Globetrotting by gogglebox.
Sep. 18th, 2018 08:13 pmA show I kept catching bits of when I still had access to Broadcast TV was Michael Palin's Around The World In 80 days. But I never quite managed to catch two episodes in a row. It was on my Amazon wish-list for a while. Eventually ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
flickums got the hint, and I received the box set of all the shows as a birthday present.
It really is the best travel documentary. Michael Palin has such a wonderful understated manner. He is humorous in his ever so British way. The premise allows an eclectic mix of locations, from the richness of Europe and the poverty of India.
One of the striking things about the series is just how much of a period piece it is now. Michael Palin set of 30 years ago, in 1988. The first episode has crummy 8-bit computer graphics on a screen in a betting shop, and a comment about Concorde travel. The Channel Tunnel isn't even mentioned (since it won't open for another 6 years). Global cellphone coverage wasn't a thing so we frequently see shots of Michael using the phones on ships to work out the next stage of his journey. Dubai - a glistening city of skyscrapers, and shopping malls to attract the idle rich when I visited in 2010 - is still a desert nation with a few modern buildings in the distance.
The episode I'm watching now he's in Hong Kong, which was still a British Overseas Territory at the time. They're talking about how there's not a lot of money in China right now - implication that there will be. China is still a nation of bicycles. The 35 hour journey he starts this episode can be managed today in just 7 hours. 8 and a half if you take the slower train.
Parts of it give me itchy feet. And while I'm not sure I'd appreciate 6 days baking on a Dhow from Dubai, most of the travel seems a lot more comfortable that a jet plane to JFK. I would like to visit Hong Kong. And Japan once more. Maybe Egypt as well.
flickums got the hint, and I received the box set of all the shows as a birthday present. It really is the best travel documentary. Michael Palin has such a wonderful understated manner. He is humorous in his ever so British way. The premise allows an eclectic mix of locations, from the richness of Europe and the poverty of India.
One of the striking things about the series is just how much of a period piece it is now. Michael Palin set of 30 years ago, in 1988. The first episode has crummy 8-bit computer graphics on a screen in a betting shop, and a comment about Concorde travel. The Channel Tunnel isn't even mentioned (since it won't open for another 6 years). Global cellphone coverage wasn't a thing so we frequently see shots of Michael using the phones on ships to work out the next stage of his journey. Dubai - a glistening city of skyscrapers, and shopping malls to attract the idle rich when I visited in 2010 - is still a desert nation with a few modern buildings in the distance.
The episode I'm watching now he's in Hong Kong, which was still a British Overseas Territory at the time. They're talking about how there's not a lot of money in China right now - implication that there will be. China is still a nation of bicycles. The 35 hour journey he starts this episode can be managed today in just 7 hours. 8 and a half if you take the slower train.
Parts of it give me itchy feet. And while I'm not sure I'd appreciate 6 days baking on a Dhow from Dubai, most of the travel seems a lot more comfortable that a jet plane to JFK. I would like to visit Hong Kong. And Japan once more. Maybe Egypt as well.
