The First Piper

06/10/2025

Call me Ross-Bek 🇰🇿

The national parks around Almaty (Kazakhstan) are flippin’ stunning and the range in landscapes is CRAZY! Within the space of an hour you go from red-rock canyons to alpine lakes 🤯

I did an overnight with Visit Alatau and we managed to drop into Kolsai & Kaindy Lakes as well as the “Grand Canyon’s younger brother” aka Charyn Canyon 🏜️

If you’ve got an extra day or two in Kazakstan, rent a car and head out the city for a few days! 🚗 💨

06/10/2025

This is the ancestor to every apple variety today!

01/10/2025

The City of Apples 🍎

My main reason for visiting Kazakhstan, aside from bagpiping, has been… apples!

Believe it or not, the apples we eat today can be traced back to a variety of wild apple from the mountains of Kazakhstan. How INCREDIBLE is that?!

Almaty, the country’s largest city, even takes its name from them. “Alma” meaning apple in Kazakh 🍏

From wild apple forests and pomologists to local farmers and apple festivals, this past week has been incredible and I’m so excited for this episode of 🗺️

A huge RAKHMET to the amazing team at for putting this all together! 🙌

23/09/2025

Hey you lot! My page was hacked and I lost access for a few days 😫

Excuse the random posts that have appeared over the past 48 hours about bubbles.

I think we’re now all sorted! 🥳

20/09/2025

First few days in Astana! 🇰🇿
This city is vast, futuristic and traditional, all in one. I’ve never been anywhere like it and I’ve eaten more horse in 4 days than I’ve ridden in my entire life 🐎 😅

13/09/2025

Think you know cinnamon? Chances are… you’ve never tried this one!

It’s called Cinnamomum Verum - or “True Cinnamon” - and it tastes a bit different from the more common varieties we all keep in our kitchens.

Floral, sweet, and surprisingly delicate… this spice has a story that goes way beyond your spice rack.

👉 Watch the full episode for the history, flavors, and why it matters!

08/09/2025

Where is your CINNAMON from?! 🧐

https://youtu.be/epygBcggiVs?si=A3iEEY_ONw_YBmk-

In this episode, we’re diving into the wild story of cinnamon - a spice once worth more than gold, guarded by myths of giant birds, and fought over by empire...

06/09/2025

Episode 2 ‘So Where’s it From?’🍿

Out tomorrow:
📅 Sunday, Sept 7
⏰ 6am NYC, 11am UK, 3:30pm IST & 6pm Manila time

I know it’s a bit cheesy but I’m gonna do one of those YouTube premiere things, so if you’re around - come and watch! 🙌

In the meantime, enjoy some of these still from the episode! 🎥

28/08/2025

Went to film some cloves! 🌱
Never did find that Grandmother clove tree though. Terimakasih for being such a great host 🙏🏼

17/08/2025

Coimbatore 🇮🇳
This Summer has been special for many reasons and this was absolutely one of them. So much joy 🌺
Also, I love that even in India you can’t have a wedding without a least one piper. This lot were just missing their bag! 🎶

11/06/2025

Queen of the Night! 👑🌸🌵

Last week I got to film at a dragon fruit farm in the Philippines and it totally changed how I view this fruit.

Don’t hate me... but I often think that dragon fruit looks better than it tastes. It’s kind of bland - especially the white one! However, this team grow over 200 varieties with some INCREDIBLE flavours and names, like Super Shenron and Giant Red.

To top it off, dragon fruit grows on a CACTUS (what?!) and the flower only blooms at night and only once. Hence the name: Queen of the Night! How incredible is that?!!

And its origins…? You’ll have to wait for the episode 😉

Big Salamat to the team at for hosting me!

27/05/2025

We’re off to Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬🎥🎶
Next month we’re headed to Central Asia for the first time ever!

I’ll be filming a couple stories for ‘So Where’s it From?’ And of course bagpiping (this’ll be country number 115 🥳)

If you have any recommendations or know any walnut and apricot farmers, I’m ALL EARS 😅