Our People

Having a sundowner with friends and family whilst in Laikipia, Kenya. As the sun set near a watering hole, over 100 elephants came out of the trees to drink and play in the water. The best natural high you could ever experience. Amazing.

One of my fondest memories is of sitting in Piazza della Signoria, Florence whilst on holiday with my wife and kids, having lunch in a small open-air café.

Everything was perfect – the food, the wine, the language, the wine, the weather and the wine.

For our honeymoon, my wife & I went on safari in the Masai Mara. On the first night we were shown to our tent where we noticed a big lump under the covers of the bed. Starting to sweat about what type of creature had found its way into our tent, I grabbed a rock from outside before pulling back the bed covers to reveal… a hot water bottle!

I was sitting in a café bar in Banos, (below the Tungurahua volcano), Ecuador and asked the Jamaican gentleman playing the guitar to the customers if I could have a go. I took the guitar from him, cranked up the amplifier and hit my first power chord – simultaneously the whole town’s electricity supply went down and we were plunged in to complete darkness!

Out for a romantic dinner with my wife in Italy, and she decides to order our meal as she speaks a little Italian. It sounded really good to me, but the waiter responded (in English): “Sorry, we don’t have cannabis toppings on our pizzas”.

Coming from the city of Glasgow where the underground goes round in a circle – the subway system in Tokyo coupled with my terrible sense of direction was very challenging…and for some reason basic Japanese spoken in a lovely Weegie accent results in much laughter from anyone you try to ask for help!

My wife and I spent our honeymoon in Italy, touring the North, from Venice to Milan.

During our time in Venice, we were enjoying a romantic sunset on the small island of San Giorgio Maggiore when a small film crew approached us and asked if we’d mind if they photographed us for a shampoo advert.

We were game for a laugh so said yes, but the irony that I might appear in a shampoo advert given that I’m follicly challenged was not lost.

One of my favourite travel memories is visiting Spreepark – an abandoned theme park in Berlin.  It was quite an eerie experience, especially when the Ferris wheel started spinning slowly and creaking in the breeze.

Having moved to Dubai in 2016, I quickly became amazed with how multi-cultural the city is; making friends with people from all over the world and learning about so many different cultures.  I no longer have an amazing view of Edinburgh Castle, but the year-round sun makes up for this tragic loss in my life.

December 31st 2010 I was in Sydney, Australia. We woke up early and travelled to Bondi Beach where I met a friend who took us to a remote spot at the wilderness reserve there and we spent the day surfing the most incredible waves. In the evening we returned to the city to watch the fireworks over the harbour and the famous Sydney opera house. That was a good day!

Having arrived in Miami on a girly holiday, and our luggage not arriving, we did the only sensible thing and hit the nearest bar. After ordering an extortionate drink (note to self: do not order a single malt old fashioned in the US), we decided to enjoy the last bit of the sun and headed out to a slightly disappointing balcony overlooking a car park.

After a few hours sitting on this balcony and questioning what Miami was all about, one of us ventured to the bathroom only to discover that we’d totally missed the outside pool along with DJ (Steve Aoki) and swim up bar. Fail.

This was one of the many life lessons on this trip – alongside the fact that I pick up accents ridiculously quickly and promptly sounded like I was born and bred in Miami.

I was living in China at the time and had, very randomly, managed to secure a lucrative gig with an expat covers band. We’d been asked to play some songs during the opening ceremony of a new apartment complex. There were hundreds of people there but nobody had a clue who we were or what we were all about. It was a massively liberating experience and we chose the most weird covers we could think of. I sang ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’ and it was the most passionate moment of my life.

When travelling to Turkey, our flight had just landed and we heard Turkish music on the plane, but it continued to play once we were on the tarmac and inside the airport, which I thought was very patriotic. I soon realised that the music was coming from my auntie’s old fashioned ghetto blaster which had tuned into a local Turkish station. We all started laughing, including all the passengers!

While we were in a hotel in the mountains of Italy, my fiancé and I went down to the car to get my phone charger at 2 a.m.

The main door accidentally closed and we were left outside in slippers and without a phone in the middle of the night. The only thing we could hear were some deer and wolves somewhere in the woods.

After a few minutes of panic, we started calling the hotel bell (the option of sleeping in the car was not appealing). When, the owner came down we found out that we could get in with our room key. In my defence nobody told us that we could.

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After university I spent a year backpacking in Australia and on the way home stopped in Thailand for a week. I saw the sights of Bangkok, did a Thai cookery course in Chaing Mai, rode an elephant and did white water rafting.

When it was time to fly back to the UK it was so hot I boarded the plane in shorts and landed back in Edinburgh to snow!

As a university student I spent a long summer break in India, in a remote village called McLeod Ganj, where the Tibetan government-in exile was based.

Walking down the mountainside to a yoga class I spotted a donkey with a cut on his face.

I quickly decided the injured beast needed specialist attention and caught him using one of my shoelaces which I wrapped around his neck.

As I stumbled down the rocky road towards the next village dragging the unwilling animal, a fleet of black cars beetled past me and the last in line stopped.

Out stepped the Dalai Lama who praised me for my kindness and gave me a red string bracelet for my selfless act.

Seconds later the donkey decided he’d had enough of being ‘rescued’ and headed back to his grassy hangout – leaving me with a broken shoelace, a crimson bracelet and a rather red face.

With every city I visit, I always book a bike tour, as it’s my favourite way to explore a new place. On my last day on a trip to Prague I arrived at the designated tour departure point when I realised that I had accidentally booked the tour in German by mistake. I was so disappointed and happened to voice my frustration, after which a lovely German woman who was also on the tour said that she would translate for me. Her son and husband were on the tour too, so I essentially joined their family for the afternoon! We all got along so well that they invited me to dinner that night, which speaks to the best travel advice I’ve ever received – always be open to new experiences!

Having just arrived on a visit to Santander, my friends & I realised we hadn’t eaten all day and were very hungry. There wasn’t much to eat at the airport, so we decided to go straight into town to try some traditional Spanish cuisine. We found a lovely looking tapas bar, but discovered that it was closed for SIESTA for the next 3 hours… just like every other restaurant, bar and shop in the town!

All we had in our bags at the time was a bottle of water and 4 pieces of milk chocolate. It was the longest 3 hours of my life, but chocolate never tasted so good!

I certainly do not consider myself claustrophobic, well not until I went inside the Great Pyramid of Cheops.

I entered a 400 meter tunnel on my hands and knees and started crawling my way down – no air, a delightful smell of sweat and human kind, very limited light and no way to turn-around. Unfortunately the guy leading the expedition was a rather large laddie.. a bit too large for the two-foot high tunnel that climbed up toward the burial chamber. We all got stuck with our heads facing downwards on our way up.. for an incredibly long 15 minutes!

I expected tons of treasures and shiny jewellery when we finally reached the chamber,  but we saw nothing but an empty room and a hole on the ground where the tomb once was. Amazing. And then there was the 30 minutes back.
But it was worth the memories.

Returning to Ethiopia for the second time to work in orphanages, I was eager to get back and see old friends, in particular our bus drivers son I had grown fond of during my previous visit. As I was coming out of Addis Ababa airport, the boy ran towards me wearing my favourite football teams shirt I had given him the previous year. A truly heart-warming moment.

I went back-packing in Thailand with some friends from university, and after 4 hours crammed in a sweaty van with 8 Thai locals and a chicken, we decided to go for a well-deserved swim in the Pacific Ocean. Everyone in our group put their hotel room keys and money in a watertight pouch, which one of my friends then put in his swimming trunks’ pocket (safety first!). Unfortunately, the pouch was lost at sea and never made it back… whoever found it when it presumably washed ashore must have thought they’d hit the jackpot!

I went to Fiji whilst travelling and got the chance to sleep under the stars on a sandbank in the middle of the south pacific (survivor style!). Witnessing a super moon and epic sunrise in the space of 12 hours was pretty surreal – although getting woken up by a gigantic crab chilling on me brought me back down to earth!

I  spent the summer in the Applecross peninsula in the Scottish Highlands, off-roading in my Land Rover over the ancient mountainous Bealach na Bà (Gaelic for Pass of the Cattle). The scenery was stunning, but the most awe-inspiring sight was watching a family of wild pine martens tucking in to a jar of jam.

Before we were married, my wife and I spent four amazing weeks touring Chile. One of the greatest experiences of the trip combined our love of travel and the great outdoors – a five day circular trek of the Torres Del Paine National Park. It combined all the elements we were looking for, incredible scenery, challenging terrain and the peace and tranquillity of the wilderness.

The moment that will stay with me forever came as we conquered Paso John Gardner – a mountain pass and at 1,200m the highest point of the trek. Having negotiated the scree and patches of snow which made up the ascent, we stopped to take in the view of Glacier Grey beneath us and mountains of Patagonia that seemed to go on forever. After a good rest, we reluctantly began our descent. As we did, a magnificent giant Condor flew in to view, his huge wings outstretched, effortlessly gliding above the white glacier beneath us. It was a beautiful combination of location and nature which we will never forget.

I had a misspent youth travelling around, playing in a band – most of which I can no longer remember, have blocked from my memory, or dare not to repeat in polite company!

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It’s too difficult to pick one travel story as the best part is experiencing different things. I love the memories of many weeks camping and diving on a remote coral cay on the Great Barrier reef as much as hours sitting on tiny plastic chairs eating the worlds best street food in Saigon!

On a recent dream holiday to Disney World I experienced an unusual form of transport delay when I got stuck in a Haunted Mansion ‘Doom Buggy’ during a technical glitch. Thankfully I was entertained by the dancing skeletons and animatronic bats who carried on regardless until the problem was resolved and I was returned to the mortal world.

Whilst fishing on a boat off the coast of Tenerife I caught an 85Kg sting ray, then as I was leaning over the side to get the photo and release it, lost my sunglasses to the Atlantic. Ally 1 – Sting Ray 1.

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My first family camping holiday on the North West coast of Scotland is forever ingrained in my memory. We woke at 5am to the sound of our neighbouring camper shouting “Save the Highland Park!” as she waded through a torrent of water and jumped into her car clutching a bottle of whiskey. Most of the campers evacuated in the same way abandoning shredded tents and scattered belongings blown over the bay. Three hours later we reached civilisation and wandered into a local shop in our muddy shorts and flip-flops. It all felt very surreal in the calm of a small Highland village!

I once took part in a cultural exchange programme to Bejiing, to attend many sports and arts events. At the final reception we were asked to perform a cultural tradition from all four countries of the UK. As one of only a handful of Scots in the party we decided to perform some Scottish Country Dancing and I was the caller/MC when all the delegates from around the world joined in. Everyone must have enjoyed themselves as they asked to keep my Jimmy Shand CD!

Whilst visiting New Zealand, my friends and I went for a beautiful two-day hike. The scenery was stunning, so stunning in fact that about half of the group missed the only turn on the entire hike, and by the time they realised their mistake it was too late to come back. The rest of us had a good laugh, until we found out they were carrying most of our food. We finished the hike quite hungry, but it was certainly worth it.

On a weekend break to Barcelona, I chatted with an Italian girl for 10 minutes. She was very interested in the Portuguese folk music – Fado – so I suggested some bands to listen to.

A year and a half later I moved to Barcelona to do a placement. One night, I was chatting with my flatmate about Fado and she sounded very knowledgeable. She even knew some alternative bands! It sounds obvious now, but it took me one or two days to realise I was living with the girl I met the previous year who had listened to the bands I recommended!

Hiking up with some friends to Kleine Scheidegg in Switzerland, myself and a friend managed to get lost and separated from the group. Our phone batteries had died, we were without food or water and the summer sun was beating down on us. We started to doubt whether we’d ever make it to the top! Thankfully we managed to find the path again and made it to the top where the rest of the group were waiting for us with celebratory beers.

I was in Malawi and staying near a river where we had previously been warned about wildlife from the river. One night I got up to go to the toilet in complete darkness and got halfway there before coming face to face with a massive hippo only a few meters in front of me, I very quickly, but carefully retraced my steps and got back into my bed and held on until the morning!

While living in the USA, my friends and I decided to take a vacation and do a little travelling to some of the more southern states. My mate Tom (who was notoriously bad at organisation) was only given the responsibility of booking one hostel, while my mates and I booked the rest. Everything seemed to go as planned and we set off to start the holiday in Memphis – staying at the first hostel that Tom booked.

It wasn’t until we arrived at Pilgrim House hostel and were greeted by the host that we realised Tom had accidentally booked us into a Christian youth hostel. This meant no drinking alcohol, no music after 9pm, and daily chores for each guest – some of which were weirdly specific, such as “polish eight doorknobs”. Three days later we left the hostel feeling holier than thou, and knowing that Tom would never be in charge of anything again.

A handful of friends and I were on a road trip around the north of Scotland and we had plans to bag a few Munros whilst up there.

At the beginning of the ascent of Ben Hope, there’s a beautiful stream that forms a sequence of waterfalls and pools. On the way up, I bend over to feel the cold water and my water bottle slips out of my bag, bounces off a rock and goes straight down the small waterfall. I rush down to the next pool, and attempt to retrieve the bottle with a stick but in the process I manage to slip right in and end up soaked. Fortunately I had spare clothes, and I got the bottle back!