Michael Palin

“There was one voyage that changed the way that I looked at the world: going from Dubai to Mumbai on a dhow boat. It was in 1988, a time before sat nav and mobile phones, and as we made our way down the Gulf, through the Strait of Hormuz and across the Arabian Sea, we were entirely dependent on our crew of 16 Gujaratis, only one of whom spoke any English. But we struck up a rapport, and I was a different person after that journey. My guard was down and my fear of the unknown had begun to evaporate.”