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SCOTTISH HIKING

BREAKS:

THE SUMMER FOR

THE WEST

HIGHLAND WAY

10TOPHOLIDAY

DESTINATIONS

OURTHAILAND:the teaching trip of a lifetime

AND how you can do it too

£2.99

AN Alexandria man has re-turned home after landing a job in a school onthe other side of the world.James McKenzie jetted off in

2012 to work as an EnglishTeacher in the Nong Bua LamPhu province of Thailand.

The 29-year-old, who has travelled all over the world and

worked in bars in Australia andin a car wash in Bangkok, is

back home after his year longtrip, and is already making

plans for his next adventure.He said: “I’ve always fancied

travelling and it has becomepart of my life now. I’m reallylucky to have been to so many

places such as Australia, NewZealand, a lot of south EastAsia and I fancy travelling to

South America.

“I have been to Thailand before,but it wasn’t anything like thistype of holiday. I lived out of a

backpack for a year and just

went wherever I felt like going.“I decided to go back and trysomething different. I travelled

around the islands at first then

settled into a small town nearthe Cambodian border. “I needed a way to finance

myself whilst I was across there

and I thought it would be great

to teach English to kids in oneof the schools.“I had never thought of doing

anything like this before, it was-n’t until one of my friends i hadmet travelling years ago men-tioned it that I decided to look

into it.“I went across with SINE

Education, who were fantastic.They sorted out everything forme, such as my work permitand application and I had no is-

sues at all.

“It wasn’t that difficult to applyfor, which surprised me, but I

never realised how bad I was at grammar until I took all the

courses to get the job.Jamie worked with kids aged

12-17 teaching them basicgrammar and conversationskills, and he says despite his

TRIP OF A LIFETIME

SCHOOLS OUT: Jamie with the pupils at the school

terrible teaching he thinks theylearned something whilst hewas there. He said: “I am proba-bly the worlds worst teacher. Ihave no discipline what so ever,I let them get away with murder.But at the end of the day alltheir exam results were good soI must have been doing some-thing right.“The funniest thing is one of thepictures I took sums up myskills as a teacher. They weresupposed to be sitting an exam,and I went to take a picture.They all stopped working andlooked up to smile at the cam-era. They all had me wrappedaround their fingers.“I think they only liked me cause

Sine Education provides English conversation coursesfor government and privateschools all over Thailand. The company has a range offun and rewarding courses tomake English as enjoyable foryou to teach as it is for the students to learn.The teaching team is expanding every year, and SineEducation is looking for keenvolunteers for this once in alifetime experience.You do not need to have anyteaching experience to get involved, just the right attitude.Go to www.sineeducation.comto and fill out the online application.

What to do if

you want to get

involved:

I am a big football fan. They are really into the English Premierleague over there but

unfortunately none of them

knew who Dumbarton were butmy mission was to try and recruit them as future players

but that’s a work in progress.Although he’s glad to be home,

and enjoying the luxury of drinking from the tap once againand having his mum do his

washing, Jamie admits that heprobably won’t be around for

long. He added: “I love coming

home to see my family and

friends. It’s great to be looked

after instead of having to liveout a backpack for months onend, but I’m getting itchy feet so

I’ll probably be off again

sometime soon.“I still need to decide if I’m goingto go back to the same school. I

still have a job there if I want itbut I’m just going to roll the dice

and see where I end up. I wouldlove to go to Japan and do similar work but I’ll just need to

wait and see what happens.”

Five Great Things to do in:

EDINBURGH1. Edinburgh Zoo

Edinburgh Zoo put

itself back on the maplast year when they entered a breeding programme for pandas, and welcomed

Tian Tian and Yuang

Guang. There isplenty to see, includ-

ing a penguin marcha a very educational

and entertainingmonkey enclosure and the

only koala exhibitin Scotland. A great

day out for all ageswith lots of activitesfor children and

adults alike.

Edinburgh Dungeons is a tribute to the goryhistory of Scotlandscapital city. Delveinto the tales ofgrave digging and

cannibalism withspecially trained actors to give thefullest and skincrawling experience. Withbrand new rides to

make it even more terrifying, its botheducational and fun.Ideal for a day outwith friends, but isnot advised foryoung children.

2. Edinburgh Dungeons

3. Edinburgh Castle

4.Princes Street

5. Dynamic History Museum

Visit the iconicScottish Landmark andlearn all about thecastle’s history.With amazingviews over

Edinburgh and a number of historymuseums and exhibits, there is

plenty to see forall the family.Visitors can also

see the CrownJewels and theStone of Destiny.An ancient relicthat enthronedkings for

centuries.

The one mile

street is an idealdestination for

the best shopsand restaurantsin Edinburgh.

Many peopletravel to the city

just to shop, andit offers all yourhigh street storesand much more,

including multi- storyHouse of Fraser

and Debenhams

stores. Some ofthe best reataurants arelocated just offthis iconicstretch. ideal for

a girls day out.

Dynamic Earth isan interactive his-tory museum that

is a great day ourfor all ages. With3D and 4D exhibits, it takes

visitors on a journey

through evolutionand the creation of

Earth. Visiotrs canalso come face toface with exticntdinosaurs or take a

trip to the

bottom of theocean. Open allyear round, its agreat day out

whatever theoccassion orweather.

BACK TO

NATUREJJ

J

J

Unlike your average beach

holiday, some people prefer

to dig out the waterproofs

hiking boots and head for

the hills.

IT HAS been dubbed “the out-side capital of the UK” - andFort William is putting itself onthe map as the place to be inBritain if you love to be out-doors.The finishing point of the West

Highland Way, the 96 mile trek

from Milngavie, it is known for itshistorical sightseeing, as well ashaving many cycle and

hiking tracks.The quiet town at the end of the

West Highland way has over50,000 visitors a year from all overthe world, who travel to climb the

highest mountain in Scotland -Ben Nevis. The mountain rises

from sea-level to 4,406 feet in a

relatively short distance.

If climbing mountains is not to yourtaste, there are plenty of walks

around the town that let you takein natures surroundings. For ex-

ample, Glencoe Lochan trails areroughly 2.5km in length and is a

great walk for people of all agesthrough ornamental woodland at

the foot of Glen Coe.The pictur-esque and serene lochan and its

wooded shores contrasts with thewild and dramatic mountains of the

glen which are seen across it. Ifmore of a challenge is what youseek, Garbh Bheinn is the ideal

walk being 7km in length. The trekis a rather neglected but still fine

cone-shaped mountain on thesouthern side of Loch Leven. Its

ascent is an unrelenting grind

up the west ridge but the steep-

ness of the slopes above theloch add great depth and drama

to the views.However, the most famous thing

in Fort William is the JacobiteSteam Train journey, which is

considered one of the most sce-

nic train journeys in the world.The train line goes throughsome of the most idyllic sceneryand crosses a viaduct that was

made famous in the Harry Pot-ter films.There are plenty of small bedand breakfasts in the area that

make Fort Willam the idealplace to escape to the countryfor a short break.

DREAM GETAWAY

OR

Lying on a beach or

shopping till you drop?

Whats your ideal

getaway?

EVERYONE has that one holi-day of a lifetime they dreamabout on a rainy day. An escape that caters to every

need you could possibly imagine. Whether its sunbathingin a six star resort in Mexico or

a week of the best restaurants

and shopping in New York -there is not one person in theUk, or the world for that matter,

that does not fantasise about

jetting off whilst at their desk inwork, praying they win big in thelottery.

But is there a place that every-one wants to go? A paradise

that would make everyone feellike they have died and gone toheaven?

Leading travel agent ThomasCook says that people are keen

to plan their dream holiday.

Sarah Snderson, spokespersonfor the comapny said: “We get alot of people in our shops

booking their dream holiday.There has been an increase insales in longer travelling

holidays, such as world trips

backpacking holidays.“We also get a lot of familiescoming to book holidays to

Florida. That seems to be one

of the most popular dream holdays.“Although the more exotic desti-

nations are on the up, such as

Dubai and Mexico, bookings tothe Canaries are incresing withpeople spending more money

on higher star hotels.People save for a lifetime forthe holiday of their dreams. As

they say, every penny counts.

New York. Paris. Mexico. Spain.

Thailand. Tennerife. Florida.

Dubai. Amsterdam. Cyprus.

Greece. Canada. Australia.

TOP 10

HOLIDAYS1. FLORIDA

2. AUSTRALIA

3. DUBAI

4. NEW YORK

5. THAILAND

6. CANADA

7. MEXICO

8. JAMAICA

9. TENNERIFE

10. GRAN CANARIA

WHERE ARE

YOUGOING?

THE Scottish summer is fastapproaching, and holidaybookings are on the rise toescape the winter blues.In recent years, the prospect ofa warm Scottish summer hasdwindled, leaving people desperate for a tropical

getaway.The dream to jet off somewhere

that doesn’t require wooly tightsand waterproofs is everlasting

in peoples minds, and it seemspeople are more determined

this year than ever.Holiday sales jumped up by 10

per cent over Easter comparedto last year, according to Scot-tish travel agent Barrhead

Travel.Favourite destinations are

Spain and the Canary Islandsfor holiday makers, perhaps due

to the year round sunny

weather with an average temperature that ranges from

17 degrees in the winter to 24

degrees in the summer months.Long haul family holidays toFlorida appear to be a top destination with more exotic

resorts such as Egypt andDubai close behind.

Chief Executive of BarrheadTravel, Sharon Munro, thinks

people are determined to getsome sun as the weather just

seems to get worse every year.She said: “While January and

February are always busy forus, this year we noticed anextra spike in the weeks leading

up to Easter for late deals,which we put down to people

wanting to escape the bitterwinter weather. The prolonged

cold snap has meant that many

people have decided that theonly way to guarantee somewarmth and sunshine is to booka break abroad.

“Our top destinations so far thisyear have been the Canaries,particularly Tenerife, followed by

the Spanish Costas and Ma-jorca. Forward bookings for our

own summer holiday pro-gramme to five destinations in

the Mediterranean have also

been very strong.“There’s been a change in holi-day habits in the last few years,with more people looking for all-

inclusive holidays, which aregreat value for money as wellas making it very easy for holi-daymakers to plan their budg-

ets.”

As summer

approaches,

Scottish travel

agents are hard

at work as

holiday sales

increase