The Covid pandemic is undoubtedly terrifying for all of us. But a local businesswoman says it’s in fact not the scariest party of her life.
In 1997, having endured a medical drama (more on this later), Liddy Pleasants and visitors who had joined her on a tour of Egypt (one of her first jobs), were ambushed by the army on their way to Luxor. its collection of ancient and ancestral treasures.
As they walked, innocently enjoying the scenery, it had turned into a massacre after a horrific massacre. Sixty-two people, mostly tourists, sadly lost their lives.
It remains one of the most dramatic moments of a committed career and, says Liddy (founder of Stubborn Mule Travel in Debach) taught him a wonderful lesson: never put all your eggs in one basket. . . well, not in that the industry in any case.
“After this tragic event, all business with Egypt failed. The company I worked for survived, but it actually showed me that you can’t depend on a single destination. I was eager to have such a wide diversity of possibilities for my clients, and this resolution has been invaluable in the pandemic.
Liddy says the business is booming, “it’s absolutely crazy,” and shows that, far from sitting around doing nothing during the lockdown, she was constantly busy at the time, renewing the travel of consumers who were going to fly in 2020-21.
“Since we’re just doing a family holiday circle, when the first lockdown came we didn’t have a lot of people. There were about a hundred who had to travel the Easter holidays. Suddenly we had to cancel them and we couldn’t get the cash. “Back without delay abroad. In the short term, we had to take the hit. Our suppliers simply couldn’t reimburse us, so we had to pay those refunds out of our own pocket.
Traveling has always been on the agenda of Liddy’s adventurers. Originally from London, his first glimpse of true exploration came during a sixth-grade vacation in India. “Going to India for school holidays is very unusual, even today, even more so. He had an instructor who was desperately looking to travel and could only do so by taking students with him!
It changes life.
“That’s when I learned that traveling was what I wanted to ‘do’. We were driven in an air-conditioned bus all the time, but I wanted to be in the markets and in the places I looked at from the windows. I didn’t need to be inside.
From that moment on, Liddy took advantage of any and all opportunities she had to escape to the 4 corners of the world, spending a full year running in a children’s house in Sri Lanka for six months, before embarking on the “predictable” adventure through Southeast Asia. , Thailand and Malaysia – backpacker most commonly through herself.
The following summer, Liddy worked at a leprosy center in southern Pakistan, where the warmth of others nurtured in her a constant love for Asia.
“I used to spend every summer,” Liddy says. With my degree, I had six months of freedom to investigate, I went to South Africa and lived in a black municipality. After graduating, I jumped straight into the trips, running as an excursion companion in the Middle East.
Liddy’s first vacation was this fatal vacation in Egypt, which seemed disappointed from the start. “On the third day, one of the women complained that she had a very bad stomach. This is normal, so I took her to a hotel. doctor who said she had acute appendicitis and needed to treat her right away!
“In the organization I also had a nurse present. She said, out of my reach, ‘there’s no way it’s acute appendicitis, it’s food poisoning, don’t let it act on it. ‘So I had this doctor in one aspect who said it was dangerous, and this nurse for the other who said no. And there I am, 23 years old, looking to drive.
“In the end, we didn’t opt for appendectomy. We later discovered that the doctor had been fired for making transactions for insurance company payments. It was a great resolution for me to take it at the time.
“During the same journey, the great tragedy occurred. We were on a cruise ship arriving in Luxor and, as we approached, a giant contingent of army policemen entered the ship we were on, speaking in Arabic quickly. We can say that anything terrible had happened and it turned out that 60 tourists had been shot there. We had to paint there and then what to do next. Right now, just take care of it.
Liddy says the fun and the way she was forced to make quick and important decisions on the spot only strengthened her.
She continued to paint as a tourism consultant for four years, covering places ranging from China and Pakistan to Nepal, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Israel.
Is that of an excursion guide, flying around the world, as glamorous as it seems?
Liddy laughs. ” But it’s very exciting. In my first year I was on a classic sailboat in Egypt and a friend emailed me about the difficulty of running in the office. I thought, ‘Why doesn’t everyone do what I do?It’s fantastic!'”
That’s not to say it’s free of challenges. “But, in the end, I was leading small teams of other adventurous people who shared the same interests and enthusiasm as me. I felt like I was being paid to do what I was looking for.
It was China that stood out to the maximum for Liddy at this point in her life, which surprised her because she surely had no interest in going to the Red Dragon after hearing “not very positive things” from other people.
“I went there with incredibly low expectations, and as soon as I arrived, I fell in love with the place. It’s so different. The people were quite reserved, however, once I got to know them, they were absolutely lovely. I would say that, however, if you want to get the most out of here, you want to learn a little bit of Chinese. “
Liddy did, and becoming familiar with the language gave him a few kicks.
“Once, in the elevator of a hotel. I’m very tall and have incredibly wide feet, so I stuck out like a sore thumb. Fifteen Chinese women went up, urgently opposed to me. I was at least one foot taller than some of them. . One of them looked up and said “look at this little girl, she’s so big” and another looked down and added “Oh my God, you saw the length of her feet!”
“They were talking, obviously having no idea I could see them. When they came out, I said in Chinese, “I’m so glad everyone enjoyed my big feet. “They were just mortified,” laughs Liddy.
“That was more than 20 years ago. China had just opened up to tourism and my company asked me to look for an excursion through little-known parts of the Great Wall. I had to ask and go on to see some. They were very, very remote spaces where I didn’t see any hikers at all. I had to look to locate a walking direction to connect the dots. I just don’t forget that this moment was so special.
Liddy later took on a task for the same company, operating in China, before becoming director of operations in the UK, which led her to Martlesham Heath in the east.
“I had never been to East Anglia. La company told me that if I was looking for the job, they had a space in Woodbridge where I could stay for a while. And 20 years later, I’m still here. I have to become Director of Operations.
When the company sold, and then adapted to TUI, Liddy left part-time to have children Sam (16), Meg (14) and Luke (9) with her husband Mike, who also works for Stubborn Mule.
In 2010, Liddy was fired, which turned out to be a real plus. Mike, then a recruitment consultant, took a six-month break and the circle of relatives (then only with a five- and two-year-old) left. to Burma (Myanmar) for a month, then cycled to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos for five months.
What sounds a little crazy to the average family, however, Liddy says, was eye-opening and “surprisingly delicious,” opening doors she would never have discovered while walking alone in her teens and early twenties.
“When you ride a motorcycle with two little blond kids in this part of the world, you’re a show. And we found that other people were very kind and willing to give us hospitality.
“On the first day, we found out our map was wrong. We thought we had 25 miles to go, but it’s more like 50. We may not continue, so we stopped at this roadside café. The other people may only see that the children were exhausted and would not be able to do so, so we were given accommodation.
“I don’t think this would have happened if we hadn’t had cute little kids with us. I enjoyed traveling with them. Actually, it wasn’t difficult. Obviously, you have to meet their needs, but they were incredibly versatile. show them the squatting toilet we had to use and they would just say something like “it’s interesting” and use it perfectly happily.
The concept of Stubborn Mule, a company that puts the circle of family members at the center of everything they do, was born on this journey, and when they returned, Liddy was temporarily launched.
As for the call, “my husband says I’m incredibly stubborn, so that part of the explanation is why, and since we’re a family business circle, we wanted the call to be something fun. “
The first vacation Liddy booked was for a friend of her parents, who wanted to make a stopover in Burma with a three-month-old, at a time when Burma was barely navigable for tourists.
“The first booking we had from someone who is not a friend of the circle of relatives. . . I was absolutely out of myself. We had a wonderful conversation. She can say we were a start-up and said, “I want to meet us. “you. ” She came from London and we met at cambridge Botanic Gardens. I was breastfeeding a baby at the time, so my mother came with me and made him run away so I could feel like I’m a professional businesswoman.
“This has traveled with us several times since then. “
Liddy and her team, adding the staff she recruited from her former employer after her dismissal, have access to an exclusive network of contacts around the world, which allows them to plan truly tailor-made trips, with exclusive experiences. The total circle of relatives will not forget it forever.
“We adapt the rest to everyone’s age and interests, and we have so many functions at our fingertips. We think about everything. So, if they need to rent motorcycles and have a seven-year-old son, we make sure they have the right length motorcycle and helmet when they get there. That’s what sets us apart, I think.
With the changes in the industry after the shutdown, of course there have been adjustments in the destination of travelers. Croatia, Liddy says, is growing in popularity, yet one of its most sensible traders is Costa Rica, which he says has everything from beaches with sensational scenery, surprising and attractive cities.
“A popular one there can come with 4 or 5 other hotels over a two-week period. During the Array, you may spend two nights in a secluded nature reserve where turtles lay their eggs at night. During the day there may also be walks in search of sloths and crocodiles.
“You can go rafting, zip lining, walking in an ancient lava field. In the area, you can stay in a coastal national park, go sea kayaking, whale and dolphin watching. Then, spend the last few days on a fairly secluded beach away from it all, or at a lovely resort.
Stubborn Mule has put together a list of many normal and satisfied customers. . . parents who continue with the company even after their children have left the nest.
“Possibly they would have young people in their 20s. . . 22s. . . those we can still convince to go on vacation with mom and dad on a little adventure, and if they pay!Of course, we want to weave those trips around exam and festival effects.
Liddy’s favorite place right now is the Middle East, which is portrayed negatively. jump into the pools. There is guaranteed sunshine later in the year and it is absolutely fabulous and amazing for families.
“The other destination that has just reopened is Southeast Asia: Thailand, Borneo, Cambodia. These are my most productive selections and they are fabulous if you meet them at Christmas. The weather is beautiful, you can get any hotel as they have not accumulated. two years of reserves and the scenery (especially Angkor Wat) is simply stunning.
When not far from home, Liddy, who lives outdoors at Wickham Market, enjoys cycling in the nearby countryside, enjoying the beaches and rolling fields of East Anglia.
“I bike to the paintings every day, and even when it’s raining, I look around and think, ‘How spoiled am I because this is my journey?’
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