Who we are: Dek Leonk on Bali, Michèle and Bas in the Netherlands

His full name is I Made Partha Wijaya, but everyone calls him Dek Leonk. He is 48 and was born in an age-old village on the eastern tip of Bali, the part of the island where life still revolves around the temple and the harvest. He has been driving travellers around Bali for twenty years, from the volcanoes to the quiet north coast. He knows which temple has a ceremony on which day, where to eat the best babi guling and what time to be at Tirta Gangga to have it to yourself.

At home his wife and two sons are waiting. On a trip with him you may well end up at his family's table, or he may show you the village where he grew up.

Michèle travels whenever she gets the chance. Her next trip is already planned: in early 2027 she spends three months travelling through Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Borneo and Bali. Sometimes she travels with others, but mostly alone. So she knows what it feels like to arrive on your own, as a woman, in a country you do not know yet and to travel around it. You want to know whose car you get into, where you sleep and that there is someone you can call when things go wrong. Those are exactly the things she looks after at Vrouwvriendelijk Marokko (women-friendly Morocco).

She has lived and worked abroad several times, and comes from the hotel world. Today she works as a project manager, and makes sure more women find their way to Soukayna, the driver behind that site. For My Bali Tour Guide she answers your questions in the chat and turns your wishes into a trip that works: not too full, not too empty, and with time to just sit somewhere.

Bas is a traveller and entrepreneur. With his company ESBL he earlier built Vrouwvriendelijk Marokko (women-friendly Morocco) with Soukayna, a female driver from Marrakesh. He looks after the website, the trip tool we use to make your proposal and everything that comes with it.