\ Contributors
Guest contributors
Are you a keen or aspiring travel writer? We would love to hear from anyone wanting to contribute articles to our blog.
Any previous Experience Travel customers are also welcome to get in touch and contribute stories, advice and photographs from their trips.
Please use our Contact page to get in touch.
Our regular travel writers
The majority of our articles are written by us, Experience Travel. Our staff team is a small group of passionate travellers who have extensively journeyed throughout Asia and many other parts of the world.
Tom Armstrong
Tom first fell in love with Sri Lanka in 1999 whilst on a voluntary teaching placement in rural Anamaduwa, a place he can now call home. He is one of the proud founders of a jungle lodge called The Mudhouse. An expert on all things Sri Lankan, Tom speaks fluent Sinhala, wobbles his head almost perfectly and likes nothing more than exploring Sri Lanka by motorbike – a mode of transport that he has used to visit every district in the country.
Tom has spent the last few years living in Thailand and has travelled extensively throughout Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. He is Experience Travel’s chief scout and loves unearthing Asia’s hidden gems. Particular favourites include Phu Quoc Island, the city streets of Hanoi, the Mekong Delta regions of Vietnam and the mountains, people and beer of Laos. Tom is passionate about Asian food and can’t stay away from Bangkok and Thai and Isarn cuisine for too long.
Prior to becoming one of the founders of Experience Travel, Tom worked for Channel 4 News before working as a tour Leader with Explore Worldwide, leading many adventure tours around the world. Particular favourites were Libya, UAE and Oman. Tom is an avid music fan and can often be found at concerts and events wherever he is, although he still can’t understand the appeal of karaoke, however hard he tries.
Tom is based between Sri Lanka and Thailand where he heads up the Experience Travel offices in both countries.
Sam Clark
Sam’s passion for Asia was ignited by the travel writing of Norman Lewis, combined with the sad fact that Scotland was the futherest he travelled as a child, for a rainy camping holiday. Since spending his 19th birthday in northern India he has been making up for lost time, travelling all over the world including a stint living in Sri Lanka.
Sam’s specialist subject is being tall in Asia: his 6’7 frame is noticeable in the UK, but faintly ridiculous in short-statured Asia. There is barely a door frame on which he hasn’t struck his head throughout the region and the story of how he accidentally knocked a house down has been told and re-told until it has become almost a legend in Sri Lanka.
Before founding Experience Travel, Sam was a Sales Manager at Quest Travel. He learnt the trade originally with Dial-A-Flight.
Melissa Nicholas
Melissa’s interest in travel is a consequence of growing up in Shropshire when everything in life seemed to be happening a million miles away! We have not yet found anything that Melissa does not know about planes, airports, flight routes and airlines in general.
Her passion for South East Asia started on a gap year trip in the 1990s. She’s managed 12 subsequent visits since then, travelled extensively throughout the region and stayed in everything from tents and humble beach bungalows to luxury hotels.
A keen amateur photographer and professional pub quiz expert, Melissa previously worked at Quest Travel, organising tailormade tours of Asia and Australasia.
Lyria Eastley
Lyria has lived in Cambodia writing for the Phnom Penh Post, and worked for a year with the Korean Embassy, organising travel for film crews. She speaks both Khmer and Thai,which she took up as extra subjects while studying at The School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
Lyria has also spent a large amount of time in Thailand, for which she has a great passion. More recently she has explored southern Laos and Burma.
Matt Brazier
Matt has a background in adventure tourism – before Experience Travel he worked for one of the UK’s leading adventure tour operators. His passion for Asia was ignited on a gap year travelling around the world, and he has returned numerous times since.
Most recently, Matt visited Borneo before taking a whirlwind tour of Sri Lankan resorts. His second passion to travel could possibly be cups of tea…
Nick Clark
Nick is Experience Travel’s Sales Manager and our pre-eminent Sri Lankan specialist. When not obsessing over his other passion, sport, Nick loves exploring life in Asia and has spent time in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and Laos over the past decade.
Recent adventures have included a comprehensive ‘recce’ of the forgotten nooks and crannies of southern Cambodia, an exploration of the little known Mannar Island in north-west Sri Lanka, a hotel inspection visit to the Maldives and an exhaustive tour of Bali. What a life!
Harriet Reeves
Harriet is Experience Travel’s newest team member, and has been exploring the world since the young age of 13. Harriet has a degree in Ecology and worked for a Cheetah Conservation in Botswana for a year, living in the middle of the Kalahari Desert in a garden shed(!).
She has travelled extensively throughout South East Asia, North America, Australasia and Africa.
