Guest Bio
Christopher Byrd is the Founder and Managing Director of Adventure Cycling Thailand, a company offering immersive single-day and multi-day cycling tours throughout Thailand’s Royal Coast. Originally from Maryland and a former U.S. Marine, Christopher spent over a decade in Washington, D.C., working in hospitality and tech before making a life-changing move to Thailand in 2002. What began as a personal reset quickly evolved into a long-term mission to share the joy of cycling with others. Drawing from over 25 years of experience in the hotel and restaurant industry, he built a business rooted in excellent service, cultural connection, and community impact. Today, his Tour de Thailand Charity Rides and Royal Coast adventures offer travelers a unique and meaningful way to explore the country by bike.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Christopher about the path that led him from Maryland to Thailand — and how his passion for cycling turned into a thriving tourism business. Christopher recounts how a series of life events, including the impact of 9/11 and job loss in the tech world, inspired him to leave the U.S. in search of something more fulfilling. What he found was a new home, a welcoming community, and the opportunity to build something lasting.
Christopher shares how his background in the Marine Corps and hospitality industry helped shape his leadership style and approach to business. He talks about the early days of launching long-distance charity rides, the challenges of running a tour business during COVID-19, and how Adventure Cycling Thailand continues to grow with a focus on meaningful travel and authentic connection.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Adventure Cycling Thailand offers guided single-day and multi-day cycling tours.
- ✓ Christopher prefers relaxed, scenic rides over competitive cycling events.
- ✓ His love for cycling began during childhood with his father.
- ✓ He transitioned from military service into hospitality before entering tourism.
- ✓ Skills in customer service and operations translated well to running tours.
- ✓ A layoff in the tech sector led him to reevaluate his life path and move abroad.
- ✓ His first charity ride brought logistical challenges and valuable experience.
- ✓ The supportive and friendly culture of Thailand helped him feel at home.
- ✓ The business continues to evolve post-COVID with an emphasis on connection.
- ✓ Christopher’s journey is marked by adaptability, resilience, and purpose-driven travel.
What You’ll Find on Adventure Cycling Thailand
- ✓ Scenic bike tours along Thailand’s Royal Coast and surrounding regions
- ✓ Leisurely rides suitable for cyclists of all experience levels
- ✓ Multi-day tours that blend adventure, nature, and local culture
- ✓ Charity rides designed to support local causes and foster community
- ✓ A guest-focused approach rooted in safety, service, and fun
Learn more about Adventure Cycling Thailand and connect with Christopher at:
https://adventurecyclingthailand.com
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.818)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the Adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back here today. Also super happy to have my guest Christopher Byrd here with us. Christopher is the founder and managing director for Adventure Cycling Thailand. Christopher, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Christopher Byrd (00:25.134)
Thank you. It’s very good to be here.
Jason Elkins (00:28.314)
And this is kind of a cool situation because we’re actually in the same town. So most of my listeners know that I’m doing this from different places quite often. And it just so happens that we are both in, and I’m going to let you pronounce it because we learned earlier that I don’t pronounce it right. Christopher, what town are we in?
Christopher Byrd (00:47.232)
Hua, like a rising tone for Hin. That actually translates to Hua is head and Hin is stone. So stone head.
Jason Elkins (01:01.074)
okay. I hadn’t heard that. I’ve been here for a little over a week. You’ve spent significantly more time here than I have. And for our listeners, that’s in Thailand, by the way, because I don’t think we mentioned that. But anyway, just super, super excited to have you here. Chris, we’re going to unpack everything here. And before we unpack everything about your childhood and what got you from where you were to where you are now, let’s start with giving our listeners kind of an idea.
You know, give them the 30 second, 60 second elevator pitch for Adventure Cycling Thailand. What do you guys do? It’s, it’s almost pretty obvious by the name, but let’s, let’s.
Christopher Byrd (01:36.51)
Well, we’re in the…
Yeah. Well then.
I do like simplicity and I wanted to be clear and obvious that we are a bicycle touring business. We started out by doing an annual charity ride, which was near and dear to my heart. And we continue to do charity rides. We do multi-day bicycle tours throughout Thailand. And we are based in Hua Hin, Thailand, which is a
popular beach resort town. And so we like to share day tours with people visiting the Hua Hin area. So try and do everything Cycling.
Jason Elkins (02:21.786)
Very, very cool. That’s a…
And not just here in this part of Thailand, but other places as well, right?
Christopher Byrd (02:26.637)
soon.
Christopher Byrd (02:32.245)
Yeah. And we also rent a lot of bikes for people who do things on their own. We’ve got rear racks and pannier bags and we sell our GPS routes. Yeah, so we try and pretty much help everybody Cycling. you know, we are not the ass up face down road riding crazies. So, but when we get inquiries about that, never…
Jason Elkins (02:59.11)
What is, wait, wait, hold on a second. You’re going to have to explain that to me. Say that again. Ass ups, head down. What was that?
Christopher Byrd (03:09.217)
Well, I call them crack addicts because these are guys that go down the coast of Thailand through absolutely stunning scenery and they’re staring at the butt in front of them on a road bike. And that’s great. You know what? I think if that’s what people want to do, that’s fine. That’s just not our style of riding. So, that’s why I call them crack addicts.
Jason Elkins (03:33.105)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (03:36.754)
I learned something new every day doing this podcast. So, but what I’m picturing is kind of the, just, yeah, I guess I’m picturing exactly what you’re saying. Someone bent over their handlebars, staring at the person in front of them. that kind of a, that’s not a racing thing, is it? just, they’re just trying to get from point A to point B quickly, or why do they do that?
Christopher Byrd (04:02.461)
honestly, I think it’s a midlife crisis of people trying to, prove something. I mean, I did all that stuff when I was younger. So I want to sit up and smell the roses and I want people to see Thailand. So we ride with the straight bars, besides my beer belly gets in the way. you know, bending over that far is a little painful and hard on my back. I, you know, it’s probably isn’t good for business, but I’m pretty sure.
Jason Elkins (04:13.138)
Uh-huh.
Christopher Byrd (04:30.785)
brutally honest about stuff like that.
Jason Elkins (04:33.49)
I love it. I get it completely. Know your market, know your passion, know what you care about. And that’s, you’ve clearly figured that out over the years. All right, we’re going to come back and discuss more about Thailand, your company, Bicycling, but let’s figure out how the heck we got to this point. So how far back do we need to go to figure out how you ended up here in Thailand doing this?
Christopher Byrd (04:58.913)
Beautiful day in 17th of April 1969. No, just kidding. But yeah, I like to make headlines sometimes and shock people. And I shocked my mother by being born at 11 pounds, two ounces. From there. Yeah, I was the happiest baby ever born in Prince George’s County Hospital up until that point. I’m sure somebody’s—
Jason Elkins (05:14.704)
boy.
Jason Elkins (05:23.246)
So, so are you the youngest in the family? I assume she didn’t have any more after that. Very cool. And, where was this? You just mentioned about where were you born?
Christopher Byrd (05:27.999)
Yes. Yeah, no, she kind of swore off it.
Yeah.
Christopher Byrd (05:39.366)
Prince George’s County, Maryland. It’s just outside of Washington, D.C. Maryland’s my home and my latter years before I moved to Thailand were in Washington, D.C. I’ve had a pretty wild life up and down all around. A lot of people say I should write a book, but I don’t like writing. Maybe we can find a ghostwriter.
Jason Elkins (05:45.298)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (05:53.49)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (06:05.65)
So we’re gonna just discuss, we’re just gonna talk about it instead. We can talk about it and then you can take the transcript from the show and turn that into a book using AI or something. Yeah, there we go. Chris, I love the fact that I’ve had a lot of guests on the show ask them similar question. Where did it all start? How far back do we need to go? And you’re the first one I think out of about 150 that went all the way back to the beginning. So I appreciate that. Because you’re right, that is where it started.
Walk us a little bit further up into the present day and give us just kind of like, I’m just curious, I don’t know, you know your story better than I do. What do you think kind of, were there some defining moments when you were younger that maybe explain kind of what we’re doing now?
Christopher Byrd (06:53.165)
Yeah, very, very good. Yes, so pedaling forward. I always loved bicycling and most kids like getting on a bike. And then my father was into Cycling and he used to take bicycle vacations in Europe. My parents were divorced, so he went on his own and met up with groups and stuff. so like when I would visit my father, one of the things we did
Jason Elkins (06:58.694)
You
Christopher Byrd (07:22.281)
as a bonding experience would be to go on a weekend bicycle ride, you know, in Maryland and DC area. And that was great. know, once I got past the old style bike with the banana seat and the tassels on the handlebars type thing, then I was able to keep up with Hin in his 10 speed and didn’t cry so much. it was a very pleasurable experience. then
I had various jobs throughout my life. One of them after high school was going into the United States Marine Corps. I got out of the Marine Corps, had a pretty serious girlfriend that I had met during my high school years. excuse me. I started to get in the restaurant business, hotel restaurant.
And I was bartending, doing all kinds of things. And then I got a little more serious and wanted to be a beer, wine and liquor distributor, know, move into more of a professional job as a salesperson. So I was doing all kinds of things like, you know, placing wines on wine lists, teaching hotel staff, restaurant staff how to open wine bottles, doing nightclub promotions, handing out free t-shirts with beautiful girls and, you know, just all kinds of…
Jason Elkins (08:46.619)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (08:47.873)
fun stuff and then one day the people who provided my company with Tinkerade gin, which was one of our big products, came to our office and said, hey, we noticed you got a new guy who’s not elderly and decrepit. And they said, you got a bicycle? I was like, no, not at the moment. They’re like, get one. I said, why?
They said, you’re gonna ride 500 kilometers in three and a half days. I went, do what? But yeah, they were the lead sponsor for the American AIDS Rides from Raleigh, North Carolina to Washington DC. And I signed up because they kind of forced it on me, but I absolutely loved it. And I did it four years in a row. And yeah, actually my very first year, the first day of the ride.
After riding 106 miles, which is like 160 something, 70 something kilometers, I staggered over to the registration desk to be one of the first people to register for the next year. I was just like, this is awesome. And I did it for four years.
Jason Elkins (09:59.612)
I have a few questions. I have a few questions. I have a few questions before we go any further that I just got to know. First question, most important question. When you were learning to ride a bicycle, did you use training wheels?
Christopher Byrd (10:03.212)
Boom!
Christopher Byrd (10:14.827)
don’t recall that far back. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (10:16.754)
I was a long ways back. I was just curious if you were like the kid that, you know, I remember when I taught my son to ride, you know, his mom was like, he needs a training wheels. was like, no, he doesn’t need training wheels. So, you know, running behind him, pushing his bike and let go of Hin and they crash immediately and, and he still survived. I was just curious if somebody that’s so into biking these days started out, you know, the safe approach or just the, the, you know, figured out along the way or.
Christopher Byrd (10:47.149)
Yeah, you know, I don’t have that recollection. I guarantee you it wasn’t true.
Jason Elkins (10:47.716)
It’s not.
So you must have training wheels. didn’t, you maybe had the training wheels and you didn’t have all the crashes first. Otherwise maybe you’d remember or the other way around, maybe you hit your head. That’s why you don’t remember.
Christopher Byrd (11:02.744)
Or I started so young that maybe I had the training wheels, but I got so good at it so quickly that I don’t know.
Jason Elkins (11:09.168)
Yeah, who knows? anyway, the other, I’m curious, these guys that came along and decided that you should go do this big long bike event. Other than the fact that you looked like you were young in shape, did they have any reason to believe that you were into bicycling? I mean, what caused them to look at you and say, Hey, do you have a bike? should do this bike ride. Or was it just, just the fact that you were the youngest guy in their eyesight at that moment?
Christopher Byrd (11:40.477)
Yeah, I think it was the AIDS primarily. Maybe there were a couple of guys who were kind of close to my AIDS, but a little more heavy. I used to be extremely fit, but now I’ve taken a liking to food and drink.
Jason Elkins (11:49.682)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (11:55.058)
I can relate to that. All right. So do you re do you recall back like when you did that, you said it was 106 miles was the first year or the first time, first time you did it the first day. Did you do any sort of training for that or any preparation work once you got the bike?
Christopher Byrd (12:00.373)
It’s the funnier things.
Christopher Byrd (12:10.605)
The first day. The first day.
Christopher Byrd (12:22.285)
Uh, I did, uh, a friend of mine loaned me his like 10 speed and, I took it out on a couple of just test rides, uh, locally, but I didn’t have a lot of time to, to train, but I was like super into fitness then. So I was at the gym almost every day. So I’d spend an hour on a, um, one of those life cycle, uh, stationary bikes. You know, I lived in Washington, DC. So it wasn’t like I just wanted to.
Jason Elkins (12:45.222)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (12:50.689)
hop on the bike and ride through town. So like to go out on a training, proper training ride would have meant, you know, planning it and organizing and getting outside of the city, you know, go, going through Rock Creek Park and all that would have been great. You know, I did that a few times, but.
Jason Elkins (12:59.888)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (13:06.832)
What’s your best guess as the longest bicycle ride you’d ever done up until that point?
Christopher Byrd (13:14.221)
I think I’d done a 50 mile bike ride before with my father and yeah, that was probably some complaining. 50.
Jason Elkins (13:21.01)
You said 50, 50 or 15, 50 or 15, five zero. Okay. Cause I’m, I just want to make sure here, right. Cause there’s a big difference between 15 and 50, but there’s also a big difference between 50 and 106. So, all right. So you decided this is pretty, after that day, you’re like, okay, this is pretty cool. I’m going to go ahead and sign up for the next one. And before we go any further, what did you do in the Marine Corps?
Christopher Byrd (13:28.599)
Five zero.
Christopher Byrd (13:52.59)
I was just a basic field radio operator, which generally meant I would be stationed with a troop of like the ground troops. But I was in a couple other units, a light armed infantry unit, was a, they’re like similar to tanks, but they’re more, they kind of like a cross between an SUV and a tank. They have four rubber tires on each side.
Jason Elkins (14:03.954)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (14:22.061)
but they could go through water and all kinds of stuff. And we had some firepower up on top and things like that. So I was into radio communications and that stuff. And then I was on a Navy ship for about a month and did some training with ship to shore and ship to air communications, calling in strikes with fighter pilots and so forth. But yeah, all that was…
Jason Elkins (14:22.418)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (14:49.458)
Well, thank you for your service.
Christopher Byrd (14:51.597)
My pleasure. Fortunately, I didn’t have to see combat. got out before my enlistment ended before the first desert storm.
Jason Elkins (15:05.82)
So did you go straight into then you mentioned kind of hospitality, restaurant, hotel type of stuff? Did you do that right out of the Marine Corps?
Christopher Byrd (15:15.693)
well, I had done that, basically my whole life. Even when I was in the Marine Corps, I was a bouncer at a couple of bars. excuse me, a little congested here today, but, yeah. So I, I started out washing dishes at 13 in an Italian restaurant in a shopping mall in Columbia, Maryland. And, yeah, I’ve been pretty much working a full-time job my entire life since I was 13.
Jason Elkins (15:23.545)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (15:28.572)
Yeah.
Christopher Byrd (15:43.725)
And many of those years were in the restaurant hospitality industry.
Jason Elkins (15:48.53)
Do you think that that time in the restaurant and hospitality industry had much of an impact or what type of impact do think that had on your destiny to be running a tour operation business at this point?
Christopher Byrd (16:01.389)
I think it was a training for customer service. Thinking about customer needs and so forth. Yeah, I think it was really essential. I had never planned or even thought about owning a touring company, let alone a bicycle touring company. It just kind of unfolded.
And we can go into that a little bit later on. yeah, it’s just, I think it was, very, very essential to becoming the leader.
Jason Elkins (16:38.322)
The reason I, yeah, the reason I ask is quite a few of our guests have kind of taken similar paths in that regard. And we’ve had several conversations here on the show about, what kind of person, if you were gonna go out and hire someone to be a guide or hire somebody to, you know, work with your clients, what other industry would you go to? If you had to hire somebody that’s never worked in tourism, where would you go looking for people?
And a common theme is bartenders and teachers are both a common theme because I, and you probably know better than I do, I’ve never been a bartender, but I imagine trying to keep everybody happy, but at the same time, enforcing boundaries and keeping people, you know.
Christopher Byrd (17:29.567)
and entertaining.
Jason Elkins (17:31.724)
and entertaining and making everybody in the place feel like they’re special, but also trying to manage and make sure that people aren’t overindulging and causing problems and getting in fights and the bouncer aspect, I’m sure. Probably a lot of diplomacy there you have to bring into play. So, all right, that’s very cool. Let’s go back to, what do you think? mean, did…
If you had to go hire a guide, what industry would you look at?
Christopher Byrd (18:05.733)
Absolutely. The teaching was one that wasn’t on the top of my head, but it makes perfect sense. They have to do everything. They’re basically the tour guide for whatever they’re teaching. And that’s a lot what we do too. I spend time talking to people about Thai culture and history and geography and things like that.
Yeah, it very much goes together. I failed, was in public speaking in my first year at university, because I just couldn’t get up. But yet I went into bartending and had no problem with it. It was all just the classroom atmosphere versus the social atmosphere. And then quickly I adapted and now my wife tells me I talk too much.
Jason Elkins (19:03.132)
Well, I guess not all wives say that about their husbands. I’ve heard the other side of that as well. it’s, interesting. I remember a conversation with someone that said they were very shy, did not like getting in front of a group of people, but then joined a tour company and was working kind of in a supporting role, I guess, but he was with the clients, but more kind of, I don’t know. I, I don’t remember the, maybe he was a driver or something like that, but he’d been around the guides and.
At some point he had the opportunity to give kind of the briefing. I don’t remember if it was at the beginning of the day, the beginning of the week, I’m not sure. But he remembered thinking, my gosh, this is so cool. And he jumped up there and gave the briefing because he’d heard it so many times. And he’s like, wow, I wasn’t even nervous. But in school, I couldn’t have done that. there’s something about.
Being around people that are enjoying themselves and creating shared experiences, it just makes it so much easier, my opinion. don’t know. When you, okay, you did this 106 miles on this bike, but you were in good shape, so your butt probably wasn’t as sore as mine would be. But you did that.
And then what? Walk us from that point on, because you said you did it like four years, did you start feeling that shift right away into working more in biking?
Christopher Byrd (20:32.557)
to be a bit more elaborate. That was just the first day of three and a half days. So that was just the day one of the ride. The other days were also almost as long and more hilly.
Jason Elkins (20:45.061)
you
Jason Elkins (20:50.854)
Probably would have been the last day for me. was the first day for you. It would have been the last day for me. All right. So how, so how many miles total?
Christopher Byrd (20:58.413)
Oh, so that was, was, was, it was 500 kilometers, so 300 miles over three and half days. And the first day was 106. And then the last day was a half day where we rode into Washington, DC. They had a huge, huge party on the lawn, on the National Mall and stuff like that. So, yeah, I just wanted to reiterate, it wasn’t just 106 kilometers and done. It was, it was now go pitch your tent.
stand in line for a shower bus, stand in line for a porta potty, stand in line with a tray for your food for dinner, and get ready for tomorrow.
Jason Elkins (21:37.126)
Did that remind you of the Marine Corps?
Christopher Byrd (21:40.394)
Yeah, very much. But it was a much more pleasant atmosphere and less rules. So I did that four years in a row and just absolutely loved it and planned on continuing. But then at some point, my life turned upside down and I turned the world upside down and came over to Thailand and looked for a new life.
Jason Elkins (21:44.935)
Yeah, nobody yelling at you probably.
Jason Elkins (22:11.762)
Should we just gracefully skip over that my life turned upside down stuff and start where you got, start back again where you got to Thailand or? Cause I’m kind of curious why Thailand? What?
Christopher Byrd (22:22.061)
I’m sorry.
Christopher Byrd (22:27.598)
Okay, so I’m doing this AIDS ride for Tankerade Gin, and it’s one of thousands of brands that I represented. And I’ve always enjoyed food, but no, Asian food was, I was quite fond of Asian food. And so one of my favorite customers at a restaurant called Cafe Asia in Northern Virginia.
And they also had a branch in Washington, DC, which I sold to and sold them wines on their wine list, taught their staff how to open wines, taught them about all kinds of other alcohol things that they just weren’t really knowledgeable in. And so it became quite close with the owners of the restaurant. then I wanted to get out of the alcohol business because I was getting a bit hard on the liver.
And so I didn’t have any complications. I’m just kind of joking about that. But, but yeah, I I wanted to get into something a bit more lucrative financially. And so I went into tech and telecom and I was selling, uh, uh, telecom services through a company called next panel, uh, to tech companies. And we specialized in doing the voice, uh, uh, push to talk, uh, voice communication. And so all the techies were really into that. was an instant.
answers and back and forth, know, like having your own private radio service. And so I was selling 50 units here, a hundred units there to these companies and, and, you know, back when companies provided mobile phones and stuff. And that was going great. And then, uh, tech and telecom crashed and, um, I lost all this money. I, uh, put my retirement accounts into tech and telecom stocks.
Jason Elkins (24:05.394)
All right.
Christopher Byrd (24:19.351)
So yeah, I lost about $200,000 in the tech and telecom crash in 2000, 2001. And at that same time, my customers were closing up. All these tech companies in Northern Virginia that I sold to were closing their doors and I was getting like zero paychecks. And I was like, I gotta go back to my old staple of bartending. And I contacted Cafe Asia, which was one of my favorite clients who liked me and said,
Hey, with any chance you want a bartender for you in Northern Virginia, they have a Asian fusion restaurant, was like they had a huge sushi bar. They have a huge list of foods from all over Asia and Southeast Asia. And so we just had everything. was an amazing place, but it became kind of a nightclub at night too. So they had a really big bar and huge screen protector.
and we’d play videos and stuff. It was a really cool hangout. And so, yeah, I got a job bartending there, like the token white guy. And most of the staff were Thai, but others came from Southeast Asia. yeah, I was just kind of, I’d been married before, but that came to an end, like maybe a year before I lost everything. And so like, having lost my wife, my…
my business, my retirement account and pretty much everything I had just poof, I was pretty depressed and yeah, kind of beside myself. And so I finally thought it through and said, you know, I need to kind of clear my head. You know, I was making decent money bartending, had a girlfriend here and there, but I was just like, I need to get away, I need to clear my head, come back.
Jason Elkins (25:48.848)
Yeah, I bet.
Christopher Byrd (26:08.715)
bust my butt, get a new sales job and work really hard for three to five years and make back the 200,000 plus I lost, just get back on my feet, you so I feel whole again. So I started asking some of my coworkers, hey, I’m thinking about taking a vacation. Where should I go? And overwhelmingly everybody said Thailand. I said, that sounds cool. I’ve never been to Asia, you know.
Jason Elkins (26:29.372)
Well, the majority of the sounds like the majority of the staff there were ties. So that I can see that makes sense.
Christopher Byrd (26:37.325)
Yeah. Well, even though, even the non-Thai ones were like, yeah, go to Thailand. You’ll love it. The Vietnamese people are going, oh yeah, Thailand’s cool. I just, know, and the dollar was strong and things were so much cheaper then. And so yeah, I came here and had my first ever vacation over a week and a half. I had to really struggle to get a week and a half off my other sales job.
Jason Elkins (26:42.054)
Yeah.
All right.
Christopher Byrd (27:03.735)
when I got married for my honeymoon because you know, just getting your full two weeks vacation all at one time was considered unheard of, you know? And so it was a vacation without pay as bartenders tend to deal with, but I had a whole month off and I came here to Thailand for a month and at the time of my life and I had some suits tailor-made because I’ve always been a big neck guy and broad shoulders so I…
had some really nice tailor-made suits. And I was planning on coming back to America and working really hard and just making up for it. And then something happened that kind of tossed things again into the deep space. And 9-11 happened while I was here. so I felt the one thing that dawned on me is that I felt really…
Jason Elkins (27:56.34)
wow.
Christopher Byrd (28:01.395)
I was concerned about my family and friends back home. You know, was freaked out by what happened, but I felt very comfortable here and people were so kind and, you know, telling me so sorry about your country, you’re okay, and you need anything. It just really made me feel like welcome. But, so I went back to the States as planned and went back to my…
job bartending and I was trying to look for work, but all these companies had hiring freezes and people were getting laid off and you couldn’t even get into the ground floor of an office building because the security had tightened up and so forth. And I’m just bartending thinking, well, I just spent my last little bit of money on this lavish vacation to free my mind.
And knowing that I’d come back here and work my butt off and it’s all gone. But know, Kate, I’m back bartending and one of my Thai friends said to me, what are you going to do now? I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t want to bartend forever. And he said, why don’t you go to Thailand? You said you liked it there. And I was just like, Click, click, click, click. And then I started talking to some of our customers and a lot of them hung out at Cafe Asia because they had…
gone to teach English after uni or after high school, or they had company to assign them to a job there for a year or two years. then, know, they were living back in DC or Virginia. And so they came to Cafe Asia quite often and, you know, maybe practice some of their language skills that they learned while abroad. But yeah, but also the food was awesome.
Jason Elkins (29:41.926)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (29:50.872)
So I was asking them, know, what do you guys think? And they’re like, man, if I could live in Thailand, I’d definitely jump on it, you know, and would stop and why not? And yeah, and one guy was like, well, a place where you can wear shorts, flip flops and a tank top all year long, that’s my kind of place. I was like, yeah, that sounds pretty good. So yeah, I just paid off my debts, sold my new car for a huge loss.
I sold my wine collections, my champagne collections, my scotch collection, and bought a one-way, no, bought a round trip ticket, but an open end on the other side. I had up to a year to come back if I needed to, and came to dial in with two bags of clothes and $2,000 to my name, no credit, which my previous wife and I had kind of destroyed, mostly being spiteful of each other.
Jason Elkins (30:32.09)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (30:49.069)
Yeah, it just started over and oddly enough I was here. Well, I planned to be here for their holiday, which is called Songkran. It’s the time of New Year’s and it’s basically a squirt gun battle of epic proportions. It is insane, but it’s a blast. so I came here for that and I was walking down Sukhumvit road. One of like the first day of the holiday, know, with like bandoliers over my shoulders.
these big plastic water guns. And I saw this heavy Thai guy, or I thought it was Thai and he was, and I’m thinking, God, that guy looks familiar, but I don’t speak Thai, I don’t want to say anything. And he’s with a pretty girl. And then I heard Hin go, that looks just like my friend, Byrd from Washington, DC. And I was like, Tommy? He’s like, dude, what are you up to? I’m like, I just moved here, I’m looking for work. I’m like, what are you doing here? He goes,
Jason Elkins (31:43.186)
You
Christopher Byrd (31:47.438)
Dude, I’m Ty. I moved home. I was like, I never knew you were Ty. And he actually helped me get a job at a brand new nightclub that was opening. It was really, really cool, except it was very short-lived. They didn’t know what they were doing as far as paying off police and mafia and all this. And they ended up spending all their money and getting closed down. And while I was there…
Jason Elkins (31:50.434)
wow.
Christopher Byrd (32:15.693)
I met some people who gave me a job at a British pub in Bangkok and it got me on my feet. And I worked six days a week, 12 hours a day inside of a British pub. And then occasionally stepped out and said, oh yeah, I’m in Thailand. And then after a while of working there, was kind of getting older, but I had saved up some money and I just thought, I really want to see Thailand. And I thought, you know, I can get a bicycle and ride.
Jason Elkins (32:29.434)
Okay.
Christopher Byrd (32:44.769)
the length of the country and see Thailand. And I’m like, well, I’m gonna do something that big. I should do it for a cause. So I thought, okay, I’ll put together my own charity ride, you know, from the AIDS rides. I knew a bit about that and scheduling breaks and things like that and how far I could ride in a day. And yeah, I went and talked to a friend of mine. Her name is Raine Grady from Capital TV and she had a program on cable.
a TV called Destination Thailand. And I said, hey, I’m thinking about doing this bike ride the length of the country and raising some money for charity. And what do you think? She goes, that sounds great. We’ll put it on our show. And that’s awesome. And she asked me if I knew what charities I wanted to raise for. I was like, I haven’t thought about that yet. But she’s like, oh, well, I’ve got these two charities that want a bit of publicity and need some funds. And I was like, great. They sound great. One of them happened to be a
Jason Elkins (33:18.417)
Mm.
Christopher Byrd (33:43.374)
a charity for babies with HIV and AIDS. And the other one was a charity for people with leukemia and other pulmonary cancers. So I was like, those sound like two great worthy causes. Awesome. Let’s lock it down and do the opening interview and all that stuff. So yeah, it just went on from there. And I did the first year solo, but I had hired her. I’m sorry.
Jason Elkins (34:06.768)
cool
Jason Elkins (34:11.158)
I was just going to ask you, want to get the timeline straight. Cause I have a couple of questions before we go further, just so I can keep it straight in my head. First of all, after your first trip to Thailand, you went back. Weren’t sure what to do. You decided to buy a ticket back to Thailand. How long did that take? How long were you back in the States selling your stuff, making plans? just roughly.
Are we talking a few weeks, a few months? What are we talking about?
Christopher Byrd (34:38.701)
So I was in here, I was in Thailand the whole month of September in 2001. I went back, so was back for October, probably sometime around November, December, somebody gave me the idea to come back. So October, November, December, I had some friends coming over in January for two weeks and I came over with them just to see if it was possible, which spent
really like the last of my saved money. But I did talk to somebody who said, yeah, I can get you a job teaching English if you want that, you know? And so that was my backup, you know, worst case scenario.
Jason Elkins (35:17.724)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (35:22.285)
So that was October, November, December, January. I think I had made it definite in February and then March and April, I was wrapping things up. April 5th, I moved to Bangkok in 2002. So yeah, this
Jason Elkins (35:40.786)
That’s pretty quick, pretty quick turnaround. And then from the time you came back that you were back in Thailand, kind of living here at that point, how long was it before you started, got this idea of this charity ride? Did that happen pretty quickly or did it take a while?
Christopher Byrd (36:01.293)
I was working at the British pub, I think maybe June of 2002 and kind of decided I was leaving there around August of 2003 and came up with the idea. I stayed on until I think October of 2003, but already knew that I was leaving, gave notice and was training my replacement. And yeah, so I…
got on a bicycle, I joined a mountain biking club that I went out with from time to time and talking to people and raising money and getting sponsors. And it was November of 2003 that I did my first tour to Thailand charity ride, is what I called it. And so yeah, I
Jason Elkins (36:52.114)
All right. So walk us through that. does that, where did that start? What was, tell us about that first journey across Thailand.
Christopher Byrd (37:01.613)
Yeah, so this was before I had Google Maps, probably before it existed, I don’t know. yeah, and then so the maps weren’t so great. I had a Road Atlas, you know, big magazine book. So I was following in the main roads, which was really, yeah, it was really not ideal. I had a sponsorship from Toyota who loaned me a van. I had a Thai driver that I paid. So I had a support vehicle the whole way.
Jason Elkins (37:13.488)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I remember those.
Christopher Byrd (37:30.424)
carried all my stuff and the spare backup bike and all that. yeah, so I decided to start the ride in Bangkok and end in Bangkok for publicity reasons. People are like, you’re the only one that’s, or the first one that’s ever done something like that. And so yeah, I rode from Bangkok up to a UTF, probably with 30, 40 people. Some of my bike club members and other people and all that came and joined and we have TV.
presence and other media. And then I continued on to Lopburi and by myself. So the first day was well over a hundred and something kilometers. But yeah, I made my way up to Chiang Rai. And when I got to Chiang Rai, we were trying desperately to find the hotel that the tourism authority of Thailand had booked for us because they agreed to sponsor with one hotel room every night.
for my tour after I had mapped it out for them. Yeah, so I some great sponsorship. A lot of people were really supportive of it. And at Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, couldn’t figure out where the hotel was. We finally found the phone number and called them and they’re like, no, we’re in Chiang Mai, not Chiang Rai. So we drove for like three, four hours to Chiang Mai, checked into our free hotel and then, yeah. And then the next day we started driving down to…
Jason Elkins (38:30.223)
OK, cool.
Christopher Byrd (38:59.341)
bouquet so we drove like two days two and a half days to bouquet
Jason Elkins (39:03.194)
Okay, so for those of our listeners, for those of our listeners that aren’t familiar with the geography, so I heard you say, you know, we talked about Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai in the north. Chiang Rai is about as far north as you can go, right? Is that kind of the northern?
Christopher Byrd (39:16.947)
Yeah, Chiang Mai is the biggest city that’s as far north as you can go. And then Chiang Mai is a little bit southwest of Chiang Rai, but over mountains and stuff.
Jason Elkins (39:29.338)
And then Phuket, right. And then Phuket’s on the other, the far extreme south of the country, right?
Christopher Byrd (39:36.135)
Yes, not so extreme, but towards the far end. Who gets this little island and then Thailand goes little bit further down a different direction.
Jason Elkins (39:51.41)
It does. But, but basically you, it’s interesting to me because you started in Bangkok and I understand the PR reasons. That makes sense. But Bangkok’s kind of, I don’t have, I mean, I’m here, but I’m not looking at a map, but Bangkok’s basically central. So you kind of started in the middle, went all the way up north and then turn around to go south again. Is that right? Draw. Oh, okay.
Christopher Byrd (40:04.503)
central.
Christopher Byrd (40:15.885)
driving. We drove. So I had a couple days off and we drove down to Phuket and then I started riding further south down to Hadayi and then came up the the east coast. You know from Hadayi to Nakhon Si Thamarat and Surat Thani and Chupon.
Jason Elkins (40:20.69)
You
Okay.
Christopher Byrd (40:44.109)
And all that. And then I got up past Huy Hin and to Pittsburgh. And then I knew I didn’t want to go straight back into Bangkok. I wanted to go around the Kanchanaburi. And then I went back up to Ayutthaya, which I knew the route between Ayutthaya and Bangkok quite well. And I met by even more people in Ayutthaya to ride me back down into Bangkok. So yeah, it was a pretty extreme, about 3,200 kilometers in 23 days of Cycling.
Jason Elkins (41:07.154)
Very cool.
Christopher Byrd (41:14.015)
with five or six intermittent days off. Yeah, I was doing long days into the nights and something like that. And every day we’d get into.
Jason Elkins (41:14.268)
Wow.
Jason Elkins (41:22.694)
Were you having moments? I was just curious, were you having moments during this journey that you were second guessing yourself or thinking, what the heck did I sign up for? Because you’ve got all these sponsors, you can’t just decide, well, you know what, I’m done.
Christopher Byrd (41:32.653)
Yeah, sure. Sure.
Exactly. was exactly like, I thought about quitting a lot and I was like, well, you I can’t, you know, I couldn’t, you know, I my driver, you know, who, how would I feel in front of Hin? You know, but he was the least of my worries. know, like you said, I had these corporate sponsors and I people following me and, you know, and so, yeah, no, I,
Jason Elkins (41:55.014)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (42:01.114)
Yeah, you would have just had to leave the country. You would have just had to keep riding, go into Malaysia and hide out. All those sponsors be looking for you if you just quit. Yeah. All right.
Christopher Byrd (42:08.396)
Yeah.
Yeah, going to Cambodia, sell the van. But yeah, I finished it and I was interviewed on numerous TV channels again afterwards. And they’re all asking me, know, this so great. Nobody’s ever done something like this. And you raised money, you raised awareness, you got all this media coverage. Are you going to do it the same time next year? I’m brutally honest. I said,
Jason Elkins (42:14.406)
Yeah.
Christopher Byrd (42:39.885)
Frankly, I don’t ever want to ride a bicycle again. I didn’t know anything about wearing proper lubricants or maybe even buying a different seat than the one the bike came with. It never crossed my mind. So I had some blisters in weird places. But yeah, I got.
Jason Elkins (42:54.982)
Man, man.
Christopher Byrd (43:03.981)
talked into doing it again by everybody and some of my donors. People were like, oh man, that was great. You know, if do it again, I’ll even donate more. And so I finally decided to do it again. And of course I made it a little bit more friendly and I thought, well, oh, another thing. I didn’t realize the direction of the wind at that time of year. So I had a headwind pretty much the whole way. So yeah, the next year I started in Chiang Rai.
Jason Elkins (43:29.906)
Should have went the other direction. Okay, there you go.
Christopher Byrd (43:33.966)
The next year I started in Chiang Mai and rode down to Phuket. And yeah, that was much better. And yeah, and things were going great. after, or during my second year, I started thinking, wow, I’m kind of getting good at this. I’m learning and doing and improving. And I’m like, maybe I could turn this into a business somehow. And yeah, it’s like, oh, well, if I can make a living.
and helping other people and riding a bicycle. I mean, that’s a win-win-win. And yeah, so I started doing it every year. Of course, I couldn’t make a living at that point. So I was working various jobs in Bangkok every time I finished. yeah, I had another management job at an American pub and then got a sales job. Yeah, and everybody was very supportive and helpful and knew I needed.
my time to do my annual charity ride. And then I started dreaming about getting out of Bangkok and maybe doing bicycle touring full time somehow, you know. And then I had my eyes set on my favorite province, is Pichuakiri Khan, which is where Hoi Hin is in. And of course, to run a business, I had to be in Hoi Hin, because that’s the busiest part of the province. And so yeah, it all just kind of came together over a number of years.
was in Bangkok for six years and then escaped and made it down here. And I’ve become friends with a British gentleman who had a bicycle day tour business in Hoi An already. And I knew that there was no way that two bicycle day tours could survive in Hoi An. And so I kind of joked with Hin and told Hin he stole my dream. he’s like, you know,
It wasn’t immediately, after we got to know each other, he’s like, you know, my wife wants to go back to England. He goes, you want to take over my business? He’s like, you know, give me something for all the stuff that I bought and, you know, and maybe a little bit for the website and stuff. He called it Seahill mountain bike, which was a great name, see and hills. It was descriptive, but I, I, shortly after we took it over, I thought, you know,
Jason Elkins (45:31.122)
Do you want it?
Christopher Byrd (45:59.854)
It’s, uh, it might, it might put people off cause you know, you get some elderly people or families that are going to go, Oh, mountain bike. I don’t know. You know, we can’t handle that, you know? So I just made it very simple and straightforward and, and called it who we hit bike tours. uh, shot our, um, SEO up quite a bit. We started getting a lot more attention on the website and bookings and yeah, things are going pretty well. And then, uh,
And, another key factor in us moving down here was I was struggling with my tour to Thailand rides, really struggling. Especially we went through one major phase change. didn’t, I should have talked about earlier. I, after like my second year, I managed to get sponsorship from a really awesome corporation called Type F.
You know, they own Beer Chan and Sang Solm Tai Rum. And so Sang Solm Tai Rum was our lead sponsor for two years. And they, they sponsored quite generously. And, and the first year was great. And we really built on that. The second year was awesome. And we built even more. And we were really like in the hotspot and looking to excel into the third year. And the
Thai government’s infinite wisdom decided to make it illegal for alcohol to sponsor events. And so I lost that major sponsor and I’d already turned other sponsors away because I was dealing with an alcohol brand and they didn’t want to be associated with that. That’s understandable. But, you know, I couldn’t really go back to them because, yeah, so that was very stressing and yeah, it took the wind out of our sails quite a bit.
Jason Elkins (47:53.554)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (47:56.898)
But within a year or two after that, I got contacted by a charity in Australia that was helping Thai children. And they wanted to do, well, the woman who contacted me was an individual that worked for them and she wanted to ride her bike from Bangkok down to this children’s home they supported. And I said, cool. I’m glad somebody else was into that kind of thing. I was starting to get afraid that people weren’t into that kind of thing anymore.
And she was all into it. So I gave her all these points and distances and places I stayed and things like that. And she was very appreciative and that was great. And then a couple of weeks later, she contacted me and she goes, you know, I’ve been telling people and they want to join me. Can you run it for us? I was like, yeah, that’s my dream. And so that was what got us started to where we had a bit of capital to move out of.
Bangkok and down to Huyen and started our day touring business and it all just started coming together then. And you know, and it was a slow steady climb. And yeah, up until COVID we were doing quite well and yeah, things were looking really, really good. But then COVID hit.
Jason Elkins (49:13.222)
That’s very cool. me, yeah, before we get to the big world changing event that we’re coming up on here, a couple things. One, you mentioned that you wish you’d known a little bit more about maybe padded seats, padded shorts, lube, whatever. I get that completely, but I’m curious, other than just the physical discomfort.
Were there other things about the first trip? said you were riding into the wind, but again, that’s kind of a physical thing. Were there other challenges or things that came up that surprised you?
Christopher Byrd (49:53.908)
I had hired this, this Thai guy. was a really nice guy. get along great. He was one of the bartenders at one of the pubs that I managed. And so I asked Hin if he had a driver’s license and would he be my support driver? Cause he had, he had left and he was looking for another job. I’m like, Hey, I’ll hire you for this month. You know, I just assumed that he knew how to drive. he nearly ran me over a couple of times and that was pretty damn scary.
Jason Elkins (50:20.85)
You
Christopher Byrd (50:22.111)
I had to jump off the bike and like onto the ground and roll away. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (50:28.658)
I thought his job was to keep you safe. Isn’t he supposed to ride behind you so other people don’t run you over?
Christopher Byrd (50:33.771)
Yeah. I tried to explain that a couple of times. Yeah. No, I mean, like it was things like I’d come next to Hin and say, yeah, come closer. You know, I want to talk to you through the window and he just keep coming until eventually he kind of bounced off the curb. he just wasn’t great. It wasn’t a great driver, but a really great guy. We had a lot of fun and the port guy.
Jason Elkins (50:47.73)
That’s close enough, that’s close enough.
Jason Elkins (51:01.138)
Huh?
Christopher Byrd (51:02.829)
You know, having to drive a car 3,200 kilometers at an average speed of like 20 kilometers an hour or so, it was brutal. It was probably harder than what I did. And then of course, every day he’d say, okay, what we do now when we get to the hotel? I’m like, well, I’m going to shower and then we’re going to go out and drink it. So we go out for beers. He’s like, oh, again, I’m burning it off. And he’s just getting over his hangover by the time we get to the hotel.
Jason Elkins (51:30.914)
which may be why he’s almost running you over the next day, but, that’s one thing you learned. cause actually it’s interesting that you mentioned that because that makes sense. It’d be really boring driving 20 miles an hour in a van for that far. But why I was going to ask about just the writing the bike where there are moments of.
Christopher Byrd (51:34.706)
I’m
Christopher Byrd (51:49.781)
It’s brutal, yeah.
Jason Elkins (51:56.026)
Maybe you’re physically uncomfortable, but were there moments where your brain was just like, my gosh, this is very tedious, boring, or did you even have time to think about that? Or were you more concerned about how uncomfortable your seat cushion was?
Christopher Byrd (52:11.241)
yeah, I mean, I was definitely probably having conversations with myself a little bit too much, but also I had to think about where we’re going. mean, we were like opening up this, you know, Atlas trying to figure out which roads go through. And we did a lot of like down and back and on a bicycle. That’s no fun. You know, so I really appreciate the, GPS,
Jason Elkins (52:32.594)
yeah.
Christopher Byrd (52:38.637)
service and having a proper GPS device and also the survey route trips I do now to make sure that the roads go through and everything’s all specced out before we take customers out. Nobody wants to do that stuff. But yeah, so I had a lot of work to do pretty much each and every day on the Excuse me.
That really helped, guess. It took my mind off things. I was also getting phone calls and talking to people and doing a little bit of fundraising too. Like, hey, you know what? I last talked to you, you said you might be able to sponsor me any chance. I’m out here doing it. You thought I wasn’t going to do it. I’m out here doing it. And that kind of thing.
Jason Elkins (53:17.316)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (53:30.715)
that’s a pretty good, that’s good thinking, take advantage of that time that you have on your hands.
Christopher Byrd (53:37.568)
Yeah. And we had a, like a handheld, video recorder, what do call them? A camcorder or something like that. that was given to us by our friends at Capital TV, to, record parts of it. So we had, we had some filming we had to do. It was a bit more than just riding the bike. And, yeah, I was single then. like, yeah, every evening we’re going out and talking to people.
Jason Elkins (53:48.486)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (53:54.737)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (53:59.814)
Right.
Christopher Byrd (54:06.685)
and having beers and really…
Jason Elkins (54:08.042)
and people are like, I saw you on the news. I saw you on the TV. You’re popular guy when you rolled into town, I’m sure.
Christopher Byrd (54:12.653)
Sometimes.
Christopher Byrd (54:20.109)
I like attention. It wasn’t that big of a thing. I actually got a lot more publicity from a Chevrolet commercial I did later on. We’ll talk about that.
Jason Elkins (54:31.75)
Yeah, I definitely want to come back to that because I’m thinking Chevrolet and bicycles. I need probably need your help to figure that out.
Christopher Byrd (54:37.229)
No, it was just a part-time job as a model actor, anything to help pay the bills between bike tours here.
Jason Elkins (54:47.154)
Oh, but it’s so I had nothing to do with the bike with biking. You’re just such a good looking young chap. And yeah.
Christopher Byrd (54:50.637)
No, was real. People are like, you’re going to be a model? I’m like, no, I’m just going to be around in case somebody is looking for white people. I did a lot of extra work in TV shows and movies. Sometimes I paid a thousand about a day, but hey, I could sit on the set and work on my computer and try and work on my next bike ride.
Jason Elkins (55:11.739)
Okay.
Christopher Byrd (55:20.393)
And you know, I making a thousand on a day and getting a meal and you know, it was something. I’ve had some financial struggles. So for the chairman, thank you.
Jason Elkins (55:27.526)
Yeah. Do they still hire for that here? Because maybe that’s something I can try and take advantage of while I’m here in Thailand. Be the, the, the fill in for rang. They call them for ranks, right? The foreigners, a for rang. Yeah.
Christopher Byrd (55:36.791)
They do.
Christopher Byrd (55:42.912)
Yeah, put on, yeah. They do still do that. I haven’t gotten any calls in a long time, but all that kind of came to an end when I left Bangkok because everything’s located in Bangkok. But I did get a job on a movie and they would send me to Bangkok and then fly me to Phuket and pick me up there and take me to the movie set and back and forth. so I was a…
Jason Elkins (55:57.232)
Everything’s in Bangkok.
Jason Elkins (56:09.35)
Wow. Is this something on Netflix that our listeners can go watch you on Netflix or somewhere?
Christopher Byrd (56:13.133)
I never
Christopher Byrd (56:20.717)
I’m not sure where it’s at now, but you can definitely find it on… they won’t see me. I was cut.
Jason Elkins (56:26.948)
okay. But you had work. that’s, that’s, yeah, that’s good. You got paid and yeah. All right. Let’s, let’s go back to kind of, we were leading right up to COVID things were going great. You’re putting together groups, organizing trips. You’ve got, was how and why, and why he bike tours, right? Was that the name of the company up to the point right before COVID?
Christopher Byrd (56:31.117)
Well, I guess that’s it.
Yeah, I got it.
Christopher Byrd (56:41.549)
the story.
Christopher Byrd (56:56.781)
Right. I’m sorry. No, yeah, I didn’t. I didn’t cover everything. When I started the company name in 2004, you know, I called my first charity ride Tour de Thailand after watching the Tour de France. It was still a fresh in my mind. I’m not a racer, but you know, it just kind of made sense Tour de Thailand. And I went to register the company name because I was worried that, you somebody’s going to come after the sporn or doing something.
Jason Elkins (56:56.816)
Or did I miss something?
Christopher Byrd (57:26.079)
not properly documented and so forth. And so I’m trying to follow all the steps and rules and I went to call the company Tour de Thailand and they were like, nah, you can’t do that. And there was another tour company that had a similar name to that. didn’t want, and so I thought, you know, like literally momentarily in the office, I thought, well, why limit myself to Thailand? I’ll call the company Tour de Asia, bicycle touring company limited.
And so that’s the company I registered in 2004. And then they’re like, okay, now you registered the company name, now you got to go to the department of revenue. And I’m like, no, no, that was my last 5,000 month. I got to go back to work. So it was a very slow process. Every year I spent everything I had on this bike tour, but enjoying it all the more. But yeah, and then I met my wife and…
Jason Elkins (57:57.028)
Christopher Byrd (58:26.189)
And she agreed to come on board with me and basically work for free for quite some time and until we could afford to pay ourselves something. And I talked to her. said, yeah, I’d to do a tour to Vietnam, tour to Laos, tour to Cambodia. I bought all these domain names and was thinking, know, big charity writing each year. One of would just be so cool, right? But she’s like, no, Thailand. I was like, okay.
But also by then I had realized how difficult everything was with the red, governmental red tape and organization and all that. And like, you you, need to, you need a lot of contacts. So yeah.
Jason Elkins (59:03.122)
She probably knew that intuitively. She got to it much quicker than you did. She’s like, no, you don’t want to do that.
Christopher Byrd (59:13.133)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, plus, and she loves her home country. That’s understandable too. So yeah, we eventually scrapped that idea, but had the name and everybody asked why tour to Asia? You only do tour of Thailand. I’m like, well, you know, and then, so we wanted to change it for years and never really had the chance. And then when COVID hit, finally we had time, you know, so it’s a lot of paperwork, a lot of, you know, changing logos and all that stuff.
Jason Elkins (59:17.958)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Christopher Byrd (59:43.126)
And so, yeah, COVID gave us the time to change the company name. And I just thought, what makes more sense than Adventure Cycling Thailand, you know, all key words for Google searches and so forth. And of course, American, and I used to be a member of Adventure Cycling, which is based in America. And I was like, well, that’s, that’s pretty to the point. Let’s make it Adventure Cycling Thailand. And yeah, we finally changed it and we’re very happy with that.
Jason Elkins (01:00:12.658)
So you came right out of COVID with new brand, new logo, new website, new everything,
Christopher Byrd (01:00:19.605)
Yeah, and a lot of
Jason Elkins (01:00:22.588)
Well, yeah, I can imagine.
Christopher Byrd (01:00:25.229)
Well, a lot of people, know, some people think negatively all the time and I try not to, but I think a common thing in businesses in Thailand is if a company changes their name, they assume that you dropped debts from previous company and just started again. And that was in no case what we did. I did not fault.
default on any of our debts or promises or anything like that. So, yeah, it was simply a name change, kept the same TAT license number, company registration number, all that stuff. But yeah, we had a few people mention that, so you just walked away from your debt and started again. I’m like, that’s not it.
Jason Elkins (01:01:14.29)
So I’m curious, Chris, though, does that present a problem or a challenge when you change the name, all this stuff with potential other partners, vendors, people you want to work with, maybe think that you bailed on the last partners that you worked with. So is it harder to establish those relationships or is it just more of a just kind of a rumor thing? They just kind of mention it, but it doesn’t really impact the business. I’m just curious.
Christopher Byrd (01:01:41.61)
I think it really didn’t impact us at all, except, you know, there were a couple who actually openly asked, oh, is this what you did? And I was like, no, no, by no means did we do that. And so then we, we may have made it clear to some who kind of looked at us funny or something like that. it was like, look, we just changed the name. Everything’s the same address, registration number, T license number.
all the same, even bank account number. So yeah, that made it really clear that, because you would have to change your registration number, obviously your bank account number and things like that. So it was just a name change. And then we sent out newsletters and all that stuff.
Jason Elkins (01:02:18.075)
Yeah, yeah,
Jason Elkins (01:02:23.942)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:02:28.806)
I’m curious though, who would be, what type of person would be the most likely to ask you that question? Are we talking other maybe travel agents, people helping you book trips, customers? I’m just, I don’t understand your business.
Christopher Byrd (01:02:46.196)
Yeah. Oh, my first person to ask was my lawyer. But when I told Hin, he believed me.
Jason Elkins (01:02:53.234)
He’s like, wouldn’t you know? You’re my lawyer. If we did all that, wouldn’t you know? Interesting. So, all right. So walk.
Christopher Byrd (01:03:00.737)
Yeah. Maybe he pointed it out. But I think, you know, some of the hotels, some of the hotels that we were dealing with, you my wife would tell them, okay, we’ve changed our name and, please. then with invoicing and stuff. Yeah. So like, we would, we would tell them to make the receipt out to use our new company name. And, and, you know, it was, was, I don’t think it.
Jason Elkins (01:03:05.778)
okay.
Jason Elkins (01:03:17.434)
Uh-huh. Yep. Yep.
Christopher Byrd (01:03:29.965)
ever like really affected the customer. Maybe some people had rumors or ideas, but we laid it all out in our newsletter and they probably didn’t even ask. But yeah, it was my wife, you know, dealing with ties and they were asking and she’s like, we didn’t do any of that. We didn’t like, no, we made it very, make it very clear. We did not do any of that. That’s not why we changed the name. And then cause she was, you know, kind of like, you know, is that why?
Jason Elkins (01:03:37.575)
Yip.
Jason Elkins (01:03:59.218)
She’s like, no, I don’t think so. Then she looks at you and says, do you think that part of that? I’m just curious. I’m learning about the Thai culture. So what I hear you saying is, well, first, whatever’s going on in my head is maybe that some of the Thai culture is not that super excited about change or are concerned about reputation. think reputation is a big thing here, right? Just from what I’ve heard.
Christopher Byrd (01:03:59.722)
But but yeah, so that was bored.
Christopher Byrd (01:04:28.415)
Yeah. Yeah. Reputation. I think they’re okay with change. But like the revenue department, everything has to be right. If they misspell your company name, they might not give you credit for a payment you made towards your taxes. It’s like really ridiculous. Like it takes us an extra 10, 15 minutes every time we fill up the company vehicle to get a proper tax receipt.
Jason Elkins (01:04:30.354)
maybe that’s a bigger part of it.
Jason Elkins (01:04:45.714)
No.
Christopher Byrd (01:04:57.537)
My wife has to check it, make sure it’s all spelled right and everything in time. She’s like, otherwise they won’t accept it. So like, just little stuff like that. I think it’s also from, just in Asia, there’s a lot of history of fraud, people trying to get over and things like that. So, you have a bank account here, correct?
Jason Elkins (01:05:21.73)
I don’t know. No, I know. I’m just kind of probably just passing through.
Christopher Byrd (01:05:29.509)
Would you know, remember a bank book when you were a kid when you started your first junior checking account? Yeah, everybody has one here. If you lose it, you’re supposed to get a police report. If you don’t show up with your passport and your bank book, they won’t do a lot of business, bank business with you. I’ll tell you, like, are you kidding me? Just little things like that with their stickers on, you know.
Jason Elkins (01:05:34.635)
I do, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:05:44.065)
wow.
Jason Elkins (01:05:58.426)
Are you sure you don’t want to change your answer when I asked you if Thai people are reluctant to embrace change? No, you don’t have to say anything. don’t. You’ve got a lot of Thai friends, Thai wife. We can move right on. But what I will say is the culture, they’re so welcoming. Like you mentioned before, it’s just everybody smiles here and it’s one of the few places I’ve visited where if I need to see a smile.
Christopher Byrd (01:06:02.157)
Thanks
Christopher Byrd (01:06:07.841)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (01:06:27.748)
If I’m feeling a little down in my Airbnb or whatever and I need to see a smile, I just got to walk out the door and within just a few steps, I’m probably going to see a smile. And I really appreciate that about.
Christopher Byrd (01:06:41.409)
Yeah, I you walk down the street, if you say hi to somebody, they’ll almost definitely smile and say hi back. mean, that is a huge change in life, you know? Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:06:50.906)
Yes, very much. I was at a place shortly before I came here for a couple months in a place in former Soviet Union kind of block. Beautiful place, fascinating place, interesting food. But boy, sometimes it was hard to get a smile. You you go to the convenience store and I’m Mr. Social Friendly, walk in grand in ear to ear.
trying to spend there just look at me like who are you and why are you smiling at me? And after a couple of months being, yeah, after a couple of months being there, beautiful place, wonderful place for those of our listeners that pay attention, they probably know where I was. Wonderful place. But boy, I’ll tell you, I got to got to Thailand and within.
Christopher Byrd (01:07:22.185)
What’s wrong with you?
Jason Elkins (01:07:35.974)
you know, a few hours, I was almost emotionally overwhelmed by the sheer number of smiles I’d seen the little kids on the street, like looking at me and so happy to speak English. Hello, hello, I love you. Hello. And you just breaks your heart. You just smile at them and wave at them. And it’s like, it’s a pretty great place. So I can see, I can see why you, why you love it here so much. All right. So you change, change the business. I want to hear what happened after COVID for you as you start with this new, new launch.
build up the business and what should we know about what’s been going on with you for the last few years.
Christopher Byrd (01:08:11.945)
well, we, yeah, we, we came out of COVID. we, we were hoping it be more of a, a boom in tourism. I think some parts of Thailand did experience that. I heard that, you know, Patty and Phuket, the islands, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, all experiencing over tourism last high season. Hua Hin was not the case. so that, that really was tough for us. You know, we, we went before COVID, we would have.
Jason Elkins (01:08:35.164)
Hmm.
Christopher Byrd (01:08:41.953)
maybe three to five day tours a week, even in low season. know, high season we have a tour every day, sometimes two tours a day. We had two tour guides at one point. during low season, we three to five day tours a week. And now since COVID, we’re lucky if we get three to five tours a month in low season. So.
Jason Elkins (01:08:46.226)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:09:09.056)
wow.
Christopher Byrd (01:09:10.925)
Last high season was our first high season where every month was at least broke even or profitable. And then this high season is starting to look good. the world economy is also having some issues because of some jerk back in America. But that’s something we won’t talk about.
But yeah, so we’re just hopeful that eventually, who are you? We’ll get the recognition from travelers around the world as being such a beautiful place that it is and tourism friendly. Uh, it’s, it doesn’t suffer from over tourism. I hope it doesn’t someday. I’d like to just see a good study tourism. Um, it’s not the sex tourist. Some people complain who he is too sleepy and we’re okay with that.
It’s very family friendly and a good place overall and a great place to start a bike ride because down the coast it just becomes unbelievable for small quiet roads that are so scenic and along the coast.
Jason Elkins (01:10:22.386)
Do you, do they allow you to do your bike tours on the beach? Is that something you can do?
Christopher Byrd (01:10:29.133)
No, I our tires aren’t suitable for beach riding, we have there’s a lot of beachfront roads Like like literally like stretches of 10 20 kilometers right next to the beach
Jason Elkins (01:10:43.29)
Okay. All right. That’s that’s and the beach. What I’ve seen of the beaches here is pretty, it’s beautiful. It’s really, really nice. What do you think the top two or three things that surprised people when you meet somebody who just got here and they’re going out with you on a tour? What do you think the top two or three things are that surprised them the most about Hua Hin, maybe Thailand as well?
Christopher Byrd (01:11:09.195)
to this world and help the people of our, they love the food, even if they don’t deal with spicy food well, you know, we show them amazing food, all of our tours, we go out of our way to try and mix it up and blow them away with the food as much as we do the scenery and the Cycling. So, yeah, we call…
three of our priorities we call them ECTs, three S’s and the first and foremost is safety, second is scenery and the third S is savory. So once we get past the hotel breakfast then we really try to make lunches and dinners really special and cater to everybody’s tastes.
Jason Elkins (01:11:59.622)
So it’s, so it sounds like you’ve really incorporated the culinary part of this into just kind of your offering in general. I’m curious, do you market a trip as a, a, a food tour by bike? mean, is, do you get that direct on doing that?
Christopher Byrd (01:12:07.778)
Yeah.
Christopher Byrd (01:12:19.079)
we haven’t like, started any, tour descriptions that way, but I think the, the ACT’s three yeses is usually in our opening, statement. And so, yeah, we’re starting to show that. And then we do list it as a gastronomic, experience, in, addition to just being a Cycling holiday.
Because, people, even people who are very familiar with Thai food and been eating in Thai restaurants for years, try things on our tour that they had never heard of. You there’s parts of the South that have vegetables that aren’t grown elsewhere. And so, you know, like I’m even new to some of them in the past five years. I’m just like, whoa, this is awesome. What is this called and where does it grow? And then that’s pretty cool. So yeah, we can take great pride in that.
Jason Elkins (01:13:11.024)
You know, yeah, because I hadn’t, I hadn’t really thought about it until this conversation, but obviously there’s a lot of street food, lot of variety, but then pairing that with biking actually makes a lot of sense because for those people that don’t know, oftentimes you get the street food, it can be in a small portion. It’s not like you’re going to sit down and eat a big Italian meal with pasta and all that stuff.
You go from one place to the next. let’s try a little bit of this. Let’s try a little bit of that. And the portions oftentimes can be very conducive with that. I don’t know if you can eat all day, but if you’re riding a bike all day, maybe you can. But it does seem like that’d be a pretty cool. I like that. I’m going to have to go join, join one of your tours while I’m here. Sounds great.
Christopher Byrd (01:13:51.437)
within the
Absolutely. Now, it’s one of the great things, know, like yesterday we had a tour for four people, right? Plus there’s me, my tour guide and driver. And so we have to have enough food for everybody and every time, almost every Thai meal is family style. So it’s all sharing everything. So we order six different dishes and everybody gets a couple spoonfuls of each. You have an amazing meal. I it’s like going to a buffet every day. Yeah. And, you know, we, and
Jason Elkins (01:14:21.936)
Yeah.
Christopher Byrd (01:14:24.415)
We throw down, we’re not trying to skimp on the cost of the meal. mean, we’re eating crab meat and, you know, big prawn and whole fish, steamed fish, grilled fish, fried fish, you know, all kinds of stuff. So, you know, people come to, when people come on our tours, they’re pretty blown away by the meals. So, and then of course I’ve had customers say that.
Jason Elkins (01:14:42.226)
You’re making me hungry.
Jason Elkins (01:14:50.194)
That’s true.
Christopher Byrd (01:14:52.991)
We never thought the hotels would be this nice. Cause we don’t stay in the Marriott because you know, that’s, if you’re leaving early in the morning, what’s the point, you know? But we stay in hotels that are surprisingly nice and all of them have swimming pools and of course, air conditioned hot water and comfortable beds. yeah, the people are just like, whoa, the accommodation is above and beyond what I expected.
Jason Elkins (01:15:02.257)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (01:15:17.941)
We try and get people to, you know, lot of cyclists want to bring their own bike. I’m like, come and ride our bikes. It’s easier for everybody. We’ve got replacement parts. We take care of everything. We fix your flat. So like, leave your bike at home. And then there, every time they show up, they’re like, wow, your bikes are a lot better than I thought. then, or I was expecting, you I’ve, I’ve been on other bike tours and yeah, I’ve gotten bikes that I thought were held together by a fishing wire. but, but yeah, so we try and.
Jason Elkins (01:15:36.536)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (01:15:48.671)
know, impress people on all those, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:15:53.042)
What do you want? Let’s, let’s just touch on cause I don’t know. There’s, I’m sure there’s some folks listening that maybe haven’t been even to Southeast Asia. What would you tell them about safety security considerations around crime, safety, stuff like that? Because I think that might surprise some people.
Christopher Byrd (01:16:15.135)
I, know, around the other surrounding countries, I don’t think I could be, offer any official information, you know, like Cambodia has its risks. Vietnam has its risks. Laos has its risks and I wouldn’t want to comment either way. I, I felt, extremely comfortable throughout Southeast Asia. I’m a pretty good size former U S Marine. so I feel pretty comfortable everywhere, but.
Never have I felt as comfortable as I feel in Thailand. You know, when I first came here, people were saying, you better not wear your gold necklace. You know, somebody might cut your throat for that, you know. And I, know, stupidly took it off, you know, and left it at home. And I got here, I was just like, my God, if there was a community in America this safe, this comfortable, this welcoming, this friendly, this smiling, everybody in America would live there, you know.
But the fact that everybody can’t come over to Thailand is the reason they’re not here. I, you know, I shouldn’t.
Jason Elkins (01:17:15.514)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:17:21.83)
And that’s been my experience so far. mean, it reflects definitely on what you’re saying is it’s, know, you walk down any of these streets and people have these little shops on the streets, on the sidewalks, some of the food vendors, like they just kind of, oftentimes don’t pack everything away at the end of the night. I mean, they might wrap a tarp around it to keep the weather out or something, but if you wanted to go…
steel pots and pans or kitchen knives or tools or whatever, it wouldn’t be very hard. You’re going to find it. And just the fact, and this is their livelihood. So the fact that they’ll leave their tools for their livelihoods out on the sidewalk and their front yard or whatever. And obviously they’re not too worried about stuff disappearing is the impression that I get when I see that.
Christopher Byrd (01:18:13.335)
Yeah. And I don’t want to downplay the awesomeness of Thai people, you also have to think about the statistics. It’s much more densely populated, so there’s always going to be somebody who sees something. It’s like having video cameras everywhere. So I’m not saying that’s why, but I’m just saying it’s something to think about. And the community, like if the whole neighborhood…
Jason Elkins (01:18:29.552)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:18:32.89)
That’s true.
Christopher Byrd (01:18:41.547)
knew that you had done something, they would all come out and, you know, I’m not saying they beat you to death, but they would definitely be pointing a finger and criticizing you and shaming you. So there’s some of that that comes to play, but in general, they just don’t take what’s not theirs. mean, yeah, cash, a mobile phone maybe, something beyond, that’s really tempting and easy. I’ve had issues with mobile phones.
you know, of course, taxi drivers throughout the world have a bad reputation. They’re usually, a bit, edgy and grumpy and maybe, you know, angry at the world or maybe they’ve got other problems going on. But yeah, I’ve, I’ve had, I’ve gotten out of a taxi before and had been with a girlfriend or a friend. And I realized, my God, my phone, I left my phone in the taxi or fell out of my pocket in the taxi.
quick call it and you can still see the taxi driving away. And this has happened on three occasions. They call my phone, the taxi steps on the brakes, you see there, you know, he stops, he’s sitting there for a minute, the phone’s ringing and all of a sudden the phone goes dead because he’s taking the battery out and then he drives away. Yeah, so, okay, that’s like the worst thing that’s happened to me in 23, 24 years, pretty much.
Jason Elkins (01:19:53.582)
And he keeps driving.
Christopher Byrd (01:20:05.965)
but I mean, I, I, I’ve left a camera, I’ve left a mobile phone, I’ve left, you know, some really valuable stuff, computer and like they, gone back to a restaurant and go, my God, I, they’re like, yes, you left here. Thank you. You know, or the next morning, my God, I was here. I think I had my camera with me. yes, you left here. You know, and just like stuff you wouldn’t normally see in the Western world.
somebody would take the opportunity to say, yep, mine. I shouldn’t say this, but a lot of times I don’t lock my front door or even close it. I’ll leave the screen door open and be gone all day. Of course we have my vicious attack rabbit, just in case.
Jason Elkins (01:20:51.91)
You don’t have your home address on your website, do you? Now that you just announced to the world. You might want to change your strategy or we’ll edit this out.
Christopher Byrd (01:20:55.595)
No. Yeah, no, no, we don’t. We also don’t bring anybody here because it’s embarrassing. Everything goes into the business. We live in a very, very humble accommodation. It’s a poem for our rabbit.
Jason Elkins (01:21:11.538)
I get that and I respect that completely. boy, Chris, we’ve discussed a lot of things. There’s probably a lot more we could discuss, but I want to be respectful of your time. I appreciate you coming in and sharing your story, but I want to ask you this before we go. What did I forget to ask you? What do you wish I had asked you? Or what do you want to make sure the world knows about you, Thailand, or just life in general before we wrap it up?
Christopher Byrd (01:21:51.214)
My Tour de Thailand rides for 2026 will be updated with the new dates in the next week or two on our website, adventurecyclingthailand.com. We are working with another charity based in Australia, helping to rescue young ladies who are kind of forced into the sex business.
You know, there’s people that want to be there and that’s fine. But then there’s people who don’t want to be there. And this, this wonderful charity is trying to help them. And so we’re talking with them about doing a ride for them in October next year. And hopefully that will all come together and we’ll have that up on our website in the next month or two. And then also because of my history with the American AIDS rides is where I got my start.
Jason Elkins (01:22:21.33)
Mm-hmm.
Christopher Byrd (01:22:51.117)
It dawned on me last June, we were in Hoi Hin, of course, and they had some big Pride Month, you the LGBTQ plus community celebrates Pride Month every year and that is June. But last year’s was specifically special because Thailand had first just legalized same sex marriage last November. So a year now.
Jason Elkins (01:23:02.322)
Yeah.
Christopher Byrd (01:23:19.949)
And so last June’s pride activities were really big. And when my wife and I were taking part in some of those events, I was like, you know, why aren’t we doing a pride ride? And so I just started thinking about it. like, you know, I owe our whole life, my whole life right now to the fact that I was doing AIDS rides, you know, 25, 26 years ago.
and absolutely loved it. You know, in the restaurant community, you’re always working with people of all different cultures and lifestyles. And so I’ve never had any problem with diversity. In fact, I embrace it. And I’m like, you know, we need to do a Pride ride. So next June, May 31st to June 7th, we are organizing our Prachuap Paradise Pride Ride 2026.
which will go from the northern end of Hoi Hin to the southern end of Phra Chup Kri Khan, which is Bang Sa Phan Noi. And it’s gonna be a massive party on two wheels. It’s gonna be flamboyant, it’s gonna be fabulous, it’s gonna be safe, it’s gonna be fun. And hopefully it’ll raise some good money to help LGBTQ plus related charities. So, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:24:41.938)
Yeah, it sounds it actually sounds like a lot of fun. It sounds like it would be pretty cool event So and you’ll have that on your website Yeah, so we’re because we’re have the link right to your website in the in the show night and I can’t speak in the show notes So anybody listening this conversation that has interest in Thailand and bicycling Good guys like Chris, whatever, you know, click the link or take a look at his website
Christopher Byrd (01:24:46.189)
It’s gonna be blast.
Jason Elkins (01:25:08.664)
And I’ll ask you this when you reach out to Hin, say, Hey, I heard John Jason show. was really intrigued, whatever. Just so then he’ll send me a little note and say, Hey, Jason, I just spoke with someone that heard us on the podcast and it makes me feel good. There’s, know, I’m not getting paid for it. He’s not sponsored. But anyway, Chris was really, really good to have you, have you join us. And I suspect that at some point here in the next few days, you and I will be down on the beach enjoying a beer together. So, I look, I look forward to that. And,
Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Great conversation.
Christopher Byrd (01:25:40.973)
Thank you.
Jason Elkins (01:25:43.046)
Talk to you soon. Thanks for us.
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