HOW OFTEN DO YOU TRAVEL?
Two or three times a year in a serious way. India is my favourite country — I first visited in 1965 with [English travel writer] Eric Newby and it’s somewhere I never tire of revisiting. Failing that, I like to go to Indonesia, which is such a vast archipelago of islands that there is always something new to see. Every summer I also visit the northern part of Greece, where my wife has a house. WHERE DID YOU GO ON HOLIDAY AS A CHILD? I grew up in Finsbury Park, London, and we were pretty skint — so the only holiday I ever had as a child was an annual day trip to Southend. I can still remember the thrill of smelling the sea air and candyfloss and fried sausages on the seafront. YOUR FIRST TRIP ABROAD? I went to Geneva when I was 16 on the back of my friend’s Triumph motorbike — and it poured with rain the entire time. WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR A PERFECT HOLIDAY? Guaranteed sunshine, good food and books, and good company — and somewhere reasonably isolated, so I don’t have to put up with other people’s irritating noise. MOST ADVENTUROUS TRAVEL EXPERIENCE? I’ve been imprisoned in Uganda, arrested in Indonesia, deported from Vietnam under armed guard, and I’ve recently come back from Mosul [Iraq] after being kicked out. But it’s always a new experience when someone is facing you with a weapon in their hands. THE MOST REMOTE PLACE YOU’VE BEEN? Probably Irian Jaya in Indonesia, one of the most remote places on Earth, where cannibalism was long practised in the deepest parts of the country. But it has changed a lot over the years. MOST LUXURIOUS TRAVEL EXPERIENCE? I was once flown to the Hotel du Cap in Antibes on the French Riviera with some other famous photographers — but it was so luxurious that I actually threw up. I just couldn’t handle all the rich French cuisine. YOUR FAVOURITE HOTEL? Despite my being sick there, it would have to be the Hotel du Cap, or the Oberoi Grand in Kolkata — an extraordinary place. YOUR FAVOURITE CITY? Probably Kolkata, which is like nowhere else in the world. It’s a city of chalk and cheese, where the drama of survival is still played out before your eyes. I used to like New York for the same reason, but it has been tidied up and sanitised and has lost a lot of its edge. MOST MEMORABLE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE? I was caught up in a gun battle in Salvador in the ’80s. I was climbing a roof with soldiers when it collapsed. I ended up breaking my arm, elbow and the bones in the back of my rib cage; I lay on the ground all night as the battle raged about me. That, or the occasion I had a burger made out of rat meat — actually, surprisingly good. YOUR WORST TRAVEL EXPERIENCE? I once spent 18 hours sitting on top of a load of aid in the Upper Volta, West Africa [now Burkina Faso], going to an area where there was a drought. It was one of the longest, most miserable journeys in my life. BEST TRAVEL TIP? I never leave home without PG Tips — I can’t bear to not have a cup of English tea. WHAT DO YOU HATE ABOUT HOLIDAYS? I don’t like the idea of package holidays — I’m more of an individual traveller. HOW DO YOU SURVIVE A LONG FLIGHT? With difficulty, because I don’t like being on a plane for more than a couple of hours. YOUR ONE TRAVEL ESSENTIAL? My glasses — if I ever get on a plane without them, I think I’ll be howling the entire journey. WHERE NEXT? I’d love to explore more of South America some day, but next up is a trip to India with two of my sons. — Interview by York Membery, © The Daily Telegraph