I lead the Tiger Trail team in Luang Prabang, Laos. I always had a passion for adventure and travelling but, even more important, for other people. I also believe that the world is not fairly developed and even its most beautiful landscapes can be the stage for poverty and degradation. I aim to approach these problems by seeking a better way: Through our Fair Trek in Laos projects, I combine community work with tourism and bring people together from all over the world to work with Lao communities.

Fellow travellers, I have a weakness: I like to shop. Worse, when I travel, my addiction takes over. My Achilles heel is for local souvenirs, the more creative and original, the better. Among my finer purchases is a gorgeous green silk scarf bought in Vietnam, an unusual hand-carved mask from Belize that now hangs on my wall and a pair of small but colourful paintings I picked up in Peru.

Living in the remote mountains around Luang Namtha in northern Laos, the country’s most traditional ethnic groups have for centuries cultivated rice and inhabited small rural villages. These tribes, however, are at a crossroads between traditional ways of life and the forces of modernity and tourism. In response, the Traditional Arts and Ethnography Centre (TAEC) provides information to travellers about Laos’ diversity of cultures and ethnic groups.

Bringing Laos alive for travellers is Tiger Trail, a leading sustainable adventure organisation that, for more than 10 years, has been promoting local development through tourism. Now, through its Fair Trek initiative that supports community-based tourism, Tiger Trail has has added the Clay School Project, which aims to bring in international volunteers to support the construction of clay-brick schoolhouses.