THE LAND OF SMILES

In the summer of 2023, inside a black Moleskine notebook, a twenty-eight night solo journey across Thailand began as a series of raw, late-night entries - written in hostel dorms, between training sessions, and along mountain hikes.

What started as private observations quickly turned outward, capturing an oral history of a globalised world through conversation.

Moving through humid fight camps and transient night markets, the narrative records unfiltered encounters with fighters, seekers, travellers, and outcasts - individuals linked by a desire to share their stories. Beneath the easy laughter, their testimonies uncover the quieter, universal currents of modern life: ambition, loneliness, faith, and the hunger for reinvention.

Refined across subsequent years spent living in China, Indonesia, and return trips to the same land the first pages were written, those original notes were brought back to the light to test memory against reality. Part travel narrative, part existential inquiry, The Land of Smiles examines masculinity, performance, and what it truly means to leave home and navigate the world as a global citizen.

Featuring a foreword by TEDx speaker and philanthropist Shadi Ganjavian-Connor.