I obsess about quality, originality, and creativity when it comes to travel.
Travel means participating, not observing. Doing things you normally wouldn’t do, be it a physical challenge, a religious experience, or a type of food or transport. It is walking in other’s shoes, seeing the world from a local perspective and seeking to learn, not to change.
Traveling
When my friend Scott Coates and I founded Smiling Albino travel in 1999, we wanted to change how people traveled. We wanted to fuse “luxury-meets-local” experiences, and have fun doing it. After thousands of hours, millions of miles, and the work of our unstoppable team, Smiling Albino is now regularly mentioned among the region’s top travel companies. It’s been exciting and humbling. I sometimes joke about this journey as a “twenty year overnight success”.
I believe the traditional idea of luxury travel is, well…boring. Smiling Albino specializes in transforming travel from something you do into something you experience, and we have built an amazing network of friends, ideas, and sustainable best practices. We are poised for an even more immersive, sustainable, value-added approach. We’re going to take luxury travel to the next level.
Television
The prospects of hosting a weekly travel television series in Thai are both tantalizing and terrifying, but it wasn’t something I could turn down. From 2011-2013 I hosted the Long Krung documentary series, and since 2016 have been the host of Long Ruk Yim, which is steaming towards its 400th episode.
My Thai is not perfect, and I have no business attempting to teach Thais – or anyone – about their own culture. However, that’s not the point of my show. Indeed, this TV series exists to illuminate unique traditions, shed light on pastimes that are disappearing from everyday life, and to take part in the most intriguing aspects of rural life in Thailand, all through the eyes of an always curious, often bumbling student (that would be me). Sometimes silly, sometimes somber, but always honest, my mandate is simple: to convey my thoughts and observations as I explore Thailand.
See a highlight reel from Long Ruk Yim on the video to the left.
Social Media
I’m on the road a lot and attempt to use social media to keep in touch with friends, family, and followers (thanks folks!). While it’s easy to send a torrent of content out with little regard to who reads it or how it’s digested, I really try to make my online presence – especially Instagram – meaningful, insightful, and friendly.
Typing usually in English, sometimes in Thai (takes longer!), I like to post shots from my travels, and most importantly, the people who make them so interesting. Be it fishing in the Gulf of Thailand, climbing trees on the border with Burma, or behind-the-scenes at a luxury travel event, I try to invite people into my fun little world, and encourage them to smile along with me.
You can see my Instagram feed on the right. I also post on Twitter, sometimes.
