Fish Out of Water – James Bushell
The first time FishHead tries to arrange an interview with entrepreneur-cum-adventurer James Bushell, the date must be postponed – he’s climbing Everest. “I’d always really wanted to do Everest,” he says after returning to his home in Thailand. “We had one day that was a little bit dodgy: rain, thunder, lightning, avalanches everywhere … apart from that it was just fantastic. Our last few days were above the clouds and we’d perfect weather to look over Everest.”
Bushell lives in Dan Chang, a small village three hours north of Bangkok. It is “pretty rural”, Bushell admits: he lives on 1.6 hectares of land next to a sugar-cane field. There are rice paddies further down the road. Meat and vegetables are bought at open-air markets, and although there are flies everywhere “on the meat and stuff”, he is philosophical. “You get used to it.”
Bushell has been based in Dan Chang for over three years now, building and managing his vineyard, Global Grapes, with his partners. Run by local workers, this “experimental vineyard” produces table grapes using innovative trellis and watering systems. There is also a strong social ethos. “Most of the products [grown in the region] are sugar and rice. The farmers get a certain amount of money and then the big companies release it when they want. We thought it would be more beneficial for them to have a perishable good so they’re in control of price ranges.”
A Wellingtonian born and bred, Bushell left the capital in 2003 in the pursuit of travel and further education. An experienced traveller, his adventurous streak is not only evident in the recent Everest expedition. Between tertiary study at Otago University, where he majored in psychology, and beginning Global Grapes, Bushell spent nine months exploring Southeast Asia.
With friends and an old jeep, a remnant from the Vietnam War, he travelled Vietnam; the group later explored Laos by motorbike and, in a small northern village, befriended the head of the local militia. “I really wanted to go into the bush, so he said he’d show us and we went hunting … We brought in some rice but everything else we lived off the land, we slept on banana leaves, and he showed us the plants we could and couldn’t eat.”
Bushell has travelled Asia widely, both then and since, but Thailand, and Dan Chang, have been his mainstay. He says it took a while to be accepted by the locals and he worked hard to show that he was there to help the community, not take their resources. “One of the greatest compliments [I’ve received] was from one of the ladies saying, we think of you as a Thai person and not a falung (foreigner).”
Part of this work included opening a school for underprivileged children. Financed by Bushell, it ran for a year with a roll of 200. Social values were at the core here, too. “We were trying to say that no matter what background you’re from, if you’re educated you can succeed in life.”
Bushell will return to Wellington by the end of the year. The aim is by December: “I haven’t had a Christmas at home for a long time.” The school, which required Bushell’s constant attention, closed three months ago as he began preparing for his departure, but work on the vineyard will continue without him. “These days I’m not really needed,” says Bushell, “I just sort of get in the way.”
While he looks forward to becoming reacquainted with the capital’s cafés and bars – Wellington’s “little niches” – the return will mark the next step in another adventure: Bushell’s new business venture, POPin, which proposes real-time networking between businesses and consumers. He plans to stay in his home town for the next stretch but, if POPin proves successful, may well head off again in another 12 months. The future is not entirely clear: “I just take it as it comes.”
[Photo caption: James Bushell, with local guides, on his Everest expedition.]