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  • 5 shows to watch if you like Your Friends and Neighbors

    Your Friends and Neighbors represents Jon Hamm’s return to the brooding, troubled Don Draper character he played in Mad Men. That career-defining role led to plenty of others for the usually comedic actor, and his role of Andrew “Coop” Cooper in this new Apple TV+ series has a similar swagger about him. Coop seemingly has everything a man could want: a beautiful wife, a luxurious home, two teenage children, good friends, and a fulfilling job. That is, until everything comes crashing down. With no job, wife, or money, Coop resorts to becoming his own warped version of Peter Pan: stealing from his wealthy friends to keep up appearances. 

    The Apple TV+ drama, which premieres its first two episodes on April 11, 2025, will run for nine episodes. Already renewed for a second season, you’ll only get one episode per week thereafter, and the story will be over before you know it. So, what can you watch between episodes and after? Watch these five shows if you like Your Friends and Neighbors.

    Mad Men (2007-2015)

    If you love Your Friends and Neighbors, which is largely centered around Hamm’s character, you’ll appreciate Mad Men. Even if you have already watched the period drama, it has been a decade since it ended and 18 years since it began. Relive the story of Don Draper, a brilliant yet troubled ad man working for a prestigious advertising agency during the height of the industry in the 1950s and 1960s. Don has a particular knack for creating campaigns and delivering pitches that tell stories, drawing people into his every word. But beneath the facade, there’s a lot of hurt.

    Along with Hamm’s two characters sharing similar dark traits, Mad Men has a similar theme of money not buying happiness, power and wealth becoming all-consuming, and the descent of a protagonist on a dark path. The two shows follow very different premises, but there’s some odd trauma bonding between them.

    Stream Mad Men on AMC+. 

    Dexter (2006-2013)

    If you appreciate Coop’s inner monologue in Your Friends and Neighbors, you’ll love the same style in Dexter. The Showtime crime drama is about a vigilante serial killer whose dark side involves hunting killers, plunging a knife through their chests, dismembering their bodies, and dumping them into the ocean. Dexter then returns to his seemingly normal life. It’s a far cry from Coop’s less jarring activities, which involve the theft and resale of his friends’ goods.

    The two shows are framed by these inner monologues as the men observe and recognize the metaphorical masks people wear in the real world. Both shows justify their egregious actions in a way that oddly makes you root for them. Just be prepared that while Dexter is one of the best shows of this generation, it also has one of the worst series finales of all time. Thankfully, a limited series revival, a prequel series, and an upcoming sequel series all strive to correct this.

    Stream Dexter on Netflix. 

    Shrinking (2023-)

    Shrinking similarly centers around a male protagonist who feels as though he has lost everything, his wife tragically dying versus divorce in Your Friends and Neighbors. Like Coop, Jimmy Laird (Jason Segel) tries to piece his life together but uses disastrous methods that eventually blow back on him.

    Both series are about a man coming to terms with his reality, falling off the deep end, and trying to bring his head back above water. While Shrinking takes a more humorous angle, there are also heartbreaking, deeply emotional moments, too, as Jimmy both harms those around him and works to heal.

    Stream Shrinking on Apple TV+. 

    Billions (2016-2023)

    Billions is a very different show from Your Friends and Neighbors. It’s a drama about a hedge fund manager who thrives in the grey area and the United States Attorney obsessed with taking him down. From a business perspective, Coop has this very same job, and he finds himself screwed over by his own boss, who fires him out of the blue.

    While the career aspect of Your Friends and Neighbors takes a back seat to the main plot, both shows dive into the dirty inner workings of the finance business and the greedy players who will do anything to get ahead.

    Stream Billions on Paramount+. 

    The White Lotus (2021-)

    Just recently wrapping up its third season and already renewed for a fourth, on the surface, The White Lotus has similarities to Your Friends and Neighbors in that both focus on the wealthy and elite. The families and individuals at the center of the plots have more money than they know what to do with but equally as much trauma. Once Coop begins his criminal behavior, he starts to uncover that his friends and neighbors who put on a mask of having it all together hide plenty of dark secrets. It’s much like the characters who appear in The White Lotus.

    Especially in The White Lotus season three, there’s a theme of spirituality and coming to terms with this reality of running from or masking pain with materialism. Plus, both shows have tremendous casts. This includes Jason Isaacs in season three of The White Lotus, whose character, much like Coop, effectively loses his job and tries desperately to hide the details from his family.

    Stream The White Lotus on Max. 

  • The White Lotus creator Mike White hints at season 4’s location

    The popular HBO series The White Lotus wrapped up its third season on Sunday night. Where will the location be for The White Lotus season 4?

    After the episode aired, HBO ran a special inside-the-episode interview with creator Mike White. With season 4 already renewed, White hinted that the show’s location might abandon the ocean for the first time in series history.

    “For the fourth season, I want to get a little bit out of the crashing waves of rocks vernacular, but there’s always more room for more murders at the White Lotus hotels,” White said in the interview.

    The White Lotus locations so far have been Hawaii (season 1), Italy (season 2), and Thailand (season 3).

    HBO EVP Francesca Orsi told Deadline in February that a European location was the leading candidate for season 4.

    While White might leave the ocean for the fourth season, don’t expect him to brave the cold anytime soon.

    “I feel confident we’ll never do a season in the cold,” White Lotus EP David Bernad told Bill Simmons when asked about doing a season revolving around skiing. “Mike’s not built for it. He’s a California guy. He’s not built for the cold. Never say never, but I would be surprised.”

    The White Lotus season 3 finale garnered 6.2 million U.S. cross-platform viewers, per a Warner Bros. Discovery press release. This marked the third consecutive week of record-breaking viewership highs for the series. The season 3 finale outperformed the season 2 finale (4.1 million U.S. viewers) by 51%.

    Stream all episodes of The White Lotus on Max.

  • The White Lotus season 3 finale, explained

    Well, that was something. The White Lotus concluded its third season with a supersized episode that tied up loose ends, terminated some characters’ journeys, and sent others on to a new beginning. Set in Thailand, season 3 features an all-star cast and follows a group of characters staying at a luxury resort while dealing with personal issues, self-discovery, childhood trauma, and regret against the country’s spiritual and religious background.

    Although it remains one of the best shows on HBO, Season 3 of The White Lotus was more divisive than previous seasons — it was also longer, with eight episodes. However, it brought things to a satisfying conclusion in the final episode, which, like previous offerings from writer and director Mike White, featured the perfect blend of bittersweet losses for some characters and satisfying victories for others. Here is a full breakdown of what happened during the final episode.

    What is The White Lotus season 3 about?

    Three ladies dressed for summer walking in The White Lotus season 3.
    HBO

    As previously mentioned, season 3 of The White Lotus is set in Thailand at the titular luxury resort and follows several characters during their week-long stay. The Ratliff family finds itself on a journey of self-discovery as the patriarch, Timothy (Jason Isaacs), finds out he’s about to lose his fortune and possibly end up in prison. Meanwhile, three lifelong friends — Laurie (Carrie Coon), Kate (Leslie Bibb), and Jaclyn (Michelle Monaghan) — go on vacation to reconnect but soon find themselves at each other’s throats. The tortured Rick (Walton Goggins) travels to Thailand seeking closure for his childhood trauma, accompanied by his doting and much younger girlfriend, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood).

    Elsewhere, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), the spa manager introduced in Season 1, goes to Thailand as part of an exchange program only to meet Greg (Jon Gries), the widower of the late Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge), who is seemingly behind her death in Season 2. Finally, the woefully out-of-his-league guard Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) tries to climb the ladder at the hotel while wooing health mentor Mook (Lalisa Manobal).

    What happens in episode 8 of The White Lotus?

    Timothy Ratliff holding his unconscious son Lochlan in The White Lotus.
    HBO

    Throughout the season, Timothy has been spiraling down after learning of his impending financial ruin. Realizing his family is utterly incapable of living without the wealth and privilege he has gotten them used to, Timothy toys with the idea of killing them, first with a gun he stole from Gaitok and then with a supposed poisonous fruit. Episode 8 sees him actually go forward with the plan after learning that his daughter, Piper (Sarah Catherine Hook), is not staying in Thailand at a meditation center because she is also too attached to her privileged lifestyle. Only his youngest son, Lochlan (Sam Nivola), seems willing to live without money.

    Thus, Timothy prepares a batch of piña coladas laced with the seeds from the poisonous fruit. Timothy attempts to poison his wife, Victoria (Parker Posey), and their two oldest children while sparing Lochlan. However, he backs out at the last minute, but leaves the poisonous seeds in the blender. The next morning, Lochlan prepares a protein shake in the same blender, collapses by the pool, and seemingly dies. When Timothy finds him, he mourns beside his unconscious body, only for Lochlan to wake up. On their way out of the resort, the family finally learns of their impending ruin, with Timothy drawing a hopeful smile while looking at the ocean.

    The relationship between Laurie, Kate, and Jaclyn reaches a boiling point in previous episodes after Kate tells Laurie that Jaclyn slept with Valentin (Arnas Fedaravicius), a health mentor who had been flirting with Laurie. As Laurie acts out, both Kate and Jaclyn try to make up with her. During their last dinner, Laurie breaks down and confesses that she has been looking for her life’s meaning, only to realize that it’s not love, work, or religion that provides it, but time itself. The three make up, reaffirming their friendship.

    Belinda and her son, Zion (Nicholas Duvernay), meet with Greg, who had previously offered to buy Belinda’s silence with $100,000. However, Zion counters and asks for $5 million, which Greg eventually agrees to. Now a wealthy woman, Belinda and Zion leave Thailand the following day, while Greg continues with his life without “getting it,” as Jennifer Coolidge had previously hoped for.

    Rick’s story sees him go to Thailand to confront Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn), the hotel’s owner and the man who he believes killed his father. Rick is unable to kill him and instead just pushes him to the floor, returning to Chelsea as a seemingly changed man, ready to turn a new leaf. Things get more complicated when Jim and his wife, Sritala (Lek Patravadi), go to the hotel and Jim confronts Rick again, taunting him about his plot and insulting his mother.

    An increasingly unhinged Rick steals Jim’s gun and shoots him twice, killing him, only for a crying Sritala to reveal that Jim was actually Rick’s father. A shootout ensues between Rick and Jim’s bodyguards, whom he successfully kills, but not before Chelsea is caught in the crossfire and dies. A regretful Rick carries her lifeless body, only to be shot in the back by Gaitok on Sritala’s orders. Rick dies with a gentle smile on his face, and Gaitok becomes Sritala’s new bodyguard.

    What’s next for The White Lotus?

    A woman sits at a resort with a floral dress and sunglasses gesticulating with her arms in The White Lotus season 3.
    Fabio Lovino / HBO

    The White Lotus is a big success for HBO, dominating awards season and earning stronger ratings with each new entry. Logically, a fourth season has already been greenlit, with Mike White hinting he’d like to do an all-star chapter with the show’s most famous characters.

    Are we possibly in for a season where Parker Posey’s Lorazepam-filled Victoria interacts with Aubrey Plaza’s cynical Harper? Might we see Carrie Coon’s Laurie have a heated debate with Connie Britton’s high-powered Nicole Mossbacher? Only time will tell. For now, we know a fourth season is on the way, but when and how it will arrive remains a mystery.

    All 8 episodes of The White Lotus Season 3 are now available on Max.

  • 8 details you might have missed in season 3 of ‘The White Lotus,’ so far

    Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon and Sam Nivola as Lochlan in season three, episode three of "The White Lotus."
    Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon and Sam Nivola as Lochlan in season three, episode three of “The White Lotus.”

    • Season three of the HBO anthology series “The White Lotus” is underway.
    • The Thailand-set season features various hidden details and references.
    • The opening credits theme song has been adjusted and a notable actor has a voice cameo in episode two.

    Warning: Spoilers ahead for season three of “The White Lotus.”

    Mike White’s Emmy-winning anthology series “The White Lotus” is back, and there are plenty of details that eagle-eyed fans might pick up on.

    Season three of “The White Lotus” follows a new batch of privileged guests checking into the titular luxury resort chain’s Thailand location. Similar to past seasons, the latest installment incorporates hidden details. While some of the Easter eggs and references throughout the season are not-so-subtle, others are more discreet.

    Here are all the details and nods featured in season three of “The White Lotus,” so far.

    The main title theme song has been modified to fit the season three setting.

    <div>8 details you might have missed in season 3 of 'The White Lotus,' so far</div>
    “The White Lotus” season three opening credits pay homage to Eastern spirituality.

    Each season’s main title theme is composed by Cristobal Tapia de Veer and takes inspiration from the location.

    Season one’s “Aloha!” paid homage to Hawaiian sounds and rhythms. Meanwhile, season two’s viral “Renaissance” ditched the tropics for a tune that transformed from an operatic build to a club banger with 25 million streams on Spotify.

    Season three’s “Enlightenment” draws from Thai sounds and harkens back to the season’s overall theme of Eastern spirituality.

    “The song changes every season, and it reflects the tone, mood, and the themes of the season,” Gabe Hilfer, the show’s music supervisor, told Rolling Stone. “The theme songs for the first two seasons were a little bit more related creatively, but they’re totally different songs. Season three is about spirituality, and it’s meant to be reflective of that.”

    The opening credits imagery hints at each character’s storyline.

    Imagery of a man stuck in a tree in the opening credits for season three of "The White Lotus."
    Imagery of a man stuck in a tree in the opening credits for season three of “The White Lotus.”

    Sarah Catherine Hook’s name is accompanied by artwork of a woman meditating, which is appropriate since her character, Piper Ratliff, is a religious studies major who is writing a thesis on Buddhism.

    Patrick Schwarzenegger, who plays the eldest — and horniest — Ratliff sibling named Saxon, is credited alongside an image of two men ogling at a topless woman.

    Ratliff patriarch Timothy (Jason Isaacs), who’s in some kind of financial peril, is depicted by a man stuck in a tree.

    Mook (Lalisa Manobal) and Gaitok’s (Tayme Thapthimthong) sweet flirtation is mirrored by a woman and a man smiling under an umbrella. But the imagery for Thapthimthong’s title card — a man trying to tame a vicious tiger — alludes to Gaitok’s work struggles this season.

    On their way to the resort, the Ratliff siblings mimic the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” imagery.

    Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon, Sarah Catherine Hook as Piper, and Sam Nivola as Lochlan in season three, episode one of "The White Lotus."
    Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon, Sarah Catherine Hook as Piper, and Sam Nivola as Lochlan in season three, episode one of “The White Lotus.”

    As the Ratliff family travels via boat to the White Lotus resort with fellow guests, siblings Saxon, Piper, and Lochlan (Sam Nivola) sit on a bench and unintentionally reference the old proverb “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” which is usually symbolized by three monkeys in different poses.

    Saxon’s sunglasses cover his eyes (see no evil), Piper wears headphones over her ears (hear no evil), and Lochlan’s mouth is covered as he drinks from a bottle (speak no evil).

    Season three certainly hasn’t been subtle with the monkey symbolism. Time reported that there are more than 140 monkey statues sprinkled throughout Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, one of the filming locations. These statues and the monkeys that the cameras linger on between scenes reflect the mischief and hijinks taking place at the resort.

    Patrick Schwarzenegger’s character, Saxon Ratliff, wears a $23,000 watch throughout the season.

    Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon in season three, episode two of "The White Lotus."
    Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxon in season three, episode two of “The White Lotus.”

    Saxon is from a wealthy family and his attire and accessories reflect that. In the show, he’s seen wearing the Hublot Big Bang Unico Black Magic 44mm watch, which retails for $23,000.

    “Survivor” cast members Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreaux have cameos as resort guests in the season premiere.

    Carl Boudreaux and Natalie Cole in season three, episode one of "The White Lotus."
    Carl Boudreaux and Natalie Cole in season three, episode one of “The White Lotus.”

    Belinda sees them while dining and waves, happy to encounter other Black people at the resort who aren’t staff.

    The husband-and-wife duo is played by Carl Boudreaux and Natalie Cole, both of whom competed against “The White Lotus” creator, writer, and director Mike White in the reality TV show “Survivor: David vs. Goliath.”

    “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Ke Huy Quan has a voice cameo in episode two.

    Ke Huy Quan at the world premiere of Netflix's "The Electric State" in February 2024.
    Ke Huy Quan at the world premiere of Netflix’s “The Electric State” in February 2024.

    Ke Huy Quan told Entertainment Tonight that he’s a big fan of the show and said yes right away when he was asked to be part of season three.

    The Oscar-winning actor’s character Kenneth Nguyen, aka Kenny, is first referenced during the season three premiere when Timothy Ratliff takes a call from a journalist at The Wall Street Journal who’s running a story about a shady business deal Kenny made. Timothy is connected because he did Kenny a favor and helped him set up a fund called Sho-Kel as part of some plan involving money laundering and bribery.

    Timothy finally gets a hold of Kenny near the end of episode two. Quan doesn’t appear in the episode, but his voice is clearly heard panicking on the other end of the line as they discuss why the Journal is investigating them.

    “Fuck me, I’m done,” Kenny tells Timothy, after explaining that 20 agents just raided his office and have his accounts, emails, and documents.

    Kenny continues ranting and says that a whistleblower in his office snitched on him to the media. Details about the business deal are sparse, but Kenny says that he never should have taken a position in Brunei, but the money was too good to pass up.

    Kenny also confirms that Timothy is “for sure” implicated.

    Chelsea getting bitten by a snake is foreshadowed by a moment in episode two.

    Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea in season three, episode two of "The White Lotus."
    Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea in season three, episode two of “The White Lotus.”

    In episode two, right before a masked man robs the hotel’s store, Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) asks an employee if she can look at a snake choker. Although Chelsea is unharmed, the near-death experience with the robber leaves her shaken.

    Then in episode three, she and her boyfriend Rick (Walton Goggins) attend a snake show. But Rick, who feels sympathetic toward the snakes, goes rogue and releases a bunch of them from their cages. As soon as Chelsea sees what Rick has done, she’s bit in the leg by a venomous snake and rushed to a hospital.

    Sam Rockwell, the real-life partner of season three star Leslie Bibb, has a surprise appearance in episode five.

    Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell in October 2024.
    Leslie Bibb and Sam Rockwell in October.

    Rockwell and Bibb, who plays Kate, have been dating in real life for nearly 18 years. They met at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood in 2007 and they went on their first date shortly after.

    “I think three weeks later, I was, like, ‘I love you so much,’” she told Rosie O’Donnell during an appearance on “The Rosie Show.”

    Bibb and Rockwell’s characters don’t overlap in “The White Lotus,” though.

    Rockwell makes his first appearance during episode five, as Rick’s old friend Frank, who meets up with him in Bangkok to do him a favor.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Bill Bensley designed Thailand’s real-life ‘White Lotus’ hotel and doubts he could have pulled it off in the US

    Bill Bensley posing and wearing a bright yellow shirt.
    Bill Bensley is the architect and interior designer behind three hotels featured in “The White Lotus” season 3.

    • Bill Bensley, now 65, left the US and moved to Asia shortly after graduation.
    • The architect and designer has built over 200 hotels, including three featured in the latest season of “The White Lotus.”
    • Bensley says he’s unsure he could have built a comparable portfolio back in the US.

    Some careers are shaped by chance. For Bill Bensley, it all started on graduation day in 1984, when a classmate mentioned he was moving to Singapore.

    “It sounded so exotic, I asked if I could go too,” he told Business Insider.

    That spontaneous decision launched a forty-year architecture career in which Bensley has built over 200 hotels in 30 countries. That includes nine projects for Four Seasons hotels, one of which — Four Seasons Koh Samui — is featured in the third season of the massively popular HBO series “The White Lotus.”

    CoCoRum at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui
    CoCoRum, a bar at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, was designed by Bensley.

    The odder, the better

    Bensley’s design mantra is simple: “The odder, the better.”

    His designs are known for being whimsical, theatrical, and deeply immersive.

    At Cambodia’s Shinta Mani Wild — a jungle retreat that opened in 2019 — Bensley and his team installed a 400-meter zipline over the jungle that transports guests to luxury tents.

    At the InterContinental Khao Yai in Thailand, about 120 miles northeast of Bangkok, his team turned abandoned train carriages into hotel suites.

    Zipline transports guests to the Shinta Mani Wild jungle retreat in Cambodia.
    Bensley designed a zipline to transport guests to the Shinta Mani Wild jungle retreat in Cambodia.

    From farm to fame

    Bensley was born in California and grew up on a small farm, raising bees, quails, and chickens and growing vegetables and mushrooms. His family spent weekends traveling in a trailer, with summer trips turning into cross-country adventures.

    “I was lucky to learn how to survive in the wild,” he says. “That shaped everything I do.”

    Bensley earned a master’s in landscape architecture from California State Polytechnic University, followed by a degree in urban design from Harvard. On his graduation day in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he didn’t have a job lined up. “I couldn’t even fathom a career in hospitality design back then,” he said.

    But he followed his classmate’s advice and traveled to Asia.

    Bill Bensley in Indonesia in the 1980s
    Bill Bensley was in Indonesia in 1985, the year after he moved to Asia.

    Competition was scarce

    Soon after arriving in Singapore, Bensley landed a job with an American landscape architecture firm. His first major project was the Bali Hyatt.

    At 29, he set up Bensley Studio in a Bangkok parking garage. “In 1989, there were not very many landscape architects in town,” he said.

    Bill Bensley working on architectural plans.
    Bensley set up his first studio in a Bangkok parking garage, now, he runs a team.

    His portfolio expanded quickly, and after a few years, Bensley received an offer to design a resort in Hawaii. “The Four Seasons Hualalai was my breakthrough project on the Big Island of Hawaii,” he said. Construction for the resort on the Kona-Kohala coast began in 1993.

    In 2000, Bensley’s company landed another commission with the company, this time to build Four Seasons Koh Samui. The site was covered with hundreds of coconut trees, some over 50 years old. “When the hotel was finished, all 856 trees were still standing,” he said.

    Today, that resort, featuring villas with private pools nestled into the tropical jungle overlooking the Gulf of Thailand, is in the spotlight as one of the backdrops for the third season of HBO’s “The White Lotus.”

    He has high praise for the show’s look: “Some of the garden cinematography is out of this world and looks even better than real life,” he said.

    Monkeys used to harvest coconuts on the site where the resort now stands.

    “So the monkey statues you see in ‘The White Lotus’ are my designs that pay homage to the agricultural history of the island,” he said.

    In 2023, Mike White, the writer and director of “The White Lotus,” spent time in Thailand, scouting locations and studying Thai culture. Bensley says they became friends.

    Production booked the resort out for two months last year for filming.

    “Mike has now filmed at three of my hotels in Southern Thailand,” Bensley said, referencing the Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort and Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas.

    Monkey statues at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui
    Bensley shared some backstory about the monkeys at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, which are featured in the latest season of “The White Lotus.”

    Designs inspired by Asia

    Bensley says his travels across Asia — from Thailand to Cambodia and Indonesia — have shaped his designs.

    “Today, I think I understand Southeast Asia really well,” Bensley said. He said that learning to speak Thai and Indonesian has helped him navigate the different cultures and communicate his design vision more effectively.

    Environment plays a big role, too. Tropical locations give designers the opportunity to blur the boundary between natural landscape and architecture, said Alex Yuen, a lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

    “Outside of Hawaii, where he has worked, there are not many locations in the States that would match the environment that he thrives in,” Yuen told BI.

    Cost is also a factor.

    “Given the amount of ornaments and details found in the designs, you simply will not get that sort of deal if one were to develop properties in the US,” Yuen said.

    Bensley isn’t sure he could have built a portfolio comparable to what he has amassed in Asia if he had stayed in the US.

    “In my experience, working in the USA is so very much more restrictive and cost-focused,” Bensley said.

    Bill Bensley at home in Bangkok with his husband and five Jack Russells.
    Bensley lives in Bangkok with his husband and five Jack Russells.

    Not slowing down

    Bensley has no regrets about moving abroad. “I’m glad I made the bold move to work in Asia right after school,” he said. “I’m happy with the life I’ve built.”

    Despite his packed schedule, Bensley knows how to make time for the things he loves. He paints, tends to his garden, enjoys fishing, and loves to travel. He lives in Bangkok with Jirachai Rengthong, his partner of over 35 years, and five Jack Russells.

    He always travels with a sketchbook. “Sketching is the key to understanding architecture or any kind of space,” he said. “If you cannot sketch it, you are not understanding it. iPhones are useless as a learning tool.”

    Bensley, now 65, has no plans to leave Thailand or stop working. This year alone, he’s juggling over 10 new projects, with hotel openings spanning the UAE, China, Puerto Rico, Turkey, and India.

    “I am never going to retire, as I have the most interesting job in the world.”

    Read the original article on Business Insider