Travels with Palin

Countries visited: Poland Arriving in Gdansk via canal, Michael meets former electrician Lech Walesa who formed 'Solidarity', Poland's first independent trade union, which led to the demise of communism in that country. Heading to Warsaw he visits the Palace of Culture, Stalin's controversial gift to Varsovians. Michael then makes his own personal pilgrimage to Auschwitz.

Countries visited: Hungary, Ukraine Michael travels by road, rail and river through Hungary and the Ukraine, ending in the Black Sea resort of Yalta. Along the way he visits Budapest's 'House of Terror', a National Park in Hortobagy, an area which Attila the Hunwas reputed to have rampaged across, and ends up meeting a Leeds market trader who married the Ukranian prime minister's daughter.

Countries visited: Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey Michael makes a remarkable visit to Göreme, where the rocks have been carved to form homes and some of the most remarkable churches of the early Christian era. Leaving the Cappodocia region by balloon, he sails east towards the borders of the New Europe, which if Turkey were to join the European Union would include Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Michael travels down the Yangtze by boat through the famous Tiger Leaping gorge and arrives at the eastern-most point of his journey. He visits a local singing star, a doctor recommended by Terry Jones and attends a Chinese Classical Music concert. He travels through Yunnan province and then visits Nagaland which is on the border between India and Myanmah. This area is inhabited by ex-headhunters. Next, he crosses back into India and visits a coil mine and oil well. Heading deeper into Assam he visits tea gardens, working elephants and then heads down the Brahmaputra River stopping to visit a Hindu monastery of dancing monks. He also visits a national park to see the Rhinos.

He now enters Nepal by air and hooks up with a British commander of the Gurkha regiment who is recruiting in the area. They trek to a remote village to hold a recruitment test but fall foul of the local Maoist Guerrillas. Next Michael treks up the mountains to Annapurna base camp with a sherpa and gets his first taste of high altitudes, which gives him some trouble. From there they move on to the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, where he receives the King's blessing. Tibet is the next stop but they first must cross the border into China via road. He visits the highest monastery in the world and then climbs to Everest Base Camp assisted by some Yak.

The program begins in the North-West Frontier section of Pakistan. Michael goes up the Kyber Pass Railway, visits the local gun industry and dentists, interviews a local prince, attends the bull races and then sets off by bus to Chitral high in the mountains. He visits the local Kalash people who are not Moslems and attends an annual Polo Match high in the Xandoor Pass near the Hindu Kush.

Michael Palin did make it to the mysterious Timbuktu, and this episode opens with views of the famous mosque built of mud. Palin talks to the imam, who shows Palin documents indicating that Muslim scholars had discovered that the Earth circled the Sun at least 100 years before Europeans figured it out. After this Palin joins a tribe of Wodaabe nomads on their way to Ingal (in Niger) to participate in the Cure Salée festival. He talks to a young Wodaabe man named Doulla and to Céline, a young French woman who is also following along with the group. The subject of polygamy is again raised, and we see the unusual courting rituals of the Wodaabe. Here the young girls choose the man they would like to try out, while the young men stand in a line dancing and rolling their eyes and looking very feminine (by Western standards) with lots of makeup. At Tabelot Palin visits an oasis, where a camel is used to raise water from a deep well using a long rope and a goatskin bucket.

The programme starts in Gibraltar, shown to be a bit of Britain only a few miles from Africa. In Tangier, Morocco, Palin rides a camel on the beach, and then plays football with some youths and hurts himself. He's somewhat revived by visiting a hammam, a public bath house. He attends a church service at St. Andrews Anglican Church together with some Nigerians who are trying to gain access to Europe. He also visits Jonathan, an expatriate Englishman, and his pet cockerel Birdie. To get to the Sahara it is necessary to travel over the Atlas Mountains. Along the way Palin visits Fez and sees the old-fashioned way to dye leather. Then in Marrakesh he visits the souk (market). In the mountains near Marrakesh Palin visits a Berber village, experiencing a "courtship dance". Before leaving the mountains he passes through Ait Benhaddou, an old town used as the location for many movies.

In a random twist of events, Palin pops up in the Florida Keys and sees a Hemingway look-alike contest at the local restaurant in Key West. He also goes to visit a man who had boxed with Hemingway. Going to Uganda, Palin looks at the site where Hemingway's plane crashed, after which the newspaper headlines incorrectly declared that the famous author and his wife were dead. Palin soon flies on to Venice, Italy, to keep following Hemingway's always moving footsteps. In Venice, Palin walks in the midst of an ancient festival that had been forgotten for 200 years and was revived only in 1975. The people wear masks and cloaks, so Palin decides to get into the spirit and dresses up as a Gumby from the Monty Python television series. After this, Palin goes to a dinner before participating in a duck hunt, and interviews the Italian people at the meal. Putting on a warm jacket and gloves, Palin and the Barone, his duck-hunting partner, wait in vain for three and a half hours for a duck to come.

The programme starts out with Palin sitting on a beach reading a novel of Hemingway. After being chased by a fake bull he ends up in Pamplona, Spain. There he watches the famous bull run and then goes to interview a professional matador. Hemingway loved the bull run, and Palin confides that it must be an age thing - he can't stand watching it. Travelling to Africa where Hemingway went on many safaris, Palin goes to a local Maasai circumcision where the teenage boys are dressed up in finery. "Which of you is the most beautiful here?" he asked. "We are all beautiful," replies the boy, "except you!" Afterwards, he catches a view of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest point.

Palin and his guide approach a Machiguenga village where the feast of St. John the Baptist is going on. Palin observes a men's and women's intervilage football matches. Then he samples a drink made from the yucca plant. Back on the Urubamba, Palin eventually makes it to the northern town of Iquitos. Here, there is a barrio that contains many shops. Palin visits one where a lady is making cigarettes. He then takes his first puff of a cigarette in a long while. After a little wait, Palin realizes a dream by catching a boat on to the Amazon River. Bogotá, Colombia, is as Palin put it, "trading one jungle for another." With a guide, he discovers why the Colombian capital is one of the most dangerous places on earth. He learns that most of the trouble stems from the drug trafficking in the country. He then travels down Bullet Street, arguably the most violent street in the city. Here, rocks are thrown at the car Palin and his guide are traveling in.

Starting the second half of his journey at Cape Horn, Palin views the end of the continent of South America. He travels through the southern islands of Chile to the town of Punta Arenas. He renews acquaintances with his guide from Pole to Pole and the statue of Ferdinand Magellan with the Indian whose toe he kissed to ensure a safe journey. Venturing through the islands, he views the Torres del Paine National Park and the grave of an English explorer who committed suicide in the area. At Chiloe Island, he chats with an American transplant who discusses the possible existence of witches on the island. Then he attends a local barbecue that included dancing and Palin attempting to play the horse's jawbone. North to Santiago, he observes a memorial to victims of the 1973 coup d'état. Driving through the Atacama Desert, Palin reaches the highest elevation of his life thus far. At the world's largest copper mine in Chuquicamata, Palin does the honors of counting down to the explosion.

After a bit of a wait, Michael catches a ferry across the notorious Sulu Sea to the northern tip of Borneo. There, he visits an orangutan rehabilitation center. From there, Michael ventures south to Kuching in Sarawak, once ruled by what were known as the White Rajahs. Then he travels inward to a longhouse where members of the Iban people reside. He chats with former headhunters and takes part in a special feast honoring the highest-ranking Iban in the Malaysian government. Afterwards, he ventures south to the island of Java in Indonesia. From the capital Jakarta, he journeys east with his guide to a tea plantation where he samples tea and helps harvest tea leaves. They then observe a wayang kulit puppet show. In the cultural hub of Yogyakarta, they sample some durian, a notoriously smelly fruit. They then tour the Buddhist temple at Borobudur and climb Mount Bromo. In Surabaya on the east coast of Java, they encounter their first major transportation issues since Alaska.

Arriving in China at the port city of Qingdao, Michael checks in to the Welcome Guest House, where Mao Zedong once spent a month right before the infamous Great Leap Forward. Michael gets a massage on the streets of Qingdao and then visits a winery in the Laoshan Mountains, where he samples Chinese chardonnay. He then climbs Taishan Mountain, one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism. Catching a train to Shanghai, he notices how more modern Chinese trains have become since Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days in 1988. Arriving in Shanghai, he discovers a Harvey Nichols store. Michael also takes time out to dance with one of the locals. He also finds out that the Bund, the longtime economic heart of the city (even when he last visited), has been usurped by the Pudong area. Taking an inland route via the Yangtze River, he views the construction for the Three Gorges Dam and notes how a lot of area will be submerged after its completion in 2009.

Michael begins his trek around the Pacific Rim at Little Diomede Island, Alaska, in hopes of returning there in a year's time. Arriving at Nome, he visits with a goldpanner on the "Golden Sands of Nome". Next Michael journeys to Kodiak Island, aiming to catch a flight from the U.S. Coast Guard to the western island of Attu. Unfortunately, the plane never arrives; however, he does catch a glimpse of the Kodiak brown bear. Michael and his crew find an alternative: they catch the last Alaska Airlines flight of the year from Anchorage to Petropavlovsk in Russia. Arriving on the Kamchatka Peninsula, he meets his guide Igor Nosov and his assistants. They board a helicopter and observe the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which contains some active volcanoes, as well as some reindeer. Moving on to the city of Magadan, he visits an old Gulag camp with a survivor. In Vladivostok, he observes the once-powerful Pacific Fleet and is given an opportunity to sing with the Pacific Fleet Ensemble.

In Zambia Palin meets a witch doctor who tells him that he has an "evil shadow" and bad things lie ahead for him. He then is given a tree bark to "wash" with. This is supposed to help. Not really taking him seriously, Palin journeys down through Zambia, where long-time leader Kenneth Kaunda has just been politically ousted. He visits the Shiwa Ngandu estate, run by Lorna Harvey (daughter of original owner Sir Stewart Gore-Browne) and her husband John. Sadly, the Harveys were murdered six months after Palin's visit. A case of stomach problems strikes Palin. Realising he probably should have taken the witch doctor more seriously, Palin takes the medicine given to him by the doctor. Palin then moves on to Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River, where he goes whitewater rafting. Unfortunately, he also tries swimming through some rapids wearing a life jacket, resulting in a cracked rib. To add insult to injury, one of his suitcases has been lost by the local railway company.

In the old Ethiopian capital of Gondar Palin visits the former home of Emperor Haile Selassie, as well as his pet lion. From there he visits Lake Tana where he learns that one of his guides in Kenya has taken ill. Then it is on to the current capital of Addis Ababa, where Palin sees communist symbols being destroyed. He also witnesses a peaceful demonstration turn violent. After a couple of hitchhiking rides he arrives at the Kenya border. He then journeys to Larata and the school where part of the movie The Missionary was filmed. As a gift he gives the school the inflatable globe he used in Michael Palin: Around the World in 80 Days. In Nairobi he prepares himself for a safari, where he later takes time out to chat with some hippopotamuses.

Arriving by ferry to Istanbul, Turkey, Palin stays at the Pera Palas, where Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express and experiences a turkish bath, getting the full treatment from a large staff member. He checks out a local bazaar, as well as a procession at Topkapi Palace. He then takes a train through western Turkey and catches ferries to first Rhodes, then to Cyprus. Palin then visits the British military base at Akrotiri and attends a huge Cypriot wedding. From Limassol, Palin heads for Africa, his home for the next few months. His first stop is Port Said, Egypt, where the filming crew temporarily loses a tripod and has delays with Customs there. Then he crosses paths with his location in Around the World in 80 Days in Cairo, from where he takes a train to Luxor. Catching a boat up the Nile River, he checks out ancient Egyptian ruins with tourists from Sheffield.

Palin begins at the North Pole, flying there on a small aeroplane fitted with skis. (The North Pole scene had to be filmed earlier than the rest of the journey due to weather issues.) From there, he heads to Greenland, then the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, where the towns of Ny Ålesund and Longyearbyen are located. From there he sails across the Barents Sea on a supply ship to the Norwegian port city of Tromsø, where he visits a statue of Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole. He also meets some avid Norwegian football fans. In the town of Karasjok, he meets up with the Sami people and pans for gold in the Karasjoka River. From there, Palin travels by bus and crosses the border from Norway to Finland, where he visits Santa Claus at the Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi. He takes an overnight Finnish train to Helsinki; he relaxes in a sauna near Helsinki with Neil Hardwick and Lasse Lehtinen.

In Shanghai, Palin gets some herbal remedies to help him on the rest of his trip. He and Basil Pao take in a Chinese jazz band. After parting with Pao the next day, Palin takes a Chinese ferry to Yokohama, where he rides the world-famous shinkansen train to Tokyo. Here he meets David Powers, a British journalist, and is taken to a sushi bar and then a karaoke bar, where he sings "You Are My Sunshine" as a duet. After spending the night in a capsule hotel, he boards a container ship to cross the Pacific Ocean. The journey takes eleven days and is very dull, enlivened only by a game of pass the parcel with the Singaporean crew, and the crossing of the International Date Line. Palin partakes in an unusual ceremony to commemorate crossing the line, involving getting doused in tomato paste and flour, and drinking a strange cocktail containing many ingredients, among others, "eggs, curry powder, cocoa...".

In Bombay, Palin finds himself a week behind Phileas Fogg. After getting a quick shave from a blind barber under a tree and seeing a snake charmer's cobra, he is able to get a train ticket to Madras in south-eastern India. Before leaving Bombay, he visits an astrologer who, after giving him a chart for a baby to be born to one of his referees, Robert Hewison, tells him he will complete the journey a day ahead of schedule. Palin then embarks on the Indian Railways express line called the "Southern Express" for Madras in Tamil Nadu province. On the way, it stops in Pune, where Palin talks about his father winning two rowing cups there in 1953. In Madras, he has difficulty finding a connecting boat to Singapore. Eventually, an "...Anglo-German-Indo-Yugoslav agreement the UN would have been proud of" was reached and Palin sets off on a Yugoslavian freighter, eleven days behind.

Palin arrives in Alexandria, Egypt and has difficulty getting a train to Cairo. On arrival, he attends a local football match and appears in a cameo role in an Egyptian film. After seeing the Pyramids in Giza and riding a camel named Michael, Palin runs into difficulties when the ship he was supposed to board has engine problems and cannot sail. Even though he is able to take a ferry from the city of Suez to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, he misses a key connection that would have taken him to Muscat. As a last ditch effort to save the journey, Palin and the director Clem Vallance are permitted by the Saudi authorities to drive across Saudi Arabia to Dubai, with the rest of the crew (and their problematic camera equipment) making the journey by air. The Saudi Arabia leg of the trip is represented in the TV series only with a few still pictures taken by Palin along the way.

Palin's first travel documentary was part of the 1980 BBC Television series Great Railway Journeys of the World, in which, humorously reminiscing about his childhood hobby of train spotting, he travelled throughout the UK by train, from London to the Kyle of Lochalsh, via Manchester, York, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh and Inverness.