Andrew Benfield

Andrew Benfield was born and raised in the UK but caught the travel bug early, quitting his first proper job in an investment bank to go and live on a farm in Israel. A variety of odd jobs followed, including teaching English in the Sudan, interning at the British Embassy in Spain and, most incongruously, training people how to grow rice in rural Madagascar. A stint in Hong Kong learning Tai Chi was followed by a couple of years as a meandering consultant, wandering across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Andrew eventually wound up working for a diplomatic mission in India, where he took up riding Royal Enfield motorcycles, fast developing a love of two wheels and the open road. Posts in Ethiopia, Namibia, and Nepal followed, before he finally attempted to settle down by setting up a boutique hotel in Bali. But it wasn’t long before he heard tell of a secret Asian land that had lain hidden from the world for the past five decades, and so soon he was on the move again, this time heading for magical Burma. And that is how his first book "The Wrong Way Round: How Not to Travel to Burma by Motorcycle" was born. Andrew is the presenter of the BBC podcast series, “Yeti”, a trans-Himalayan odyssey in search of the truth behind this enigmatic creature. Andrew is based in Asia and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.