My Kind of Holiday
Where did you spend your last holiday?
Around the South China Sea.
What was the best thing you did while there?
Took in the architecture in Singapore and boated to an island three hours from the city centre.
Your favourite city abroad and why?
Kuala Lumpur. Where else in the world would you get a luggage shop next to a takeaway next to a shop offering “reflexology and pretty young girls”?
What must a first-time visitor see there?
The Chinese mall in Petaling Street. It’s a huge flea market where you will find a shop called Genuine Fake. According to urban legend, Marc Jacobs went there and couldn’t tell the difference between their copies and his original.
What was your best holiday, ever?
I’ve had two: a yachting holiday on the island of Nosy Be in Madagascar; and a trip to the island of Gorée, Senegal. It hit an emotional nerve with me and the buildings are an art director’s dream.
What was your worst holiday ever?
A trip to Nigeria. It was diabolical, starting from having to fill in your salary and your father’s salary at customs.
Which is the worst hotel you’ve stayed in?
A hotel attached to the Mansfield station in North London. The place looked like the Bates Motel and the staff looked like they’d walked out of a Fellini movie. The next morning I went to meet my contact and was told that the place was not a hotel but a rehabilitation centre for petty criminals. I checked out immediately.
What is the most exotic dish you have ever eaten on holiday?
A trifle with luminous pink jelly and custard, with a layer of mince meat at the bottom, for breakfast at the Federal Hotel in Malaysia.
Have you had any embarrassing moments as a traveller?
I took Lariam against malaria for a trip to Mozambique and then went insane. I have no recollection of commandeering the boat we were in while covering my face with sticky labels.
One travel destination you would call “never again”?
Egypt. I was fleeced.
Terence Pillay is a print, TV and radio journalist. Catch him every Wednesday on his East Coast Radio show, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.