Team
Passionate travel designers, dedicated to Thailand
A team of travel designers based in Thailand, bringing together local expertise, knowledge of heritage and a sense of detail to craft bespoke private journeys, cultural tours and immersive experiences — in Bangkok as in the country's most singular regions.
Our philosophy
Bespoke travel designers, creators of unique and singular experiences.
Passionate travel designers, we imagine and accompany entirely private experiences, crafted bespoke for curious and discerning travellers who wish to discover Thailand beyond its most familiar representations.
Our ambition is to create a privileged bond between each traveller and the heritage of Siam: its history, its cultures, its landscapes, its communities, its know-how and those more confidential places that reveal another reading of the country. Every itinerary is conceived as a gateway to a Thailand that is sensitive, complex and deeply embodied, where discovery is born as much from an understanding of places as from encounters and lived experiences.
Our journeys explore history, the arts, architecture, craftsmanship, gastronomy, the art of living, traditions, festivals and the great natural landscapes. They rely on documented storytelling, an intimate knowledge of the ground and particular attention to rhythm, encounters and the staging of each experience.
More than a succession of visits, we design journeys that give you Thailand to see, to understand and to feel, differently.
Founder · CEO · Chief Experience Designer
Eric Monteil
A French entrepreneur who has lived in Bangkok since 2011, Eric Monteil is the founder, managing director and Chief Experience Officer of Rock Around Siam. Beyond leading the agency, he personally imagines and designs its immersive cultural experiences, intended for discerning travellers who wish to discover Thailand differently or to deepen their understanding of the cultural heritage of Siam.
A local insider and passionate observer of Bangkok, Eric has moved, since his arrival in Thailand, within the world of contemporary art and cultures, notably through the Rock Around Asia gallery founded in 2011, then Art Consulting Asia, an interior-design agency opened in 2017. For more than fifteen years, he has walked, studied and gradually mapped Bangkok and many regions of the country, building an intimate knowledge of the ground, its heritage and those who bring it to life. From this exploration was born a singular approach to travel, founded on research, curation, a sense of rhythm, exacting production standards and the selection of encounters capable of giving meaning to the places one travels through. The ambition is simple: to ensure that heritage is not merely visited, but understood, contextualised and passed on.
This approach has its origin in an observation: despite its exceptional historical depth, Thailand is often approached through a relatively narrow repertoire of must-sees — the Grand Palace, the great temples, Chinatown or the floating markets — which offer only a glimpse of the country's cultural complexity. Bangkok, in particular, tells a far larger story. Its roots reach deep into the Ayutthaya of the 17th century, when the reign of Narai saw Siam intensify its relations with foreign powers, notably the France of Louis XIV, before Thonburi and then Rattanakosin successively shaped the capital we know today.
As the Covid-19 pandemic drew to a close, Eric decided to turn this conviction into an entrepreneurial project and founded Rock Around Bangkok in 2024. His ambition: to renew the way cultural visits are approached, by bringing greater historical depth, narrative coherence and meaning to the travel experience. Nearly two years of research, scouting and real-world testing then made it possible to build a first collection of thematic itineraries devoted to Bangkok — a capital as enigmatic as it is iconic, whose identity is inscribed in the successive legacy of four great kingdoms (Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, Thonburi and Rattanakosin) and of several centuries of Siamese history.
From Bangkok to Ayutthaya, and then from Kanchanaburi to the more confidential regions of the kingdom, this method was naturally destined to go beyond the limits of the capital. Rock Around Bangkok thus became Rock Around Siam, affirming a broader ambition: to reveal Thailand through the diversity of its territories, its communities, its arts and know-how, its natural heritage and its historical legacies, always favouring the depth of the narrative and the quality of the experience.
A graduate in physics and chemistry and holder of an Executive MBA obtained in France, Eric combines his entrepreneurial career with a pronounced taste for exploration. A lover of motorcycling and air sports, he finds in travel what has always guided his approach: to change perspective, the better to understand a territory.
Executive Director · Partner
Orapin Suwanmanee
Orapin Suwanmanee (Pam) places the promotion of Thai heritage at the heart of her commitment at Rock Around Siam. She oversees all operations in Thailand and ensures that every programme designed and delivered by the agency forms a singular journey, offering discerning international travellers a sensitive, historical and contextualised reading of the evolution of Siam — from the first kingdoms of Sukhothai to Rattanakosin, and on to the many faces of contemporary Bangkok.
With more than twenty years of experience in the field of architecture, Orapin combines a solid culture of project management, assured leadership and hands-on knowledge of the ground. This experience nourishes an approach resolutely turned towards itineraries away from conventional circuits and towards the search for meaningful experiences. She develops lasting collaborations with players in tourism and hospitality — DMCs, luxury hotels, fine-dining tables — as well as with those who bring experiences to life on the ground: guides, artisans, local communities, organisers of workshops and festivals, and operators of outdoor activities. This rigour in the choice of partners pursues a twofold objective: to contribute to a more virtuous local economy and to guarantee a level of service worthy of the expectations of a discerning international clientele.
Convinced that Thai cultural heritage remains insufficiently valued in relation to the depth and diversity of the Siamese legacy, Orapin makes this observation one of the driving forces of her commitment. Alongside Rock Around Siam, she thus helps bring about another way of discovering Thailand: more documented, more immersive and deeply rooted in the land, its history and those who bring it to life.
Private English-speaking guides
Private English-speaking guides at your side.
All our tours are private, with English-speaking support from start to finish. Regulated guiding is provided by licensed Thai guides, many of whom speak English: you thus benefit from a private English-speaking guide, in full compliance with Thai regulations.
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