From music to mountain gorillas
Nick Ray (BA History and Politics, 1994)
A twenty plus year career with Lonely Planet has taken alumnus Nick Ray (BA History and Politics, 1994) to some of the most spectacular places in the world. His passion for writing led him from campus to Cambodia, where he eventually started working in film and TV. But despite trekking the globe and working in film, he’s stayed connected with the friendships he formed as a student.
Journalism
Journalism’s been very important to my career, and in many ways, it was birthed at Warwick.
As the Music Editor of The Boar, I got access to lots of gigs, events, and festivals. I went to Glastonbury, Phoenix, Reading – interviewing famous artists from Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) to Dave Gedge (Wedding Present) and more. To be part of the gig trail for the Manchester Indie scene and the American sub pop and grunge bands was incredible. Couple that with the proximity to Birmingham and Coventry, a whole world was opened to me.
Whilst at The Boar, I diversified into travel features on various trips. My first job after graduating was at the Middle East Economic Digest, a leading business magazine on oil, banking, industry, and business in the region. After a couple of years there, I started working as an Adventure Tour Leader, leading tours in places like Morocco and Vietnam.
That's when journalism and travel – my two worlds – really collided.
The big turning point came with Lonely Planet, which I joined in April 1998. That led me to Cambodia. I wrote a chapter in Southeast Asia on a Shoestring, then a book, then more. I’ve now had a 26-year (and counting) career with Lonely Planet publications.
Lonely Planet
I've covered about a dozen or more countries for Lonely Planet. I primarily specialise in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the countries of the Mekong. I’ve also covered a number of countries in Africa, as well as Thailand and Indonesia.
I’ve had so many memorable trips but visiting the mountain gorillas of the Virunga volcanoes was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. They are wonderful wild creatures. You can track them for hours up the slopes of the volcano. Once you catch up with them, you're allowed one hour. A strictly controlled amount of time but seeing a family of 35 gorillas is quite an incredible experience. When they finally begin to lose patience with staring visitors (towards the end of the hour), they charge and beat their chests - it's quite unbelievable!
The Virunga volcanoes are on the border of four countries, and I was lucky enough to see these gorillas in three of them – Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda, Park des Volcans in Rwanda, and Park de Virunga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where I saw them at Djomba and Bukima twice in the same day.
Cambodia
I first travelled to Cambodia as part of a long backpacking trip in 1995. I returned over the next two years, looking to write freelance articles. The conflict - Khmer Rouge insurgency - was still happening, so there were only so many places you could travel. After joining Lonely Planet, I moved there, and it’s been my second home ever since.
As peace broke in 1999 and the third iteration of the Lonely Planet Cambodia guide came out, I pitched the idea of filming for Pilot Guides, and we spent a month or so shooting the show with a team of five.
Then came Hollywood. While some of the locations I scouted fell through, I got call from the production company behind Tomb Raider. We welcomed around 10 of the production team on a location trip and the rest, as they say is history!
As Location Manager, you’re working for the film company, but also ensuring that these beautiful parts of the world are returned to perfect condition after filming. The feedback we got from filming Tomb Raider, led us to set up Hanuman Films. It’s been going for the best part of 25 years. We’ve worked on various shows from BBC’s Top Gear in Vietnam to natural history documentaries for National Geographic, Netflix etc. Television is most common, but we also have worked on feature films and our own films. Our film, The Last Reel, won the Spirit of Asia award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Hanuman Films is one of the longest running film production companies in Cambodia and we are still incredibly busy year on year, which is great.
Warwick in the ‘90’s
I’d have to say the music scene. Warwick was very much on the gig circuit and the Christmas Ball in first-year (December 1991) was headlined by Radiohead! Oasis also came to Warwick and played a very small venue on campus too.
The other was the Lord Rootes Fund established by Lord Rootes, one of the founders and benefactors of Warwick. It’s an opportunity for students to fund a self-development project or venture to encourage creativity, innovation, and positive impact. A friend and I were awarded the fund to study and write a report on traditional markets in Central America. We travelled to Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and other parts of Central America. It was an amazing experience, and I’d highly recommend students look into it.
Warwick alumni community
The friends I made – those that are still in my inner circle. We've got great memories from our time at Warwick and we all still talk about it fondly. It was one of the best times of our lives – both the studying and the freedom of living away from home for the first time for most people.
Warwick is somewhere you're proud to say you studied, it remains consistently in lists of the top ten universities in the UK and does very well for all sorts of different subjects, so that's fantastic.
There’s a sense of community and togetherness you gain on campus that still stands when you graduate.
Advice
Be flexible in your approach to career and work. It's quite easy to feel the pressure to define a career early and to stick with that, but my first Editor at the Middle East Economic Digest, Eddie O’Sullivan, gave me some great career advice, which has stuck with me.
The fundamental question to ask yourself is, are you happy? And if you're not happy in your work, then it's best to change course because work is such an important part of our lives. If you can enjoy your work to the upmost and the fullest then it’s going to make for a much more rewarding life.
People spend their whole lives climbing up the career ladder only to realise at the top that they’ve climbed the wrong ladder.
Eddie's advice
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