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Thailand

Program Overview

Sawàt dii.
Explore the busy streets and waterways of Bangkok. Become part of a rural Thai village. Hike through the majestic highlands of northern Thailand near the border of Laos. Make your way into the jungle by foot, elephant, and bamboo river-raft. Learn about a very different way of life from your new Thai friends.

Orientation in Chiang Mai.
Your Thai Experiment begins in the northern city of Chiang Mai. A city surrounded by soaring mountains and home to hundreds of ancient temples, Chiang Mai is the perfect introduction to life in Thailand. During your weeklong orientation, enjoy survival Thai language classes, explore local markets, learn to cook traditional Thai meals, visit the Hill Tribe Museum, and sit down to a traditional dinner and evening of classical Thai dancing.

Homestay and Community Service
Leave Chiang Mai for a rewarding experience in a small rural village. Spend two weeks living with your Thai host family, whose members quickly befriend and charm you with gracious hospitality. During your homestay, you and your group participate in a community project, working side by side to make a positive difference in your new community.

Sample service projects: Teach English to young children; work on village building repairs; participate in a reforestation project; spend time with Thai children in a childcare center; work with farmers in the rice paddies.

Travel and Discovery
Explore northern Thailand, where you and your group take fascinating excursions by foot, raft, and elephant on a rugged trek through remote hill-tribe villages. Your Thai adventure comes to an end with a few days in historic Sukothai and Bangkok.

Sample activities: Trek the northern region’s tropical valleys and highlands; discover historic ruins and Buddhist temples; ride a river raft through the interior; visit an elephant training camp; visit Bangkok’s ornate Grand Palace and sacred Temple of the Emerald Buddha; explore cafés, floating markets, and busy shopping streets; spend a day at a local nonprofit learning about important social services for street children and the homeless.

"One memory I will cherish forever is that of my 16th-birthday party. I was helping my host grandmother cook when my host sister came running in, speaking very fast in Thai. They motioned for me to sit and blindfolded me! We walked over dissolving into laughter and when we arrived the lights were off. When my blindfold was removed, my group and the entire village started singing 'happy Birthday' in Thai. My host mom ran over and embraced me in a giant hug. Then my sisters quickly joined in. I saw how much effort everyone had put into this celebration and I almost cried out of gratefulness."

-- Kate Piniewski, West Dover, Vermont

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