Program Reviews

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 definitely enjoyed this trip. I chose it to improve my mandarin, and learn more about China, as I had been taking mandarin in school, and wanted to improve my skills. While there, I learned about mandarin yes, but so much about China and the culture there. The homestays and the Independent Study Projects let every person in the group engage with different aspects of china individually. My independent study project was learning the basics of how to play the guzheng, and as someone who plays western instruments, it was fascinating to learn eastern ideas on music.
The homestays were great, and a highlight of the trip. I enjoyed seeing how different people live, and having two separate homestays in two different places let me see different points of view. I bonded a lot with one of my host sisters there. It was nice to live in a family atmosphere, and see that despite being halfway across the world, people are people.
The instructors were great on this program. All of them were nice people who understood the difficulties of being in a foreign country. They all had their own unique perspectives to offer on chinese culture, and offered guidance, while preserving independence.
Language lessons were good, though it is a little hard trying to create lessons that are difficult but not too hard for people with different language backgrounds.
Overall, it was a fantastic program. I loved the independence offered, and how everyone could engage with China on their own level. I didn't feel held back, or left behind in the group. The trip cemented my interest in China, and I plan on going into the Asian Studies field in college.
Useful tips: Consider bringing a small english/chinese dictionary for words you might forget. Learn how to use a squat toilet. Do your best to leave your expectations behind, and embrace the experience!

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.

I wish I can sum up my experience in Morocco under one review, but I'm afraid I would physically need Moroccan mint tea or a recording of the sound of Moroccan Arabic in the souks for me to tell you what it is like to go there. So, I'll talk about one of my countless favorite moments.

When we were staying in Azrou, all with our own host families, I really learned the challenges of traveling but also the "type" of traveling I want to do. I lived in a house that had your traditional Turkish toilet, with just a hole on the ground and a bathroom where I took my bucket showers. I didn’t have my own room and shared it with three of my sisters. As someone who values privacy and independence, this was definitely an uncomfortable experience in the first days. None of my family members also spoke English, and just spoke Arabic and French, which was difficult especially when I had to advocate for rest time or alone time. However, this was just in the first days. After some time, I learned to be more appreciative of the discomfort. Not having anyone speak English in my home allowed me to utilize my phrase book and body language to communicate. I learned about my host sister’s passion for human rights, her beliefs on feminism, and her boyfriend, all in broken Arabic, English, French, and hand motions. In the same time, having to share a room with my sisters helped me become more aware of the amount of space I take, not just physically. I realized that often times, when we stay at a hotel or something, we just drop all our stuff and feel like we own the place. Even with the small amount of stuff that I had packed in one backpack, I still felt like I was taking a lot of space in staying in my family’s house. This realization, although small, has really helped me realize that for us to really immerse and learn about another’s culture, we need to pack less, take less space, listen.

As I write this I am in a café in Mexico for a trimester abroad, and my experiences in Morocco really helped me realize how I want to travel and be immersed. Despite my beginner-level Spanish, I feel confident trying out my Spanish because I know despite not having a shared language, there is always a way to communicate. I also pack less now and left more space for the important things I pick up during my trip. And with all the challenges that studying abroad entails, I am now more aware and appreciative of my discomforts because I know these are places for learning.

Dragons definitely has a unique way of traveling, something that I wish more programs can do. In just under 4 weeks, I was able to learn so much about myself, the culture, the language, and it all continues to be useful where I go.

I got home from my gap semester and since than have thought, spoken, or written about my experience with Dragons every day since. I traveled to Madagascar and Senegal with limited knowledge of both places but now want nothing but to return to spend time with my host families and continue exploring both countries. One of my favorite memories was after our first trek in Ranomofana, Madagascar we got to a village and were hoping to camp in one of their rice patties. They were not expecting us but the agreed to let us stay and later on all the villagers came down to where we were camping and brought instruments and they gave us a performance of singing and a dance and it was just unlike anything I had ever experienced. After the performance and dinner they came back and at first it was just a big game of keep away with a beach ball and than music started and we continued dancing into the night even while it was beginning to rain, and that was when I fell in love with Madagascar. I learned about community while I was with dragons; I saw how community was such a big part in the lives of the people we were meeting and before I had this idea in my mind that being independent and self sufficient was the ideal way and that that was good, even if it felt lonely at times, and now I see that having people who support you and love you and work with you is so much more important than being able to do everything on your own. For future students I tell them to just say yes, say yes when your host sister asks you to go to the market, and say yes when she wants to braid your hair, say yes when your host mom wants to dress you traditionally, and say yes when your fellow student who wants to bring you a mango when you injur yourself. Just saying yes to opportunities even if they sound strange and not everyone is doing them are where some of my best experiences came from.

Traveling through Western China, to me, was a truly transformative experience. The trip really widened my cultural horizons and allowed to meet people different from my myself, including the Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the Tibetans of Qinghai province. I especially enjoyed my week-long homestay in a farming village, where I became fully immersed in the local way of life. The trip was certainly challenging due to constant and exhausting travel. Still, I would fully recommend this trip to someone wishing for a unique experience while fully willing to take on any challenge.

I had an amazing experience in Myanmar. Our itinerary allowed us to do many things that would have been impossible had I been traveling alone. We trekked in remote areas, did homestays, connected with local students, and even sat in on a meeting of parliament. My instructors were incredible. I felt that I had agency over my experience but that support was available whenever I needed it. I was given opportunities to push myself out of my comfort zone but I never felt unsafe. Returning home, I have a lot more confidence in what I'm capable of than I did before.

When I decided to go to Myanmar, I didn't know much about the country. This made the experience even more eye-opening. I was immersed in a culture that was completely new to me for three months. I absolutely have a new perspective on the world after my Dragons trip.

If you're looking for an experience that changes your perspective, gives you opportunities for personal growth, and brings you to a beautiful and complex place, this program may be a perfect fit for you. It will be challenging at times but it is absolutely worth it.

Nepal with dragons was a transformative experience. My perceptions of the world were turned upside down! New ideas were planted in my head that I will always carry with me. Impermanence, beauty, joy, compassion.
This trip introduced me to the sacred, something that was missing from my life, just like many young Americans. The sacred mountains, temples, practices all so new to me and so ancient to the world.
Dragons gave structure and meaning to the often challenging backpacker norm. I feel, now, that I have a foundation for what it means to be a traveler and not a tourist.
Something I really appreciate about the dragons course now, during my current travels, is the approach to going home. Learning how to reintegrate or not, how to set intentions and work to embody all that one has learned.

When my plane touched down in Nepal, I knew three things about the country: Nepal had mountains. Kathmandu was the capital. "Namaste" means "hello." I knew virtually nothing about the country I was about to spend the next eight months in.

I had decided to take a gap year between college and grad school. I wanted to live in a new country and fully submerse myself in a new culture, something I hadn't taken advantage of during my undergrad. I chose Nepal mostly because of the Himalayas and my love of trekking. After much consideration (and budgeting), I decided to do my first three months with a gap year program, then travel on my own after that. Dragons gave me all the resources to prepare myself for Nepal: book titles, phone conversations, and even a copy of the Lonely Planet guidebook to Nepal. I could've prepared better, but I didn't. So it was that I found myself on the other side of the world in an unfamiliar culture with a group of strangers that were about to become my family for the next three months.

Those three months were beyond anything I could have imagined... Sitting cross-legged on a mud floor drinking sweet masala tea with my aamaa. Dancing with my homestay family on a balcony in Kathmandu while the city sparkled with millions of lights. The chanting of fifty monks, young and old, echoing in the cavernous puja hall. The burning of my lungs as we crossed Gosainkunda Pass and the sea of clouds on the other side.

The mountains were incredible, no doubt, but they aren't what I will remember most about Nepal. As I said goodbye to my the fellow travelers at Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu, I had tears in my eyes. It was these people along with many others that had made Nepal beautiful. I would be spending another five months in Nepal, but unlike the last time I arrived at the airport, I was ready.

Both homestays during the trip were incredible experiences! The families were so welcoming and you learn a lot about their lifestyles just by sharing a meal with them. The hiking was stunning - anyone looking for an adventure will love the Bolivia trip! I would recommend doing the Bolivia trip with Where There Be Dragons for anyone looking for an off-the-map trip that stays away from the typical tourist route.