Andy Mac
Andrew Macpherson Joined: October 27th 2008
Logged in: September 9th 2009
Logged in: September 9th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Hello! Here’s my August news update from India then. Staying in Dharemsala, where I came back in July, I ended up attending a meditation course. I wanted to relax a bit after coming through Kashmir and doing some pretty intensive traveling. The course turned out to be really intense, you start your day at 4AM it lasted 10 days and it was completely silent. No distractions your not allowed books or music etc,. nothing to focus on except your meditation course. The technique is called Vipassana meditation and it basically takes the breathing techniques from Buddhist meditation and gives it a really scientific basis keeping it free from any religious sects. So you use the technique to examine your own breathing and then your own sensations (www.dhamma.org). Anyway the experience was really good, especially remaining silent ... read more
Hello! This could be the start of a routine here, maybe. July’s been a busy month over here; I’ve spent it in the North of India avoiding the worst of the heat whilst the plains and the South cool now the monsoon rains have arrived. The start of July I was in Manali saying goodbye to the last of the wedding folks going back home. As I mentioned last time I bumped into an old school friend (Tom) well we had great fun catching up, we rented these Enfield 350’s and went riding through the Himalayas on a couple of occasions. Pretty surreal really, talking about shenanigans at Balfron whilst sipping a chai at a roadside tea stall in the Kullu valley! Tom left for Nepal and I went North, the rough plan is to meet ... read more
Hi guys, I hope your all well! Been awhile but this seems as good a time as any for a little update on what I’m up to. I’ve been in India for 2 weeks now and I’m really enjoying it. I’d heard so much about what to expect - the massive culture shock, the sore stomachs, and the searing mid-summer heat - I’ve been very lucky so far I have to say I’ve managed to avoid all 3! This part of my trip has been much more like a holiday and I’ve been treating myself a bit more splashing out on the odd really nice meal. Since I’ve been travelling, I’ve made some really good friends, whom I’ve known from a few weeks to a few months. Other than Trevor who I bumped into in China ... read more
first of all, merry christmas. I'm in Laos at the moment and just had a fantastic christmas in Luang Prabang. The internet is really bad here which has been really nice actually because I've hardly spent anytime online I've been able just to get away from everything. I'm afriad I have no photos to put up, I'll tell you about that later, but i just wanted to copy and paste quickly, some stuff I had written down in my diary on Cambodia: ''Now I'll tell you about Cambodia. I spent 2 weeks there. I got the bus from Saigon up to Phnom- Penh which is the capital., a beautiful city in the centre with the royal palace and stuff but outside of that it is just so poor. It's the poorest country I've ever been to ... read more
its 18.31 and I'm already snuggly aboard the top bunk of my sleeper to Da Nang. It leaves at 19.00 and won't arrive till midday tomorrow. I've been dreading this journey, it's my second train journey in Vietnam - the first was awful! I got ripped off when buying my ticket from the Tourist Information place. I was sleeping 8 foot off the ground on what felt like a plank of wood literally a foot and a half from the ceiling. This time I booked my ticket myself for this one, no service charge and i'm in first class sleeper with a duvet. I've got my rations; a pack of biscuits, some sugary doughballs, a baguette ( I also have a 500ml bottle of pepsi that's been refilled with delicious honey). I have my Ipod, a ... read more
Hey! Update time again! I'm having a lovely relaxing day so it's quite nice to collect my thoughts of the last 10 days or so. Firstly I've met some interesting people so far. This evening an Irish guy checked into the dorm, and we got chatting for a couple of minutes and after him hearing my Scottish accent he said he did the West Highland Way earlier in the summer. I asked him if he went into the National Park centre in Balmaha (where I worked this summer), he shouted "No way, I remember you,.. you phoned up the Rowardennan Youth Hostel for me!" and yeh absolutely wild - I'm in Lijiang, a town in North West Yunnan Province and Im chatting to this Irish guy I’ve just met about his WHW trip and how he ... read more
Hi Guys, I hope your all well, and the weathers not as bad as it is here. That's right it's actaully raining here. Two nights ago I crossed the Tropic of Cancer on the overnight bus and it hasn't stopped raining since! It's been hard to catch up on news here apart from the stock markets in HK! so thanks for some of those updates; i head Andy Murray did well and Celtic got gubbed in the Champions League again! Since arriving in China the accomodation has been much better and cheaper. Single room with an ensuite last night worked out at 3.50, in HK I paid more for a grotty dorm. I wasn't ripped off, that's just how expensive land is in HK. Anyway I didn't mind as I was out sightseeing pretty much the ... read more
Hi everyone, sorry for the impersonalness of this, but I just don't have the time to write individual emails im afraid. I've only been gone 5 days now, but it seems so much longer! Arriving into Hong Kong reminded me so much of New York, I think the skyscrapers are the biggest parallel, but also this will probably be my biggest adventure since then. So far it's gone pretty smoothly with only a couple of hiccups. I've really enjoyed the sense of freedom, especially yesterday morning when I had no idea what I was going to do. I had thought about going to Macau, a former Portugese colony just 65km west of HK. But I hadn't had any luck in finding accomadation, there was practically nothing online. I had been recommended the San Va hostel, but ... read more
