While I was disappointed with that, I was delighted in reading the sections, in which he mingles with the locals and getting to know them. At one point, he calls someone an Oriental. It’s something that some reviewers noticed while reading it, and I happen to agree. The first is that this book was clearly written by a Westerner with a lot of resources. Much as I enjoy reading this travelogue, there are two things that need to be acknowledged. However, I’m aware that the book offers more details of the journey than the show does. The travelogue makes me want to watch the 7-part BBC series, which is available in its entirety on Amazon Prime. He also jokes about teaching one of the birds in the Bird Market to say “John Cleese is rubbish” (p. In the photo caption, he claims that the bird had mistaken him for John Cleese. One of those references (and easily a high point for me) occurs when he encounters a cockatoo in Hong Kong, who ends up doing some damage on his pants (I mean trousers). Since he’s also a member of Monty Python, he alludes to the comedy team when appropriate. Another thing that I have to mention is that Palin gets to do the one thing that is commonly associated with, yet never done in the book: traveling via hot air balloon while he’s in Aspen. This shocked me because I’ve never read the novel even though I’m familiar with the story through the Three Stooges and Looney Tunes adaptations. At one point, as he’s crossing the Atlantic Ocean, he talks about how in the book, Fogg and Passepartout burn the wood parts of a boat in order to get to Liverpool on time. Speaking of Fogg, Palin makes a lot of references to the famous Jules Verne novel when prompted. This also makes sense as Phileas Fogg too had to keep track of the amount of days spent traveling to ensure he circumnavigates the globe in precisely 80 days. It’s good to know that Palin wants readers to know where he’s at all times (in the book of course). On the next page, it lists Day 5: Athens as he talks about his experiences in that city. For instance, on one page, it lists Day 5: Corinth Canal in Greece as the author talks about going through it. I also like how every page indicates which part of the world Palin and his Passepartouts (the film crew) are in. For example, in Venice, a photo depicts an older man face down, and he muses that he was a possible Mafia victim. Palin offers hilarious insights into them. Pandemic or no pandemic, seeing pictures of places like Venice, Cairo, Shanghai, and Aspen, Colorado make me want to travel even though they were taken over 30 years ago. Along the way, he describes his joyous and sometimes chaotic experiences. In the show, the comedian-turned traveler circumnavigates the globe in the same amount of time as Phileas Fogg – the protagonist of the famous Jules Verne novel of the same name – and using the same modes of transportation that were available in Fogg’s time. The other is on reading Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin by Sir Michael Palin – a wonderful travelogue written by a member of Monty Python in 1988.Īround the World in Eighty Days with Michael Palin is the book companion to the 1989 BBC series of the same name. One is on the honeymoon I’ll take next year. I’ve been fantasizing about this for a while, and I blame this on two things. I’m not talking about going on a day trip, but traveling out of state to somewhere that I’ve never been before. One of the first things that I’m going to do once this pandemic is over is travel.
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