Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon called a very special recording for you today because I am with my dear friend Alvinda Singh Bahal.

It has brought out a very nice coffee table book called The Tireless Traveller, A Lifetime of Exploration.

This is a beautiful book, taking people around the world with you.

I reached America May 9, 1975 as a business person.

I was in the import-expert business, and I used to travel to Taiwan very often and to India to export the garment business I was in the import export business. And I used to travel to Taiwan very often and to India to export the garment business I was in.

And I got addicted to travel.

And then it came a time when I had been to so many countries, people would say,

oh, how many countries you've been to?

And people started counting countries.

So I thought maybe it's better to visit every country

in the world, which I've done now. It's a very, very difficult thing to do, though. What was the

trickiest country to visit? I'll say Nigeria, Turkmenistan. Those are difficult countries to

get visa and all.

But I've been to countries where they've had problems.

But, you know, people go to different countries and they want to profess their way of life on those people.

They didn't invite me.

So I go there and I try to do exactly what they do and mix with the local culture

and I like traditions and cultures and that's why I travel. I like the local people and I

communicate with them and learn from them. But a number of the places that you must have been to

the US State Department and the British Foreign Office say do not go. I'm thinking here at places like

Somalia at the moment Venezuela and of course North Korea. I went to North Korea in 2009 and had a

great time there. As long as you're not looking for trouble, it's all right. 99.9% people in the word are decent people and they're not trouble.

...