Traveling Westerners

I am a Westerner, I have to start off by saying. An American, actually.

I watched this when I was a young man. I was taken in by Palin's wit and his sense of adventure. I was absolutely blown over by the locations, the places and people he encountered. It all seemed so thrilling and new to me. It opened up my imagination - it came at that point in my life when things seemed so possible. I dreamnt of traveling.

Now I'm a fully formed adult. I have been all over the world, seen many things. Certainly done - at least in part - because of this fine series.

However, I am just now watching the series again after something like 20 years. I still love it, but lord, Michael Palin does so many things I try to avoid... Speaking loudly and slowly to non-native English speaking people, wearing shorts, a straw tribly hat, carrying a large camera -- using a blow-up matteress on a dhow while everyone else sleeps on the deck!

This show is still brilliant, I must say, and I love Palin to pieces. But it's so funny and, at times, cringe-inducing, watching him act so typically western, so typically British, so typically... suburban.