A note from the founder
Hello. My name is Wafi.
I'm the founder of Habibi Lads, and a traveller before anything else.
Growing up queer in Yemeni-Indonesian culture, I spent years reading rooms and working out which version of myself each one wanted, even when I was travelling. So I started asking the opposite: do we have the spaces, the people, the moments where you don't have to explain yourself? Those became the whole point.
Been travelling to 25 countries, I've slept on couchsurfing sofas and in private villas, eaten at corner convenience stores and five-star hotels, gone from a holy shrine in Tehran to a Berlin club that didn't close until morning. Those worlds taught me there is no single right way to travel. Just the way that lets you feel like yourself.
Habibi Lads came from all of that, and from years working with international travellers at a small-group operator. So I built my own: small, intentional group trips across Asia, for queer men who want something personal, local, and real.
Back home, I'm part of a human rights film festival in Jakarta, which keeps sending me out to scout films and the places they come from.
About Habibi Lads
Habibi Lads is small group travel for queer men in Asia, founded by Wafi Abdullah. It trades under NADIR COLLECTIVE LTD, a UK private limited company registered in England and Wales.