Our Team

Eilidh Crowley

Co-Founder

Born in Scotland, Eilidh moved to Australia when she was 11. After finishing high school there, she was off straight away, buying a campervan and beginning a year-long trip around Europe before her final school results were even out. After a bit of time working in hotels in Melbourne, Port Douglas and Falls Creek, and a few more trips to various countries, Eilidh, together with Ben and two other friends, drove from Melbourne to Scotland, taking 331 days to do it. This was when both Eilidh and Ben’s interest for Central Asia was sparked, and their love affair with this little-known part of the world was begun.

Eilidh was 23 when she started organising and guiding tours in Central Asia, and since then has run tours to 14 countries. Her specialities include schmoozing with Turkmen officials and discovering abandoned buildings (preferably Soviet), and we can thank her for such places as Yangiabad and the Solar Furnace in Parkent.

Eilidh and Ben lived in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 2015 until 2019. They're often asked how it all begun - how does one start running tours to Central Asia? Well basically, they just moved there and did it. They loved the region, and over their 10+ year love affair with this bizarre corner of the world, have come to know it and understand it from a pretty unusual perspective.

When not on the road, Eilidh’s a pianist, drummer and percussionist, and loves playing jazz especially. She’s also been known to collect the worst postcards she can find from some of the most interesting places that exist.

Ben Johnson

Co-Owner

Originally from Perth, Australia, Ben has had the travel bug from a young age, starting from a school trip to Beijing and Tokyo. Ben then went and did a year long exchange in Taiwan, before going to university in Shanghai and ultimately traveling all over the world. After graduating with a Masters in Finance Ben got a corporate job, which lasted just under a year before the shackles were ripped off and he moved to Cambodia to escape what he calls “desk hell”.

Since then, he has ventured from the Galapagos to the Arctic and has worked as a guide in some of the world’s least visited regions, namely North Korea, Western China and Afghanistan, but also some of the world's most visited regions as well, such as bus tours all over Europe.

Ben is known as a language nerd, having studied Mandarin, Japanese, French, Russian, Arabic, Thai, Tagalog, Spanish and Korean, just to name a few. In his downtime he loves to spend hours cooking and eating foods he’s discovered across the globe.

Anderson Rowe

You'll find Anderson behind the lense of a camera, chowing down on a local delicacy or telling tall stories until the small hours of the morning. Originally from the Bay Area of California, Anderson has chosen to forgo a traditional education and instead hit the road. With a particular focus on Central Asian culture and history, Anderson revels in traditional art and showing people the colourful side of life. Most at home on an extended journey, he loves long trips and has had some amazing experiences. A welcome addition to the Saiga team, you'll see him in true Saiga fashion meandering around the Central Asian steppe and Karakum desert. If you're trying to choose which Saiga tour, to go on Anderson thinks Turkmenistan, Syria and Afghanistan are his favourites.