Hi! I’m Ramon Stoppelenburg, a writer, creative entrepreneur, humanitarian, digital pioneer, and all-around professional curious mind. You may know me from my Letmestayforaday project, my film theaters in Cambodia, my book, or from somewhere completely different.
I’ve worn many hats and lived many lives — from coordinating emergency earthquake relief in Indonesia to being shortlisted for NASA’s astronaut program. I’m also just a guy who once wanted to grow up to be an airplane passenger.
What was Letmestayforaday?
It was my bold and slightly insane idea to travel the world without money, purely depending on the hospitality of strangers I connected with through my website — long before Couchsurfing, Facebook, or Instagram. It ran (and I traveled) from 2001 to 2004, went viral before “viral” was a thing, and earned me the title of “Internet Personality of the Year” from the Sunday Times. UNESCO even designated it Digital Heritage later in 2017. And yes, I really did travel for free for almost four years.
How did Letmestayforaday.com actually work?
It started as a wild idea: travel the world on the kindness of strangers, without spending a cent. I asked for a meal, a drink, and a place to sleep in exchange for writing about the experience. I began with 70 offers from 64 countries. In the end, I received over 4,000 invitations from 72 nations. The blog reached 1.2 million hits a month. Sponsors offered laptops, cameras, flights, and even clothes—in exchange for visibility. All I had to do was show it could be done.
What was the best part?
It’s impossible to pick one. A week with the Inuit in northern Canada? Dinner in a black township in South Africa? Swimming in tidal waves in Norway or staying in an Australian frat house? The beauty was in the range of experiences — and the generosity of complete strangers.
Why did you stop?
It became intense. The more I traveled, the more I became the product. I would be invited by people who were simply amazed they saw me on the news and the next thing they have me on their couch. My story belonged to the internet. Eventually, I had proven my point: the world is generous, and hospitality is still alive. It was time to return to being a person, not just a publicly owned project.
How did you catch the travel bug?
I was born in Jakarta, but when I was five, we moved (back) to a very quiet and rather dull Dutch village. My experience in the tropics and the fact that I knew the grass was greener elsewhere never left. My first solo trip at 17 — one week in Spain, crashing at strangers’ places, partying and meeting people — sealed the deal. I was hooked on the freedom of elsewhere and that planned one week became the first of many entire summers away.
What are you working on these days?
I split my time now between writing, consulting, creative entrepreneurship, and travel. I still ghostwrite books, edit stories, and help others tell theirs. I run Expedition Kilimanjaro (since 2008), and experiment with new ventures or help businesses wherever I land. I’m also working on a memoir, a novel, and non-fiction book — because some stories deserve more than just a blog post.
Why do you keep moving around the world?
Because staying in one place never taught me as much as being in motion. I’ve lived in the Netherlands, Cambodia, Georgia, Morocco, and Portugal — and returned to Cambodia again in 2025. Every place gave me something: a new language, a new cuisine, new ideas, or new reasons to believe that life should never be a routine.
I also have 5 different toothpaste flavors to choose from daily. Why settle for one for months!?
How did you end up in Cambodia?
After a few years back in the Netherlands, trying everything from massage therapy to bar management, I landed in Phnom Penh in 2009. I saw potential — and freedom. I spotted The Flicks movie house for sale, but I didn’t have the $10,000 needed. So I launched a crowdfunding campaign on my home-made website timetohelp.me (there were no fundraising platforms yet, back then!), raised that money in 15 days, and was able to take over the place. That was in 2011. The rest is indie film history.
What is the most favorite place (city or town) you have ever traveled to and why?
Kugluktuk, a small Inuit town in the Canadian Arctic, absolutely stole my heart. I traveled there in 2002 during my Letmestayforaday journey, and it left an impression like no other place. It’s so remote, so isolated, and incredibly raw — where the tundra meets the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. The local Inuit community welcomed me with such unexpected warmth that I still think about it. Lacking fresh fruit, they get their vitamine C from muktuk (the skin and blubber of whales) and raw fish! The vastness, the quiet, the surreal beauty of the ice roads, and the deep calm of that landscape made me feel more alive than most big cities ever have. It was one of those rare places where time slows down and you suddenly understand how vast and humbling the world really is.
What’s your favorite place you’ve lived in?
It could have been Tbilisi, or Casablanca. Or even Lisbon. But I came back to Cambodia. Hands down. It gave me space to be so creative, has a great community of locals and foreigners to grow, and a much easier rhythm of life. Even after trying out Europe, I found myself drawn back. Phnom Penh may be a chaotic whirlwind not many people can understand, but it’s also where my creativity thrives — and where my cats thrive, too.
You mentioned your cat?
Yes! I traveled with Fifty Shady (2013), my adventurous Cambodian calico joined me in Georgia, Morocco, Portugal, The Netherlands and now — back to Cambodia. Her passport is thicker than most people’s. Recently she got a new sister, another Cambodian calico called Chickpea (2024).
What’s your background in writing?
I studied Journalism and Communication in the Netherlands, wrote travel columns and essays for Dutch newspapers, compiled a literary anthology, blogged before it was cool (1996), and published the bestselling travel book Letmestayforaday. My work has appeared in Columbus Magazine, WorldHum, Playboy, Going Places, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, and more. During the pandemic, I even launched an online literary journal called The Quiet Reader.
Did you always know you weren’t cut out for a 9-to-5 life?
Probably. Even while studying journalism, I wasn’t interested in the academic side. I ran parties, self-published a newspaper, and jumped online early. I liked building things—projects, platforms, communities. That drive led to Letmestayforaday.com, my first big experiment in living differently.
Do you speak other languages?
I speak Dutch and English fluently, and have studied French and Spanish. After living in Cambodia for over a decade, I also learned Khmer. It’s never too late to pick up a new language, especially when you’re living it daily.
What kind of music do you like?
I’m a Gen X kid who grew up with my brother’s music out loud: Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, and Michael Jackson. Later, I fell in love with absolutely amazing 90s Eurodance, which still gets me moving. These days, I enjoy chill trip-hop like Portishead when I’m writing, and pretty much anything that fits the vibe of the moment. During the day, you’ll find me listening to Dutch NPO Radio 2, as Cambodia seriously lacks radio in general.
Favorite movies?
Field of Dreams is my all-time favorite. It’s about believing in something impossible — and building it anyway, which hits close to home. I also love Stand By Me, The Goonies, The Lion King, Cinema Paradiso, Catch Me If You Can, The Motorcycle Diaries and La La Land. I ran three art house movie theaters in Phnom Penh, so I’ve seen more movies than I can remember.
You coordinated earthquake aid?
Yes. After the 2018 earthquakes in Lombok, Indonesia, I rushed down there from Cambodia to help out in emergency relief efforts with a few friends. It was there when I realized that people in emergency situations were calling for help on various digital channels, so I set up an app for them to pin themselves and to track needs and coordinate aid delivery with local civilian volunteers, before the military forces discovered it and happily joined in (in came the helicopter food drops!). It was a very intense and deeply rewarding — showing me how far creativity and systems thinking can go in a crisis.
But you also seem to help out businesses, like hotels and restaurants in Portugal, Georgia, Sri Lanka and Cambodia? Tell me more.
Yes, that’s another hat I wear—turning struggling businesses into success stories. I step in when things aren’t working and deliver fast, practical solutions that actually move the needle.
Think of it as being a real-life Gordon Ramsay (seriously, Sri Lankan kitchen staff was really looking for cameras when I walked in) but with less yelling and more empathy. I’ve helped boutique hotels, restaurants, cafés, tour companies and online ventures all across Portugal, Georgia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka. I don’t do long reports or abstract strategy slides — I diagnose what’s wrong, build a plan, and help owners fix things fast.
For example, in Sri Lanka I helped transform a failing hotel restaurant into a busy, profitable hotspot within three months — revamping the entire kitchen, encouraging the previously numbed-down kitchen staff, rewriting the menu, redesigning the space, and launching a new bar that increased customer spend significantly. Owner happy, me happy! And I would move on again.
What is the one thing you regret?
Honestly? Not much. I’ve lived boldly, taken chances, and chased ideas most people wouldn’t dare write down. But if I had to pick something, it would be the relationships I let slip away — the people I didn’t chase when I should have, the times I chose movement over staying still with someone who mattered. (Also, maybe I should have invested in Bitcoin when I first heard about it in 2011.)