GALANGAL // SPAIN

5 CITIES in 7 days [Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Córdoba, & Toledo]

I'm Joel MalO...

Born and raised in the heart of Barcelona. I carry with me everywhere I go the smell of the Mediterranean sea, the beach, the palm trees, the narrow alleys of the Gothic neighbourhood, the smell of fried fish from the Boqueria market. I love my city, and the more I travel the more I realise what an amazing city it is!

I spent most of my life in Barcelona but always traveling at least one month per year. I lived in many cities, from London when I was a teenager to Rome as an industrial engineering student. And in more exotic ones when I started to travel for work, producing country reports that would be published in international media. I had the immense luck of living in countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Indonesia or Philippines, getting deep to the roots of each society and culture. Food and travel are obviously my passions! I'm a frustrated chef. I love cooking and eating and I would've loved to be a chef (maybe one day). Food is culture, adventure, science, history and happiness. It's the perfect connector. And traveling is what keeps my need of adventure and exploration alive. I need change and movement in my life. I love being a foreigner! Traveling is not only a passion is a necessity.

What big plans do you have for yourself in the upcoming years?

My biggest plan is to create a family with my wife Fatima. That's THE plan! Everything else looks very small compared to that. On the work side, my dream is to make Galangal a global company, where we can provide unique experiences based on our own ones across the globe. I want to provide curated trips and routes that help understand, taste! the roots of each destination, each culture. And on a sustainable way. That's very important for me and very challenging most of the times. I want people to identify themselves with Galangal as the company that think as them, their travel partner. Not merely a destination provider but a design company that can create anything they think of based on our own travel experiences. An innovative company that will always think ahead to provide something no one has thought before.

A note from fatima:

Joel is probably the most decided person I know, he has a kind of security in himself that I deeply admire. He does not need approval or validation from outside, if he believes deeply in something there are very few things that might stop him. That's how he started this business: a dream that became an idea, that became a business. He is driven and creative, and he is set in providing a top-quality product, he has always been like that, his main driver has always been being the best, offering the best product, not so much about how much he makes out of it. His most important KPI is the quality he offers each one of his clients. He has this burning desire to be and offer something different, I believe that is the rebel in him. He needs to feel that what he is doing has something very different in it.

8mm Footage.

Top 3 favorite memories from your Spain trip with us?

The dinner at cañete in barcelona with my wife Fatima, my mum and my best friend Ivan. it was nice to share all that amazing food and drinks at our favorite place with my intimate people. the flamenco night at Casa de la Guitarra in Seville, what an experience! sharing with you the intense energy of flamenco, right in front of us, was incredible. i saw your faces and i was thinking: 'if for me, that i've seen it more times, makes me goose bumps, how they must be feeling it!'. last but not least, our last night together, including the 'esto es vida' tattoo moment and the dinner at La Antigua Abaceria San Lorenzo. It was truly incredible for me that you get a tattoo with my handwriting! At the dinner, we shared a lot of personal thoughts and managed to get to know each other better, it was very nice.

How would you like to see the world differently in your lifetime?

There are so many things we should address but perhaps the most critical for me is sustainability. i'd like to see a world without pollution powered by renewable energies. a world where technology is used to achieve sustainability. a world where we understand the importance to preserve and respect nature and all animal species.

While we were in Spain we sat down with you and your mom in her home. Why do you feel this was important?

That was a moment when I've not only opened the doors of my house but the doors to my personal life. It was important to understand me as a person and which are my roots. I have a strong influence from my mum. We have a very close relationship. I've spent most of my life with her and I've a lot from her. I think you had the opportunity to see both of us together and that helped you make a more clear definition of who am I. You can't understand who am I without knowing my mum. She always encouraged me to travel and to do what I feel more than what I think. To follow always my heart, my intuition. And to enjoy life as much as possible. And I'm into it! Food and travel are my passions, and both come definitely from my mum's influence.

How often do you get to unplug from social?

Quite often! i need to connect regularly with myself through reading, music or sport. we have so much input from everything around us that, at least for me, is very important to be able to disconnect. it might be a couple of hours or days or (if i'm lucky!) weeks, but these short periods of disconnection help me a lot to charge up and come back with more energy and ideas. @galangalroots

Most challenging part of running a business?

Honestly, pretty much every single thing is challenging. The pressure you put yourself on your shoulders to make it better every day, the decisions you take most of the times on your own and the uncertainty that you feel many times. Even if you have a great staff you wake up everyday knowing that everything depends on you, it's also difficult to disconnect, you're all the time under pressure to keep everything moving and growing. But it's also nice! the rewards are incredible and i could not have a life where i don't have any challenge, it makes me feel alive.

Share with us one client review that stood out most to you and why it made your heart happy.

We had a family of 9 trip request for, as they said, 'the trip of their lives'. Imagine the pressure! we planned an amazing trip through germany and switzerland. when they got back they said they had indeed the trip of their lives, they loved the hotels we selected and the adventure activities they shared together. father, sons and sons-in-law shared unforgettable moments they could not possibly planned by themselves. they thanked us for creating such amazing itinerary where everything went perfect as planned and where they had time for themselves to enjoy every place as a family. it made us so happy to see that we managed to create such important trip for them, unforgettable experiences shared as a family. it was not only about sightseeing, it was more about creating those unique moments and we nailed it! that is priceless for us, precisely why we do our job with such passion, to help people experience those once-in-a-lifetime moments.

Top 3 favorite songs too listen to when you travel:

suzanne (leonard cohen). society (eddie vedder). heroes (david bowie)

Why did you choose to work with Steph Grant Studios and would you want to work with us again?

When you work with someone, being a person or a company, for me is important that we're like-minded. That I feel we're connected. That we think the same way and understand each other. This is crucial for me to achieve great results. If we have this type of connection I'm sure we will make great things together. And I felt this connection instantly with Steph. And I confirmed this feeling while travelling with her. I consider her a friend already, more than a business partner. Needless to say I'll work with her again anytime! I'm positive we will work together in the future in many more projects. Photographer: Steph Grant // Videographer: EJ McCartney

“Food is culture, adventure, science, history and happiness. It’s the perfect connector. And traveling is what keeps my need of adventure and exploration alive.”

— JOEL MALO