Our team
Raj Rishi
Managing Director
With a Master’s degree in software engineering, Raj Rishi has always been looking for ways to contribute to the most marginalized segments of his homeland, India. Based In Kolkata, since very young age he has been associated with the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa, assisting them as a volunteer. He had grown up in a very traditional Hindu family with a very strong inclination towards devotion and music. Over the last few years, after returning back to India from the UK, he has travelled the length and breadth of South Asian Countries, mesmerised by the varied traditions, culture, architectures, and particularly by spiritual aspect of every states. Raj is an integral part of the Conscious Journeys, managing bookings for India from Kolkata office and assisting all our guests. One of his major objectives in co-founding the Organisation has been to give a real taste of his culture and tradition to travellers and at the same time help the backward classes of his society through responsible tourism.
Ugam Singh
Local guides coordinator and cultural mediator
Ugam is one of the very first Indian licensed guide who joined enthusiastically concious tourism concept and practices of our guides in Asia. He is working as professional tourist guide for 15 years. He is a very generous and caring person by nature who not only works sincerely but also takes good care of our guests, paying attention to their needs and comfort, so that they feel at home. He has always a smile on his face and always ready to share with visitors the love of his homeland, India. Ugam has a very strong interest in Hindu religion rituals, yoga and meditation, following his own spiritual Guru since many years. Serving Italian clients since last 15 years, Ugam Sing has an in depth Knowledge of the rich Culture and traditions of India, which he conveys to the clients with passion and conviction, so that they can have a good understanding of the place they visit. He coordinates for Conscious Journeys the work of our local cultural mediators and from times to time he also ccompanies groups, particularly those with a more spiritual content such as the Holy Ganges.
Laxmi
Country Director for Bhutan
Laxmi Sherpa is our representative for Bhutan, managing bookings for Bhutan from Thimpu office and assisting all our guests in the Country. She has an extensive knowledge of the cultural traditions and tourism industry, working in the sector for more than 15 years. Her main passion is creating unique customized challenging tours. She is very creative and passionate about her work. She enjoys every steps of tour planning process, always trying to make our travellers to live unique experiences.
Laxmi’s main motto is: safety – Comfort – Happinness.
Yan Naing
Country Director for Myanmar
Yan is our representative for Myanmar, managing bookings for Myanmar from Yangoon office and assisting all our guests in the Country. He is fluent in Italian language and English as he has worked for more than 10 year as tourist guide. He has a degree in Oriental studies with a major in Pali language and buddhism traditions. His is very friendly and available to satisfy all our clients requests and desires.
He is ready to assist all our travellers from the design of the tour, as to experience to most authentic aspects of Burmeese culture and traditions. He likes travelling and photography.
Amal
Country Director for Sri Lanka
Amal is our representative for Sri Lanka, managing bookings from Negombo office and assisting all our guests in the Country. His experience in tourism began in 1996 and soon became Assistant Manager Tours. Over time, he has acquired a deep knowledge of the tourism sector in Sri Lanka and a deep understanding of customer needs, and is ready to assist all our travelers in the planning of the tours.
piyapun
Country Director for Thailand
Piyapun is our representative for Thailand, managing bookings for Thailand from Bangkok office and assisting all our guests in the Country. She is very committed to create itineraries where experiential tourism in collaboration with local communities will play always a more important role. Attention to giving back to the society is one of her major concern. For all the tours she is in charge, she always keep in mind the “’3Ps philosophy’”: profit, people and planet are the three elements that have to be always combined. She strongly believes that tourism needs to include all those three elements in a single tour, if we are really concern about sustainable tourism.
Leonardo
Founder
Leonardo is passionate about all South Asian countries, where he worked for several years implementing development projects. The idea of creating the company came to him after completing the field work for his PhD with indigenous communities of South India. For him responsible tourism could be an interesting way to make a difference in people’s lives. His major interests in creating Conscious Journeys were linked to community based tourism, environment and cultural diversity. He has built up a with a good academic and practical knowledge about India’s culture, ecology and history, which enabled him to design innovative itineraries for our guest to experience the best and the most authentic taste and flavour of South Asian cultures. All the itineraries contains important aspects as to really enjoy genuine life experiences, and at the same time contributing to local communities. While designing new itineraries he is always in search of the best trade-off between comfort and authentic experience for our guests and the maximum benefits for hosting communities.