Fashion designer Anna Trzebinski: Surviving Tragedy by Fostering Beauty INDAGARE GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS | 1.14

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Hi, and welcome to Indagare's Global Conversations. A podcast about how traveling the world shapes our lives and perspectives. I'm Melissa Biggs Bradley of Indagare. A company I founded on the belief that how you travel matters. I'm sitting down with some of the most inspiring and innovative people I've met while on the road. They are activists and conservationists, designers and filmmakers, writers, chefs, and entrepreneurs. They will share stories about their travels and how they lead lives with passion and purpose. They inspire me as I hope they will you. Welcome to the conversation. Even if you don't recognize the name Bill Bensley, if you're an avid traveler, chances are that, you know his work or that you've actually stayed in his work, because along with his team, the legendary hotel landscape and interior designer has masterminded 200 plus projects in over 30 countries. But it isn't the quantity that's most impressive, it's the incredible diversity and distinctive quality of each of these hotels, including some of Indagare's favorite properties. Like the Four Seasons Hualalai on the big Island of Hawaii, the Four Seasons Tented Camp in 's Golden Triangle, or the Siam in , or the Oberoi Udaivilas in . In fact, most of the Oberois in India and the one and only in the Maldives, but the list goes on and on. I mean, it's really not an exaggeration to say that Bill has designed more top luxury hotels around the world than anyone else alive, but it isn't the hotels that have garnered the most awards or press that are dearest to Bill's heart. Rather it's the Shinta Mani properties that he designed to do good in their communities. The first one he developed was in the temple city of Siem Reap in , and the newest edition, Shinta Mani Wild also in Cambodia, is a 15-tent glamping lodge set on 600 protected acres in the Southern Cardamom Mountains. Both have tremendous social and environmental impacts in their respective locations. And Bill speaks with passion and purpose about the responsibility he believes hotels and resorts should always have in the communities where they're built. He's also just an incredible storyteller, thanks to his sense of humor, whimsy, and wonder, all of which can be seen in his design sensibility. Suffices to say that at Shinta Mani Wild, guests can opt to arrive via a 1,200 foot zip line over a waterfall. And that the decor inspiration there was the idea of Jackie O going glamping with the king of Cambodia in the 1960s. Bill is based in Bangkok, where he met his life and business partner, Jirachai Rengthong when he was working there on his first job in 1984, has been to 92 countries. And no one talks about travel quite like he does. So Bill, I'd love to start with how you ended up in Asia, because I know you studied at Harvard, and I don't think that many Harvard graduates take off right away for Asia and ended up having the kind of rich and varied and, and wild, adventurous life that I think you've had. And so I'd love to have you tell us what took you to Asia in the first place and into the design life you've led?

Bill Bensley: Um, the, uh, on graduation day, it was really a funny story in that my I, my classmate, Lek Bunnag, um, asked me, "Where are you going after graduation?" I said, "Well, I don't really know, Lek. I have no idea. Uh, I'm just gonna go to do, go and, uh, and do Europe for four months." And he says, "Well, why don't you come to Singapore?" And I said, "Well, where the hell is that?" And he said, "It's under China, just come." And he gives me the address and sure enough, four months later I was there in China. I was there in Singapore. I tried to get a job, uh, teaching at the university there as he was doing, they told me to go away and come back in 10 years when I had some experience. I was 24 at the time. And then the next day I went out to a landscape company, American one, and the next week I was on a plane to Bali designing gardens for the Hyatt. So that was, that was it. It was, it was fantastic. I arrived in Singapore with $17 in my pocket.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: So you'd already been trained as an architect.

Bill Bensley: I've been trained as an architect and landscape architect. Yeah.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Okay. And then did you ever go back to the States or was Asia your home from then on it?

Bill Bensley: I, the moment I got to Asia, I said, "I'm home." (laughs) Never went, and I've never practiced in the States.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And then from Singapore, how did you end up moving to Bangkok?

Bill Bensley: Uh, well, uh, I went to, uh, went to Hong Kong first for a couple of years and open, they opened the company, opened a branch office of that company, uh, for a couple of years. And then at 1989, that's when, um, Bangkok was really starting to boom, the economy was, and people were building hotels and so forth. Yeah. So the, the owner of the Dusit Thani, uh, invited me to come to Bangkok. He loaned me, no, he forwarded me $20,000. Uh, and he asked me, he said, I can stay in his hotel as long as I want and did work on some of his projects in one hand. And it was the week that I got there that I met my husband, Jirachai, in 1989.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Was there a hotel that really put you on the map that you could say really cemented your career as the designer of luxury hotels around the world?

Bill Bensley: Uh, there were several. Um, by the time I was 30 years old, I, I was doing the, um, Four Seasons in Hualalai, Hawaii. And I went out, I was doing, I did a design competition against EDA, which was the dean in EDA was

my professor in school. And we came in with 100 meters of drawings and we won the competition hands down. So that was probably it. Uh, then I did the Four Seasons in, in Chiang Mai, then the Four Seasons in Langkawi, then the, and then the Four Seasons in Koh Samui. So all of those were very, very instrumental.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And then you went on and worked for lots of other companies like the Park Hyatt in Siem Reap and the Oberois in India.

Bill Bensley: R- yeah. All, and all the Oberois and the Leelas, the, the Capella, uh, Capella Ubud, that, that project is one of the best hotel in the world, travel and leisure. 22 little tents, and it's all filled with, um, uh, secondhand, uh, previously loved furniture. That is what really makes me tick. I love this when you can, when you can fill, when you can make the most out of going to junk shops and you can create, you know, the world's number one hotel by, by reusing something. And that's, that gives me the greatest kick in the world. And also by, by not having to spend new, uh, new materials, not have, to not have to, um, to do something environmentally sensitive. That's an interesting project. I wanna tell you about that one.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Well, tell me about it now.

Bill Bensley: Um, the, the owner, first time hotel owner came to me and said, uh, "Mr. Bill, we wanna build 120-room Novotel here in Bali, in Ubud, in this beautiful, beautiful valley. And the Novotel, you know, they would take, you know, 20, no, $120. And I said, you know, if we do this, the entire valley will be completely destroyed. And I said, you know, "So we don't, what if we, what if we build only 22 tents and we, we put the tents up on stilts so we don't cut down any trees and we leave the, we leave the valley as it is, and, and we recess into the landscape?" And he said, "Okay." Um, and, and we spent, so we spent less money. We didn't cut down, down any trees. We were environmentally much more sustainable. And it's the top, uh, revenue making hotel in Bali today.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: That's amazing. And I know Bill for a long time, um, you've been focusing on creating properties that are sustainable and have a conscience and a purpose. And that's something that's been really important to you. Is that something that you've known was going to be integral to your work from the beginning? Or is it something that you've evolved through your work to understand the importance of the relationship between bringing people into appreciate a place, but also the impact that they're having on a community when they're there and how there can be more of a give and take relationship? Because that seems to me what you've been doing at properties like Shinta Mani.

Bill Bensley: Um, the, how to say I grew up on a farm with, um, with, my mom and dad were both from Oxford England. So they, they were avid farmers. So they taught me how to be sustainable and how to be, how to grow your own food. We had our own bees, we had our own vegetables, we had our own ducks and chickens and rabbits,

and, you know, the whole nine yards we were, we, we could live by ourselves on this farm. Um, so that, that taught me a very valuable lesson. And then on the weekends, mom and dad would take us up up into the mountains and I would hike for hours throughout the forest. So that gives me a very deep appreciation of things natural, which I think a lot of kids today they're missing. Um, it's only until about, so, so it's only about 20 years ago, 15 years ago when I first went to Cambodia and I went to this place outside of Cambodia when we were doing the Park Hyatt, or at that point, it was the Hotel De La Paix.

Bill Bensley: We, I was taken to a village where I saw seven children, all from the same mum, and they were probably not any more than 10 months apart from each other. Uh, and one of them had extended stomach and it was, they were, um, malnutrition and they had no house to live in, they were living in a pile of sticks. And I, I saw them and I, I just lost it. I would, began crying and said, I said to myself at this time, "This is so unfair." It's the first time I really saw poverty. And I said, I've got to help these people. So that was, that was the beginning of, that was the catalyst for being able to think about somebody other than myself.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And then can you explain how that manifested and what actions you took?

Bill Bensley: What action I took. Um, and then we, as we were building the Hotel De La Paix, this Park Hyatt as it is now, um, we had to, um, and I was like a small percent, 5% owner of that. And we had to, um, find people in order to, to populate the hotel because see at that point, Siem Reap had no, there was no tourist industry. We were the first in there. So we opened up a hotel school and we had to also open up a little house and for all, for all of us to stay at. And then will that turned into a homestay that turned into a 12-bedroom, turned into a 15- bedroom, and then we had a hotel school where we were training kids. And the hotel school did so well, and it was so popular that we never had the, uh, we never wanted to close it because it made us feel so good. The kids coming out of this. So they, so now we've graduated hundreds of kids from this hotel school, Shinta Mani has grown into its own brand. We're building now in China, we're building now in Japan, we've got four hotels in, uh, Cambodia and it's, for me, it's not about making any money at all. For me, it's about, uh, helping people.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Yeah. I mean, I remember visiting Shinta Mani in Siem Reap and being really struck by how different it was in its approach to being almost like a, a nonprofit type of hotel, because the proceeds were so clearly going back into the community. And, yeah, it was very pioneering at the time. I mean, were you the first?

Bill Bensley: Um, I'm not, I, well, certainly in, in , uh, Cambodia, yeah. Uh, uh, yeah, but I'm not sure any, probably not in the world no way.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And so when you think about the brand that you've built around this idea of purpose and community, are there sort of principles or a very specific vision that you have for what these properties are going to be?

Bill Bensley: Well, I think, uh, number one, that the people that come to us, um, have to be like-minded, right? They have to be, they wanna help the community. Um, and, and also they have to, they have to fall into the idea about . Um, I, I wanted to mention too, that one of the things that we do in shit that money and all of our Shinta Mani properties, is that a percentage of, of what we, what we take in there 5%, so that all goes back into the community by way of, uh, by way of, um, teaching by way of toilets for women, by way of houses. Uh, we built, God, thousand, thousand, 500 houses for Cambodians. And we, but most importantly, we built something like 3,000 wells. Like all of this is on, on just this little bit of money that comes off, floats off the top that we hardly even notice, but it's made such a huge impact on the, on the, in the community.

Bill Bensley: And now we don't see those kids that are having extended stomachs. We don't see kids going, you know, by, you know, walking 20 miles in order to get the water to bring it back to the house. We don't see that anymore. The level of, of, of living is great. So now what we're doing is, um, we are making a big effort to make cleaner water, the water that comes out of those Wells. I'm working with Kohler and we've put in the, to the, to the field now about 5,000 water filters, really simple. It's a big plastic jar on the top, plastic jar on the bottom with the filter that water goes in the top and filters down to the bottom. And that's, we're doing this because even still today, 5% of the kids that are born, newborn kids in Cambodia today die because they can't get clean water.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: So Shinta Mani Wild, your resort in the jungle in Cambodia is probably the only hotel in the world where guests arrive by zip-lining across the 1,200 foot gorge to land on a platform with a fully decked out bar. Can you talk about how that property came about?

Bill Bensley: Yeah, my partner that I started in Cambodia with 22 years, 22 years ago, Sokoun Chanpreda's father, is a, is a real estate mogul, and he has an, he had to the ground as far as places that are, are coming up for sale. Um, and this, this property came up to sale as a, as a potential titanium mine, but it's also part of the, you know, the Cardamom National Forest and this property is bigger than Central Park. And we went to see it and we fell in love with it because there's this huge river that runs through it. You might, you just saw the picture of the river. Waterfalls through it, you know, three, four story waterfalls. We fell in love with it. And we said, "What a house? Let's go, and let's buy it." So we bought it. Then we figured out what the hell we're gonna do with it now. So we're gonna put 15 tents on there, they're $2,200 a night. And before COVID, it was really taking off and we were working it so hard. Right before COVID we had, there's a singer named Ed Sheeran?

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Yeah, of course, I know who he is.

Bill Bensley: Yeah. And his, and his, uh, and his wife Cherry came along and they loved it. And he was so kind and he asked, Butle- the Benzley Butler, he asked the Benzley Butler to, um, if he wants to come to his next show in Australia, 'cause he had just played in Thailand and Singapore, and the Butler said, "Yeah, sure. We'd love to

go." And he says, "Okay, you can come to the next day." He came back and said, "Can I bring, can I bring my family?" And Ed said, "Sure. Um, you can bring." Well, he brought 22 people in his family. (laughs)

Melissa Biggs Bradley: What a wonderful experience for them and what a testament to the connections that your staff can build. I mean, that's amazing, but I, I think again, it's a lot of the proceeds go back to the community and it's very integrated. Correct?

Bill Bensley: Very much so. Yeah. Uh, our new, new project is that, um, there's a factory here that, that sells umbrella fabrics, do you know those?

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Yeah, the outdoor furniture fabric company.

Bill Bensley: Exactly. And they have 27, um, uh, how to say? Manual, manual, uh, big industrial sewing machines. They're all going computer now. So they've, they've, uh, donated those to us plus all their in cuts. So now the girls, uh, add some more room, which is a small village, great close to this. They are all sewing, um, things that I'm designing, uh, from these end cats and from second hand. Uh, and so that's gonna be on my website very soon. Um, the products that they're doing and then all of the, all of the they're gonna get paid. And then all of the profits to that go towards policing of this forest, which is very important because every day we're under great stress for illegal loggers and illegal people take, trying to take out the wildlife. In fact, over the last seven years, we've picked up, we've con- we've seized something like 750 chainsaws in this area.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And wildlife, I mean, are you texting wildlife in the forest?

Bill Bensley: Um, there are, there are many things here, like, uh, we saw just two months ago, our first Slow Loris. Um, we've seen all sorts of reptiles, of course. And the terrapins a King terrapins, which are on the critically endangered list. Um, we spotted cats, um, Gibbons, um, uh, you know, all sorts of kingfishers, fishers, hornbills, um, you name it, it's out there, but in dwindling numbers. So it's very important for us to keep vigilance and that's a large part of the money that we take in these, we give to the rangers to employ them to go with AK47s, really, and they have to have to have AK47s. It's a huge mafia that are mining, uh, the, the wildlife here, sending it to, to the and sending it to China. Not so much anymore, thank God. And that's the reason and things like pangolin, that's the reason why COVID, uh, is so prevalent, right? Because they comes from eating, uh, wildlife. And we know that as we've tested the pangolin actually from Cambodia, and it has a form of COVID, so people are eating the wildlife, eating the things that it shouldn't be eating, we're just gonna keep this cycle of making ourselves ill. So that's very important for us to be diligent and let animals in the forest be what they are.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: No, that makes, that makes absolute sense. And I'm curious in all of your years in the hotel world, are there other developments or evolutions, like sustainability that are being much more embraced, um, that you've noticed or that you think are particularly interesting?

Bill Bensley: I think that, that, uh, yes. I think that, um, people are more aware now that if they build a hotel, that it should have a purpose. That we can't just build more hotels and use more new materials to put, just to put heads on there to make, make profit. And that's what I preach all the time. Let's think about this. And even if it's just about adopting the, the nursery school next door, even if it's just about helping a tiny little bit, even just a little bit, uh, to be able to be more part of the community. And in fact, I, I think that, that hotels should be more like the churches of the past, where so many people go there. I'm not saying that their hotels are gonna take, um, take the place of churches, but I think that hotels should be more community-oriented like churches are and were.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: That is a beautiful vision. I mean, I love that idea because churches are so well-integrated into the fabric of a community and it's hotels could serve a similar purpose of integration, it would certainly be better for everybody.

Bill Bensley: I would say just the, once you are a guest, you have, the hotel has your attention for at least a Sunday morning, and that, they should use that time to say and teach and tell you about something that's important, but for the good of the world. That's my point.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Well, I agree. And I also think when you visit a place, you shouldn't just be taking the memories and the pleasure, but you should be leaving something good behind, and there should be a global exchange between visitors and visited. That's mutually beneficial.

Bill Bensley: Totally agree.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Well, I mean, I just so love your model, and I just want you to figure out how to make this visual come true everywhere, but I know you're a huge traveler and you love to discover not just markets and, and places to buy wonderful things to integrate into your hotels. But can you talk about some of your favorite trips and places that you've discovered around the world?

Bill Bensley: Um, my, my gosh, so many, um, I am an avid fly fisherman, um, and I am, uh, I am a fly fisherman because the best flight fishing takes place in places that haven't been screwed up by yet. Right? So, and the best place, the best place I can tell you about is on the Russian border in Mongolia. And I go there every year, except this

year, unfortunately, the last seven years. And we, I, sometimes, I sometimes walk. I sometimes walk for, um, and run and ride. We, we, we, we travel something like 200 to 300 kilometers.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Wow!

Bill Bensley: And we, and I w I will catch, catch and release only. That's, I've never harmed efficient seven years with tiny little, uh, flies without barbs, as tiny as my finger, my fingernail, uh, so that's, and we travel by, with tents and we traveled by, uh, sometimes horses and sometimes by boat and we go into a place and we never leave anything, but footprints. As a hotel designer, I don't like to stay (laughs) in hotels. I like to stay in the wilderness.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And are there other places in the world that have had really major impacts on you?

Bill Bensley: Um, you know, you ca- basically everywhere impacts me and the projects that I do. Uh, the most beautiful landscape I've ever, ever been to has been an Iceland. And I, I hopped the boat. I hopped off the boat, um, when we were visiting the North Pole and swam ashore, uh, to the Iceland.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: You say that so casually, like it's a normal thing to jump into frigid water.

Bill Bensley: It is a normal thing to do. Yeah, it was look so beautiful. Uh, it was much more interesting in Greenland, uh, but it, it is an amazing country. I'm, I'm a big fishermen. So I hopped off the boat. I put the, my fishing rod behind my back and then swam through, uh, and we spent two weeks there and, and fishing and all the fjords. Oh man, it was great. Eh, uh, I think visually the most beautiful place I've ever been on the face of the planet. I think we're too, I would say is New Zealand, the South Island of New Zealand. Oh my God. Fishing's not that great, but it's, it's fantastic.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: No, I completely agree with you. And are there places built that are on your bucket list, so to speak that you've not been able to get to that really are drawing you?

Bill Bensley: Yes. Uh, I, you know, my bucket list gets damn bigger every day, uh, every year. And it's Madagascar. I haven't been there yet. Uh, uh, Tanzania, not been there. Um, and just, just adjacent to Tanzania, Zambia, I'd love to go there and, and, and also Zanzibar, haven't been there yet. Um, Tunisia. So those are the, those are the pockets in Africa that I haven't been to yet, but love to see.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And Bill, if you have to say what the greatest gift of travel has been for you, what would you say it is?

Bill Bensley: Um, for me, I'm a sponge of architectural language. Does that make sense? It's very interesting, especially in Asia that almost every country, the vernacular architecture of almost every country is very similar from North, from all the way from the very far North, the, uh, Northern Japan, all the way to this, the Papua New Guinea. The, the way that people built their homes and the way they build the places of worship are very similar. So that, that, that for me is I think the greatest gift of travel, to be able to understand that in great depth.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Now your projects have such a distinct personnel, each of them. And so I'm curious to know where your design inspiration comes from, because I can really always feel behind each project a story. And I'd love to know how you find what that story is going to be.

Bill Bensley: Yeah, no, this is the latest project in . This is a Rosewood in Luang Prabang. Um, this particular hotel has, um, a story for every single room and what I wanted to do, it's only 22 rooms, so what I wanted to do is make a micro, um, a micro story about, uh, and I wanted to make a, a, uh, this hotel all about the history of Laos. So every, every room is devoted to 22 of the main characters that helped shape Laotian history. Going back, as far as, um, the black King, that was what was popular in 1890, all the way through the French. And then to the most modern, uh, prime ministers, who I actually am friends with. Um, the, the story of this main house, it's a UNESCO site, uh, so the story of this main house, uh, was based on the actual, um, governor of Luang Prabang in, in 1890.

Bill Bensley: So I'm an avid reader and I love history, love history. And, and, and so to back this, this project up, I bought something like maybe 1,000 different unique items, including antique books and beautiful prints, and, to, to flush out this idea that this was actually a place where all of these people stayed. And it's a fact that, you know, the first... Do you know who the first people were, the first ladies to win an Olympic medal? There were two French ladies in 19, 1900. Two French ladies, and they actually came from Luang Prabang. So I made a, uh, and they played croquet. Well, they got the gold medal, but, you know, there was, it was so unpopular that nobody came to that Olympic event. So they canceled it the next year, but they, those ladies also came to Luang Prabang, so I have a, a picture of them on these lawns and, uh, an old picture of them on this site. So it's small, weird things like that, that people are really interested in, I think.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: It's funny 'cause as I listen to you talk, it sounds like you're building your hotels by kind of rummaging through the attic of history and then pulling out real antiques to populate them.

Bill Bensley: Yes, exactly.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: So can we go back then? I'd love to have you talk about the vision you have for Shinta Mani and how you're looking at what the brand can and should be.

Bill Bensley: Well, actually, well, the first one that's gonna come on line is in Zhanjian in Southern China, and that's right on the beach. It has something like 200, 200 meters of beach, beach front, uh, which is nice, maybe a bit more, and it's going to appeal to the surfers of in that Southern China. So it's a very young and active, uh, uh, hotel that is, uh, combined... That idea of being young and active and sporty combined with this, uh, Laguna beach, uh, surf shack. If you can imagine that and filled with reclaimed, um, reclaimed secondhand, Rhea, pollster, uh, furniture. I'm not using anything that's new. So that's, that's one of the main threads that run throughout all my new, all the new properties. And, uh, Japan is, is, is a beautiful jungle, uh, on the beach. And we're building a samurai camp that is going to be, uh, open and maybe three years from now. And that, that's only 27 tents.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Okay. What is the samurai camp?

Bill Bensley: (laughs) Um, well, you know, the samurais, they, they were bands of bands of bands, bands of warriors, uh, that in the Edo period, early Edo period, up to the early Edo period, um, 300 years ago, or so they, um, ruled Japan. And very interesting. I've studied their camps, they're tented camps, and they, um, were almost like moving billboards. So it's very strange that, and you would have on the outside of your tent, Bill Bensley, right? And giant letters, Bill Bensley lives here. So that, that would let everyone around know that how important you were, how important do you think you were. Right? So that's what we're doing. We're, we're doing these, these, uh, um, as in, as authentic of a way we're building a camp to bring you back to those pre-Edo times or early Edo times.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: So in both of those locations, will there also be a sort of community integration where there's a level of sort of sustainability or the local people benefiting from the project?

Bill Bensley: Uh, in, in Japan, uh, we're, we're in Okinawa, and we are on the West side about, um, uh, from North to South about halfway up to the North from, from Naha airport, and all the way around there are, um, everything, uh, every, all of our neighbors are all farmers. Um, so we're, we're going to, uh, how to say? Uh, contract grow from all the farmers around everything that comes onto our property, but in addition to that, um, on our property too, we also have, uh, large plots of land, which they're going to, to help us farm. So there's gonna be, it's a real community, integrated community effort with farmers.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And what about within Asia? Are there certain parts of it that you've found particularly blissful and peaceful or inspiring?

Bill Bensley: Love Sri Lanka. Yeah, I love Sri Lanka. I find that the people there, again, being Buddhist, uh, are very charming. Uh, I find the architecture there is just so simple and accessible, but steeped in, you know, Dutch and French and English tradition. Um, they are a country that is not in a real rush to, to change things. So, you know, they're still very much agrarian-based, which I love. Um, they have the right sensibility with their conservation. There's huge parts within this Island of Sri Lanka. I, I think the, you know, the food's great and, and we, I really loved there as these old Dutch antiques, I fill up a container every time I go there (laughs) being the shopaholic that I am.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Now, would you ever do a project there?

Bill Bensley: I'm doing a project there now, in fact, I've got to present it tomorrow morning.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Can you say who it's for?

Bill Bensley: Um, actually it's for a, a man called Melinda.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Okay.

Bill Bensley: And he has a, a spice farm, uh, about 100 kilometers to the North, uh, of Kandy with, Kandy with a K. And he has been for the last 20, 30 years has been growing cinnamon and pepper and vanilla and all and exporting all over the world. So he's made, made a bit of money and he has a beautiful farm. So what we're going to do is I, I'm creating these, if this last week, I'm creating these beautiful little Sri Lankan bungalows that are, uh, how to say? Um, e- easily ventilated by, by themselves, big porches, lovely furniture, et cetera, quite colorful till, and then we're gonna spot them all around this, this farm. And that tomorrow I'm presenting this, get this, I'm presenting the vanilla villas. (laughs) Yeah. He's a lovely fella.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And so what's the timeline for that project?

Bill Bensley: Um, well, you know, I shouldn't be able to give them the working drawings by January of next year. And then we usually take about a year to build. It's not a, not a very complex project. It's about, we'll be about 20, 25 bungalows altogether, and it maybe, and we'll do a restaurant and so forth. So it's been great. You know, he, he called me up, you know, two months ago, you know, during the middle of COVID. Um, and, you know,

"Can we, can we work together?" And he says, "Well, what do you got?" And he told me all about his farm and what, and I said, "Sure, let's do that. I love Sri Lanka.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Oh my gosh, how fun! So what are some of the other discoveries that you've made?

Bill Bensley: So, um, my, my husband, well, we were married when? 34 years ago in Canada or something like that, um, we're gonna get remarried. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna, we're gonna have the biggest party. (laughs) Uh, and we're gonna, we're all gonna fly down all, uh, all 120 of us, we're gonna fly down a, containing the whole office to down to Phuket, and then we're gonna party down there and put cat, uh, for a couple of days on, at The Slate, uh, great hotel. And then we're, we're, we're, um, I'm having a series of three different buses, which we're painting. Um, we're painting hot pink.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: I'm gonna have to see pictures of this, Bill.

Bill Bensley: Oh God. Yeah. Uh, and then have you ever seen Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Of course.

Bill Bensley: Of course you have. Okay. So that's, that's where you get a pattern at, after that, that's the pink bus, and then we're, we're going from there to Khao Sok, which is about a four-hour drive or so forth through the mountains, to the national park. And there's a huge reservoir up there. It takes about, on the boat, it takes about seven hours to get from one end to the other, but we're having, we're, we're renting three camps, the whole camp. So we're all staying there for three days. Then we're gonna go to, uh, to Reno to the, over to the Burmese side. Uh-huh. Then we're gonna, from there, uh, stay there a couple of nights that we're coming back to the West side, and then we're getting on the train. And then we're gonna party on the train, 'cause it's, it's doing special events on the train.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: All, this is all 120 of you?

Bill Bensley: Yes.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Oh my gosh. I love it. And how many days is this gonna be there?

Bill Bensley: The, the whole thing is gonna be about, about two weeks. (laughs)

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Uh. And so all the fabulous places you've described, where's the actual ceremony going to take place? All along the way?

Bill Bensley: Yeah. Yeah. There's no point not, not to.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Yeah. Why not have many weddings.

Bill Bensley: Right? Many weddings. All along the way. And then we get to go up to, to Mae Sot and then to Chiang Rai, the Chiang Rai, uh, and do motorcycle trips and we've got planners and, Oh, it's, it's gonna be fun. (laughs)

Melissa Biggs Bradley: So instead of four weddings and a funeral, it's like five weddings and a party.

Bill Bensley: Yes. Yeah. 15 weddings and a party and pink buses and, and green trains, and now, it's gonna be a blast.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: And when are you gonna do this?

Bill Bensley: Uh, this we start in, uh, uh, December 5th to the, uh, about, about Christmas. Almost in Christmas.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: Oh my gosh, how fantastic. I have to see pictures. It's so exciting.

Bill Bensley: (laughs) Oh, will be great. And we'll be, we'll be putting them on Instagram, everybody will be.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: On our next episode, I'm excited to introduce you to Josh and Alissa Ruxin who are based in the land of 1,000 Hills, as Rwanda is poetically known. I think you'll be as inspired by them, their philosophy and their passion for their adopted home, as I am. Josh and Alissa moved to Rwanda in 2005 to work on improving health care and to fight poverty. Josh is absorbing memoir, A Thousand Hills to Heaven, chronicles their early days in a country that was just emerging from the genocide in the 1990s.

Melissa Biggs Bradley: He calls it unspeakably dark times. Alissa's semi spontaneous plan to provide sustainable employment for orphans of the genocide and to create a gathering for food lovers, has become Kigali's must visit restaurant, Heaven. And her project has expanded to also include the city's best boutique hotel. In short, the Ruxin's is an incredible tale of what can happen when serendipity, humanity and perseverance overlap. I hope you'll join us.

Producer: Thank you for joining us for this Indagare Global Conversation. We hope you'll tune in next time and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. It also helps us enormously if you rate and review us on iTunes. And be sure to check out www.indagare.com/globalconversations for information on joining one of our conversations live. Be sure to also follow us on Instagram, @indagaretravel for more travel inspiration and news on our programming and upcoming episodes.