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.

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.

Popular tourist trekking destinations such as Sapa in Vietnam and Chiang Mai in Thailand see hundreds of backpackers and holidaymakers trample their way through the surrounding hill-tribe villages every week. Many of these tours offer ‘homestays’, where you spend a night or two in the home of a local family. Although these trips offer valuable…

Although Laos is well known for its natural beauty, you have to see it to believe it. Actually, sometimes really seeing it – living it the way locals do rather than just passing through it – is the only way to believe it. After all, with the thick jungle that covers much of the landlocked…