International travel has only become part of my life in the past five years. The first trip came through an opportunity to attend the World Food Prize. Like any Australian, once I had accepted the reality of a very long plane journey, I decided to make it count. I spent five weeks away, starting in the UK, then travelling through Italy and on to the United States. In America I was lucky enough to spend time with people working in education and agriculture, from professors to trainee teachers, and those conversations added depth to everything I was seeing.
The following year I travelled through the top of Spain and Puglia in Italy. My original trip changed shape, which left me with a spare week. I spent that week in the Aeolian Islands and saw a little of Sicily as well. At my wonderful travel agent’s suggestion, I then finished the trip in Malta. What an extraordinary place. I also had a fascinating guide there, Philippe, and you can read that story here.
I had excellent guides in Spain and Puglia too, and you can read my blog about Alex here.
Last year I visited the Balkans. Having worked with Macedonians, Croatians and Serbians, I was keen to see their countries for myself. I loved that trip. Then I went on to Portugal and the southern half of Spain, and that was when something became clear to me. Group travel only works when the guide has judgement. A guide who talks constantly on the bus can drain the life out of a trip. A guide who offers a rose coloured version of a country’s history leaves you with something polished and thin.
By then I had decided it was time to visit developing countries. Friends had spoken with such enthusiasm about Sri Lanka and Vietnam. I briefly toyed with fitting both into a three week window. My travel agent, wisely, said I would miss far too much. So I chose Sri Lanka, with a four day stop in Singapore to see friends on the way.
That decision brought me to our Bunnik guide, Niruth Ashendra, known as Ash, and to the reason for this piece.
In my previous two blogs, I wrote about Sri Lanka as a traveller. This piece comes from a different instinct, the writer’s instinct. I am always interested in people, especially the people whose work sits closest to the public. Tour guides are in that category. The hours are long. The responsibility is constant. The work takes them away from the people they love. They deal with logistics, personalities, fatigue, minor crises, repeated questions and the emotional weather of a whole group. Something draws a person into that life. I wanted to know what it was for Ash.
He had already stood out to me as an excellent guide.
One of the things group travel can get wrong is the guide who feels compelled to fill every silence. Bus rides become rolling lectures. By the end of the day your ears are tired and the country has barely had room to speak. Ash has much better instincts than that. He gives you the key points, tells you what to look for, shares the stories that help a place come alive, and leaves enough space for you to take it in.
He was also generous with his time in a way the whole group noticed. He was always there to assist. He was responsive, calm and practical. We used WhatsApp throughout the trip, which turned out to be a very smart way to keep everyone connected. We were encouraged to share highlights and photos, and Ash used it to reinforce the main things to notice at each attraction. That meant we arrived knowing the heart of the attraction. It enriched the experience without overloading it.
He also has humour, warmth and a very natural way with people. You could see how much he was admired by the group. Respect like that is earned. It comes from competence, generosity and the hundred small moments when people realise they are in good hands.
Once I sat down with him, it became even clearer why he is so good at what he does.
Ash brings far more than information to the role. He brings honesty, emotional intelligence, generosity and a strong sense of responsibility. He understands hard work. He understands family sacrifice. He understands what it means to build a life step by step. Those qualities shape the way he guides, and they shape the way he talks about Sri Lanka.
That is why I wanted to interview him.
Tourists see the highlights. They rarely get to sit down with someone at the coalface and ask how they came to this work, what they value, what the job asks of them, and what their country looks like through their eyes. Ash was open, thoughtful and generous in those conversations. Credit goes to the tour company, Bunnik, as well. Trusting team members to share the real texture of the country they call home is too often rare in today’s world of carefully curated messaging.
Ash gave our group an excellent experience.
He also gave me something a writer always hopes for, a person whose story opens the door to a much bigger one.
The next two blogs take that conversation further. In one, I share Ash’s personal story, his family, the path that led him into guiding, and the values that shape the way he works. In the other, I look at what he taught me about Sri Lanka itself, its people, its culture, its pressures, and the quiet resilience that runs through everyday life. Through Ash, I came to understand a great deal more about the country we were travelling through, and the people who carry it.