the time I spent with my homestay brother and other village children on the wet soccer field in the late evening. I will forever cherish all the bonds and incredible people I have met in Thailand. Just collecting this trip leaves me longing to be back in the depths of the Thai rainforest led by the warmest people I have ever met. I have gained a variety of perspectives in Thailand and from my homestay families. These are places I only saw in magazines, but experiencing and living one is without a doubt life changing. Although cliche sounding, an experience abroad in Thailand has left me awestruck by what the world has to offer. I have become more globally aware and plan to continue traveling all through my life. Not as a tourist but as a traveler and one who tries to appreciate all aspects of cultures outside the confines of the tourist attractions.
Amazing places, people, food, and adventures all await in Thailand for those interested. You may be nervous and scared, but without a doubt, you will be crying and longing for Thailand long after the trip has ended.

I cannot recommend this program highly enough! Over the month, I got closer to Thai culture than I ever could on a simple vacation - having three extremely experienced instructors, one of whom was local, really made the trip flow easily, and helped me learn a lot. So much growth and understanding came from this experience - we learned about organic farming when we stayed on a permaculture farming community, and studied indigenous roots when we stayed in two different thai villages, learning traditional crafts and customs of the communities that were so kind to welcome us into their homes. Dragons changed the way I view the world and my place in it, and made me so much more aware of the empathy and kindness that exists between cultures and communities. I now divide my life into pre-Thailand and post-Thailand, as it changed the way I view the world that much.

While on my trip I spent a week at a homestay in the little beachside village of Baan Tele Nok in the Ranong Province of Thailand. Now a homestay for those who don’t know is when a student stays in a home with a local family and eats, does activites, etc. with them. I was fortunate enough to stay in a small fantastic muslim village. There I lived with my homestay family and my caring, charismatic mother who didn’t speak a lick of English. All we had between us in terms of communication was a small Thai-English Phrasebook and a lot of hand gestures. One day while sitting out in the front of the house, eating some small sour green fruit, I was instructed to throw the pits of these little fruits into the bushes on the side of the house. I would sit with my mother, grandfather, and 2 other students on my course and dip these sour fruits in the sweet and spicy chili sugar we had in a little bowl in front of us. As I sat there with my peers and newfound family we reminisced on a few of the things we did back home. Jokingly as I threw a few pits, I exclaimed, “Kobe!” in reference to one my favorite basketball players Kobe Bryant. However as my mother began to throw her pits into the bushes she also began to say “Kobe!” we laughed and she smiled back at me giggling. My homestay grandfather who probably had no idea what was going on let out a hearty laugh. It was a sweet and simple moment I will never forget. Throughout the rest of my homestay whenever my mom threw anything away she would always say “Kobe!” with a smile on her face and putting a smile on mine. There’s a reason Thailand is considered “The Land of Smiles” and it’s not from all the smiles you see but from the happiness you can feel.