4 min read
It’s easy being famous. It’s also fun. For a brief, unbelievable moment I was the most famous person on an entire island. But, as with many celebrities, I hadn’t really earned it. Up until then, I had only been a legend in my own mind. Now, with throngs of admirers surrounding me, the legend was made manifest… as though delivered from destiny. But in truth, it arrived from a bunch of giggling 15-year-old girls.
4 min read
Ever feel outnumbered? I don’t mean to sound like too much of a Western chauvinist, but on my Royal Jordanian flight to Amman I was definitely the outsider. My clothes, fair hair and blue eyes clearly set me apart from a sea of dark complexions and darker beards. Not that anyone else seemed to give a damn. They weren’t alarmed about my copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Or even when I started humming, “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head”. No one looked at me funny or reported me to the flight crew for being too white. Although they probably should have.
4 min read
My Taj Mahal isn’t the same as yours. Yours is probably that iconic marble mausoleum seen in travel brochures and magazines in dentists' offices. My Taj Mahal is a majestic Victorian hotel overlooking the port in Mumbai, that demands your undivided attention. Here are just a few who have passed through its welcoming doors - Mahatma Gandhi, Duke Ellington, John and Yoko, Sir Mick, Brad and Angelina, “W”, the Clintons, the Obamas, me and the guys… and 9 terrorists from Pakistan.