Vipassana Meditation - A Simple Beginner's Guide

The plethora of different meditation techniques and teachers make it very hard to find anything giving you coherent practical instruction on...

Vipassana Meditation - 10 Day Retreat - My Experience

Having gone into a little bit of the theory behind Vipassana meditation   here , this is a brief account of my experience. There is a guide ...

Vipassana Meditation - 10 Day Retreat - Introduction and Theory

For the last 11 days I have been completely secluded from the world - living in a meditation retreat with no telephone, reading/writing mate...

A holiday from the world?

Lying in a bed in Penang nursing the tail-end of a pretty nasty cold and waiting for the start of a 10-day Vipassana meditation course... 2 ...

The Big Decisions

Is there something in your life right now you really want to do but are afraid to go through with? Listen to Arnie: Do it now! Th...

3 Months Cycling in Vietnam - North to South

So here we are sat in the Lazy Gecko Guest house in Phnom Penh, having spent the last 3 months in Vietnam cycling most of the length of the...

Essential Guide to Bicycle Touring in Vietnam

Having just finished 3 months of cycle touring in Vietnam with my wife I thought I would share some of the insights we have gained. No pictu...

Not-so-easy rider

Hello from a hotel in Dalat.  I hope this blog is coming through and not just a fevered dream born of the semi-delirious state induced ...

You say Hello! And I say... Hello?

Hello!! How are you!!? What is your name??? These are 3 phrases I must have heard (and responded to) thousands of times in the last fe...

Roaches on Rails

Braving rush hour traffic in Hanoi on our bicycles to get to the central station was an interesting if not entirely enjoyable experience. ...

Halong Bay

No trip to Hanoi would be complete without a visit to Halong bay. Click to expand... Hopped into a travel agency near the hotel and t...

方位磁石持ちチャリ外人の中山道自転車巡り・ビデオ付き・パート1

まずはビデオから・・・ 8年間以上日本に住んだあげく、出国することになりました。変化・進化は決して悪いことではないが・・・日本が好きじゃなかったら覚えてる人生の大半をここで送ってなかっただろう。 好きな国に「さよなら」と言いたかった。 そのため、中山道を一人で自...

中山道自転車巡り・Part 1

まずはビデオから・・・ 8年間以上日本に住んだあげく、出国することになりました。変化・進化は決して悪いことではないが・・・日本が好きじゃなかったら覚えてる人生の大半をここで送ってなかっただろう。 好きな国に「さよなら」と言いたかった。 そのため、中山道を一人で自...

First Impressions - Vietnam

All opinions change, but here are some first impressions of Vietnam. 1 - The Roads are a Jungle 2 seats + 2 bikes + 2 people = per...

Between Borders

I'm not sure if you've seen 'The Terminal' with Tom Hanks. I'm currently envisioning some kind of developing-world version of that happeni...

Mount Doom

The rings are gone into the fires of Mordor. My precious!! Well... The Files of Mino, where we are storing our things. ... but ...

Thing's I'll miss and things I won't... Part 1

Part 1 - a list of things that I think I will and won't miss upon leaving Japan. To be reviewed at a later date to see if I'm right. Wil...

Packing Like a Pro

W hat's not accompanying me to Asia... Contents include: - Horse head - Hard drive - Montblank Pen, watches, etc - Winter clothes ...

Removing the Clutter

So here we are, whittling away the last of our belongings. Everything we have acquired over the years reduced to what can fit on our bikes o...