The Tuxedo Travels
 It took a drunken promise, the desire for adventure, a requirement to give something back, and a fetish for formal wear to get Heath Buck and Douglas Campbell to embark on an overland trek from Hong Kong to London while dressed in black tie. Along the way, the two friends blogged and posted photos and video on their site, The Tuxedo Travels.
From wrestling in India to herbal baths in Vietnam, the guys in bow ties found plenty of adventures to share, not the least of which included laughing yoga, the world's worst toilet, working for a Dao hill tribe, and the inevitable transportation breakdown. After their trip, Heath and Doug had a chance to chat with us about their favorite moments and share some interesting facts about their travel tuxes. What made you guys decide to travel together? Heath: Drunk in Hong Kong is how this story starts! I came up with the idea over a spring roll-infused drinking session at a Thai karaoke restaurant, and Doug agreed to accompany me despite the fact that we'd known each other less than two weeks. Doug: I knew Heath just long enough to realize he's got a screw loose, which was good enough for me. Heath followed up on his inebriated idea with a phone call a year later (having asked all his other friends, and with no more joiners) and once again convinced me to join the project. For my part, and as the bleeding-heart philanthropist of the two, I insisted on introducing a charity angle. Heath agreed provided that we do something more original than just collect cash for a chosen organization. We wanted our donating audience to see a more direct use of their money. How did you pick the route? Heath: I was working in South Korea and planning my route home. If we started in South Korea, the first thing we'd do is get on a plane, so Doug suggested we start from where we met (he's a sentimental American). So we decided to begin in Hong Kong and end up in London, where we both have family. Then it was a case of looking at options along our route and deciding on our most preferred places to go—and some places not to go. Doug creatively plotted the initial route through a few war zones so I took over logistics while Doug got on to building the web site. Why did you choose to wear tuxedos? Do you have some weird fetish for formal wear? Doug: It grabbed people's attention didn't it? Punishing ourselves by wearing tuxedos in up to 50-degree heat (Celsius) was a way of showing everyone that we were serious about trying to help people. The tuxedos were also ironic in that we are both completely non-elitist and don't think people should take themselves too seriously. What better way to attempt to say "It doesn't matter what you look like" than to wear tuxes and hang about in dodgy locales until people take notice? The tuxedos themselves were tailor-made in Bangkok and specifically built for backpacking. They had numerous hidden pockets, extra resilient fabric, and they really did survive to the end! Each set cost US$165. This included: - One jacket
- One pair of trousers
- Two shirts
- One cummerbund
- Two of the most difficult to undo bow ties ever
| Heath: We requested Velcro pockets to hinder any five-fingered borrowing (while Doug still lost two cameras, this saved him at least once in Tibet). The material was machine washable and uncreasable (a lot of our washing facilities were buckets without an iron in sight, so robust fabric was essential). We insisted on trousers have a casual fit, because the regular tight-fitting tux would be no good for hiking or jumping on moving trains. We each also had an extra jacket, trousers, and shirt from some rather less fancy tuxedos we already owned. They proved useful in really filthy situations, like plowing the rice paddies in Vietnam or napping on the floor in an Indian train station (we never removed the tuxedos apart from showers and sleeping). Did you get along well during the entire trip, or were there shouting matches? Heath: The best one was when Doug picked up his handbag and…" Doug: Starting again are you? Heath: In sincerity, it never got to shouting matches. While we had a few small altercations, we only had one time when it came close. But we took time out, had a rather talk show styled heart-to-heart, and made our way through it. This happened in India, where among other things, the heat seemed to compound any tensions we were already feeling. Doug: We went from knowing each other for a short time in a relatively stress-free environment to suddenly being live-together buddies for every minute of the day and under quite challenging conditions. Of course we had occasional differences. Part of your trip was dedicated to charity deeds. Did you have one favorite charitable experience? Doug: The charity thing started as a small part of the trip, but by the end it had completely changed us and because part of our "raison d'etre" (reason for being). Heath: My personal favorite was a photo shoot for a charity along our trip. I can't give details, as the charity is not meant to get publicity because the local government would shut it down, but this charity saves lives and by doing the photo shoot I was able to help them document their work. This in turn allowed them to privately get more support. Sadly, the subject we ended up shooting died five days afterwards. Doug: My favorite charitable experience was with the Dao hill tribe in the mountains of northern Vietnam. We bought a bunch of fresh produce and tracked down our contact on a small dirt road about 20 kilometers away from the town of Sapa. Through the course of the next few days, we shaved and ploughed the rice paddies, weeded corn crops, and built a wall—all while wearing tuxedos. It was quite a surreal experience. At the end we brought a few of the local tribal women to tears when we donated fertilizer for this year's crop. In return they made us honorable tribe members. Did you get sick of blogging as you went? Heath: I have a love-hate relationship with blogging. I love the record of what I've done, but sometimes I feel like I don't have the energy to create that record. On the technical side, making frequent updates to the web site was one of the hardest things to maintain. We had a long way to travel in a relatively short amount of time, many things to experience, charitable organizations to search out, and deeds to accomplish. So after a hard day's slog while other travelers would kick their feet up and have a beer, we had to edit videos, resize and caption photos, and write blogs—as well as make time for partying with locals. Doug: The one huge motivator of blogging is we started to develop an ethos (coming from Heath's sadistic side) that any time anything went badly we would say, "Never mind, think how good this will be as a blog entry." I used this to great solace when my cameras got stolen. Blogging also made us consciously aware of whether we were creating the best adventure possible, because we had to consider whether this was the kind of trip people back home would wish they could be a part of. If the answer was no, then we needed to find activities to improve both our trip and our blog. Some of the clips on your YouTube page are getting tons of views (like, naturally, the ass tattoo). Do you have a favorite video? A least favorite one? Heath: It does appear that my buttocks have featured prominently in the most popular videos. Unfortunately I am straight, and I'm not sure it's the female fan base I won over. My favorite video is probably Indian wrestling. I sourced out a wrestling gym in the slums, and seeing this video reminds me how much getting involved can make other people happy. Time after time I took a beating, but again, the video reminds me of my Britishness, as each time I was knocked down, I simply got up and tried again. Doug probably hates this video as I'm semi-naked for most of it. Doug: I was always the one encouraging the more sensible, documentary-type videos. Sure, they got less hits but they usually meant I didn't have to edit naked video of Heath. I think the northern Vietnam segment was one of my favorites. Is there anything that surprised you about the trip? Anything you regret? Heath: I've never viewed myself as a particularly charity-focused person. I don't think I'll ever be a complete charity guy, but Doug got me into combining my lifestyle with a bit of charity. Whilst I may have decided how I was prepared to support charity, without Doug's input I'm not sure I would have considered it at all. Now I'm addicted and I'll do more, with no more lame excuses about being busy! I've also learned to consider what's really important in life. While in rich countries we are all too quick to compare ourselves to someone who's got more than us, but it's really hard to care about such things after you've done a photo shoot with someone who died five days later of an entirely preventable disease. Against this, I have little to complain about. Doug: I learned to be more perceptive of how my actions affect others and how to keep things peaceful by controlling how I react to things. While Heath drove me crazy at times, he brought an inspiring energy to the trip with his desire to make every day a new adventure. When times were rough, he often shined the brightest, which is a great trait to have on a long trip. Any regrets? I lost two cameras within a month, which was a little depressing. Overall though, it's a time I'll never forget. Tomorrow, if you could go back to one place on your trip, which one would it be? Heath: We both agree it's Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is minimally touristy and you can party on the weekend in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs aplenty (not to mention the fantastic beer)—then less than three hours away, you can be riding horses with the nomads. While Pakistan possibly had the most friendly people, the Kyrgyz hospitality is hard to beat, and it's the people that make a place. Kyrgyzstan is a predominantly Muslim country, but it follows a liberal form of Islam which is very compatible with Western cultures (e.g., you do see women on the street, and everybody is allowed to party and set their own belief systems). Any travel plans in the near future, or are you staying in one place for a while? Heath: Right now I need to sort my life out, but in the back of my mind I am trying to think of other ways to combine adventure and charity in a bid to make the world a little nicer. Not sure what it is yet, but it could be anything from "Clowns Across Russia" to "Cowboys Jigging With the World" or even "Superheroes Rescuing Humanity." Whatever it is will benefit from the learning experience of Tuxedo Travels. Doug: I'm happy to take a break before any serious new planning, but a few friends said they'd like to do mini Tuxedo Travels with or without me sometime. This gave me an idea that I might pursue—create a registered charity on a more streamlined web site, where anyone can apply to use a portion of funds for various causes and then document their tuxedo-clad adventures, however long the trip. Almost like a well dressed cadre of "Ambassadors of the World." Ultimately, we believe many people would like to spend a little time giving something back to the places they travel. Even if you can't spend a lot of time or money, when many people help a little it's amazing the overall affect you can have. Thanks, guys! Let us know when you're planning the next trip. We might just ask to come along.
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