Profile | Thailand train blogger Richard Barrow on his long and exciting journey: ‘It has just exploded’
- Visiting Thailand for the first time in 1993, British teacher and blogger Richard Barrow quickly fell in love with the country and its culture
- After years writing about Thai tourism and reporting on various disasters, he tapped into people’s love of trains – an endeavour that has only kept growing
I was born in Kent, southeast England, in 1967. My father, Dudley, was a dairy farmer. We’ve traced the family history back hundreds of years and every generation before me were farmers.
Our home was literally in the middle of nowhere. You could call it a hamlet, but it didn’t have a name as it was just five or six houses down an 800-metre (2,600-foot) stretch of road. Most of my neighbours were relatives.
I wouldn’t say it was difficult growing up. It was just a different kind of childhood. I was driving a tractor by the age of 12.
I went to school in the nearest village, Chiddingstone, which was also very small. It’s protected by the National Trust and is often used as a backdrop for movies because everything there looks as it did in the Victorian era.
Film buff
My ambition from a young age was to be a photojournalist as I was keen on telling stories using pictures. My mum, Jean, had her own dark room and taught me how to develop film.
This interest evolved into filmmaking. I became a real film buff. I loved the classics, especially Hitchcock’s work.
A lot of directors started life as runners on film sets so, after school, I applied for jobs in Soho (London). I got a job as a runner in a post-production company, which mainly did commercials.
I was still living with my parents so all my money went on the commute. If there was a rail strike, I’d walk across central London. But it was a foot in the door.
Climbing the ladder
