117. Huw Wyn; Arabian Nights in Cairo, Hitching Through Nepal, Tibetan Medicine in Scotland and Tom Hardy Dropping into his Festival
Release Date: 04/27/2021
125. Christmas Special 2021; Sathnam Sanghera, Lisa Jewell, Matt Forde, Anne Sebba, Olly Mann, Greenham Common and more
The Big Travel Podcast
Authors Anne Sebba on the Royal abdication, Sathnam Sanghera's dismal Christmas restaurant, Lisa Jewell's Boney M in Barbados, adventurer Jamie Douglas-Hamilton rowing to the Antarctic, satirist Matt Forde in an NYC Irish bar, podcaster Olly Mann’s disappointing LA Santa, artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian Muslim Catholic Christmas in Marrakesh, adventurer Sam McManus's ancient Spanish fiesta, Festival promoter Huw Win's Thai rainforest & Nobel Peace Prize winner Rebecca Johnson's Christmas at Greenham Common.
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124. Firouz FarmanFarmaian; Escaping Tehran, Kashmiri Houseboats, Trekking Kyrgyzstan, Rock Bands and Contemporary Art
The Big Travel Podcast
Born in Tehran, the descendent of a nomadic tribe, Contemporary Artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian's family scattered after the Islamic Revolution. He grew up trekking mountains and deserts, touring with his Indie rock band and now with his internationally acclaimed art. With a gallery in Tarifa, Spain, and a new base in Athens, he travels the globe sourcing ideas and materials with craftswomen in remote regions and will be representing Kyrgyzstan at the Venice Biennale with the exhibition Gates of Turan.
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123. On Location in Marbella Old Town with Tour Guide Javier Gonzalez
The Big Travel Podcast
A journey through the maze of Marbella's 16th Century cobbled lanes surrounding the old 'Orange Square', encountering flamenco singers and opera stars and sampling some of the coast's most wonderful tapas. With tour guide Javier Gonzalez and staying at the stunning Anantara Villa Padierna Palace, with its classical Italian design and sophisticated yet arty vibe.
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122. Matt Forde; Billy Connolly in New York, Liam Gallagher in Berlin and Nick Leeson's Worldwide 'British Scandal' Jaunt
The Big Travel Podcast
Comedian, political satirist and Spitting Image star Matt Forde talks accosting Billy Connolly in New York, 'dying' on stage in Luxemborg, pints of Carling in ex-pat clubs in Bahrain, Nick Leeson's luxury hotel dash around the world, spending 3 months locked in a first floor flat, an emotional pilgrimage to the Ghostbusters fire station, being the voice of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump (yes he does give us some excellent impressions) and posh people behaving badly on the podcast British Scandal.
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121. Sam McManus; Adventure Travel When the World Closes, Costa Rica, Green Northern Spain and the Unexpected Pull of Home
The Big Travel Podcast
Just as the world was closing Sam McManus from YellowWood Adventures took a daunting gamble and hopped on a plane to Costa Rica. We talk about how the pandemic can change travel (even for the better), tourism being potentially a means for good, eco-tourism and re-forestation, surfing, small pueblos in the green hills of Northern Spain, his wonderful travelogue about his explorations - Wax and Gold Journeys in Ethiopia & Other Roads Less Travelled - and feeling the pull of friends, family and home.
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120. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; Travel Opens Up, Vaccines, Quarantine and a Call to Action to The Government
The Big Travel Podcast
Good news at least for those people who have had two UK administered vaccines. From 19th July we can now go to amber list countries without quarantining on return. BUT at the moment this is just for UK administered vaccines meaning the country is not yet open to inbound tourism. Travel needs to be two-way! We need people in the UK to support our business too. Whilst we are aware it needs to be done safely we also need to get aviation and travel moving even further.
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119. UK TRAVEL UPDATE; New Rules, Traffic Lights, Vaccinations
The Big Travel Podcast
A Big Travel Podcast special on the latest UK Travel Update; the new rules, the changes in the traffic light ratings, vaccinations soon to be taken into account and much more. A ten minute episode of essential listening.
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118. Olly Mann; Guns On Trucks in Malawi, Swim-Up Bar Piña Coladas, Greyhounds and The American Dream
The Big Travel Podcast
Olly Mann, from Answer Me This podcast fame, his new The Retrospectors and much more, loves nothing more than researching trivia especially with travel. We talk Wrigley’s chewing gum and decapitation, leaving your baby outside a pub, people who get erections on public transport, a love for Luton Airport, the misleading American Dream, cocktails worth shortening your life for, having a bottom accident on an African roadside (yes this episode does feature the S word) and much more.
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117. Huw Wyn; Arabian Nights in Cairo, Hitching Through Nepal, Tibetan Medicine in Scotland and Tom Hardy Dropping into his Festival
The Big Travel Podcast
Into The Wild Festival promoter Huw Wyn grew up in his mother’s hotel in Wales then moved to Spain. We talk growing up feral in Andalucia, hitchhiking across Europe, fish-packing in the Netherlands, Glastonbury, Arabian Nights in Cairo, the poetic side of being a London bin man, orphanages in India, Mother Theresa in Calcutta, meeting the Dalai Lama, studying Tibetan medicine in Scotland, the remote Buddhist kingdom in Ladakh, hitching 2000 miles through Nepal, Tom Hardy at his festival and much
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116. Anne Sebba; Parisian Women and Nazis, Film Stars in Rome, ‘Communists’ in Sing Sing Prison
The Big Travel Podcast
The author of one of Lisa’s favourite books, Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s, Anne Sebba explores the lives of women ‘writers and fighters’. As a journalist and author she's worked in film-star-filled 70s Rome, moved to New York with a baby, camped in the Mexico desert with Wallis Simpson’s free-diving step-son, had her camera film thrown into the Ganges while tracing Mother Theresa and, for her most recent book on Ethel Rosenburg, to Belarus and Sing Sing
info_outlineInto The Wild Festival promoter Huw Wyn grew up in his mother’s hotel in Wales then moved to Spain. Lisa and Huw talk growing up feral in Andalucia, hitchhiking across Europe, dropping fish-packing in the Netherlands to run off to Glastonbury, the Arabian Nights vibe of Cairo, the poetic side of being a London bin man, working in an orphanage in India, Mother Theresa in Calcutta, meeting the Dalai Lama, studying Tibetan medicine in Scotland, the remote Buddhist kingdom in Ladakh, hitching 2000 miles to Mount Kailash in Nepal, Tom Hardy at his festival, rewilding, den-building and much more.
On this episode we cover:
Growing up ‘feral’ in Spain
Mopeds and sunshine
The contrast of rural Spain
Drunk teachers having affairs
Leaving school at 15 tempted by the beach
Festivals after Covid
Running Into The Wild
The largest nature based festival
Wildcrafts, bushcrafts, fire making
A very child-friendly festival
Spending lockdown walking through the South Downs
Gary Schneider – ‘become famous for five miles’
Discovering the frogs, swans, buzzards and deer
Realising how much wildlife has been lost
Becoming passionate about rewilding
Knepp Castle – West Sussex
Setting up Wilder Lands, wild weekends
Workshops in denmaking, yoga, meditation
Writing handwritten letters to David Attenborough
Jay Griffiths – Wild
Alan Watson Featherstone
Folklore, mythology, rewilding
Tom Hardy turning up at his festival
Lisa bumping into Huw all over the place
Following a ‘wild bunch of English travellers’ to Morocco age 16
Hitchhiking across Europe
The Argentinian priest he met in the Alps
Getting a lift off the only one-legged lorry driver in France
Joining the free-festival scene at Glastonbury
Bunking in for free and having his mind blown
Working in a fish factory in Holland
Finding Egypt life-changing
Taking a boat up the Nile
The Arabian nights vibe of Cairo in the 90s
The poetic side of being a bin man
The lasting impact of losing his dad age 6
The old monastery in Anglesey his mother turned into a hotel
Working in an orphanage in India
Meeting Mother Theresa in Calcutta
Meeting the Dalai Lama
The culture shock of staying with the India High Commissioner
From having to kick out the rats in the loo
Being picked up in a bomb-proof Daimler
Staying in the room Princess Diana was in the week before
Dining with the ambassadors
Travelling to the remote Buddhist kingdom in Ladakh
The shock death of his girlfriend’s brother mountain climbing in Canada
Rushing back to the UK for the funeral
Meeting a man in a London nightclub who took him back to India
Studying in a Tibetan monastery in Scotland
Hitching 2000 miles to Tibet's Mount Kailash in the back of trucks
Being arrested by the Chinese
Hanging out with nomads
Barely recognising himself in a mirror
Eggs, chips and cold beer in Nepal being the best meal he ever had
Sitting on the roof of a bus on the way to Kathmandu
The old blind women singing at a Sufi festival
Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Iceland and the Mid Western American states of Arizona, Utah, California
The out of this world landscapes of the USA
The American RV travelling culture
Missing people and places all over the world
His mother and grandmother’s extraordinary lives
Losing his father age 6
Lisa planning to get his 82 year mum on the podcast
How it all could have gone badly wrong!
Teaming up with Brighton author Neil Ansell – The Last Wilderness - to buy land for a rewilding project