hi all,

just been getting into ricky gervais, stephen merchant and karl pilkingtons new series on one of the english networks i get out here. its based around pilkingtons adventures around the globe in taking in the seven wonders of the world. the problem is though hes is a like a fish out of water, which i suppose is the reason why gervais and merchant picked him for such a show. hes generally not a well traveled person, questions and complains and mostly doesn't have a good time of it. makes good t.v. though !

whilst watching, it got me to thinking of all the times Ive come across people on my travels that have the same kind of traits. the most obvious ones being of course my fellow countrymen and women usually moaning about the fact that they can never get a decent cup of tea and thats all they would talk about from start to finish, until they were back on the flight home to the u.k.. then there was the time i spent out in israel when a young lady from essex asked me why they never served pork in the the kibbutz dining room at meal times. a guy i got talking to from n.carolina one night in a bar in durban , who asked me why there were so many black people in s.africa.

i could list many more occasions when ive had to tell someone to take a reality check, especially out here in thailand, but i think you get my gist.

so anyone else met any of these strange breed of characters whilst on their travels ?

oh heres the links to the show btw if anyones interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUTH1coLIWE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TChZa-GfAtA

My brother made a comment about this chap on his FaceBook page, I now know what he is talking about, so thanks for that..... plus it is absolutely hilarious.

Not long ago I was asked by a young British lad where he could see a pineapple tree.....

I kept him amused for 5 or 10 minutes before revealing to him that pineapples were just like haggis and had to be shot on the wing at dawn..

.

Not long ago I was asked by a young British lad where he could see a pineapple tree.....

I kept him amused for 5 or 10 minutes before revealing to him that pineapples were just like haggis and had to be shot on the wing at dawn..

.

At DAWN!!!!!! No wonder I never got one...I was told at dusk.

Haggis I mean....I'm smart enough to know that pineapples grow underground like carrots.

Actually, my parents had our newly-arrived (in Fiji) Swedish neighbours believing that about pineapples.

Had a couple of western females in the village during their gap year a while back. They hated the creepy crawlies, I took great pains to explain to them that many are seasonal and some would be disappearing soon to be replaced by even weirder ones. Whilst I had them in terror-mode, I went on to explain how many things are seasonal in Thailand and asked if they had been told to buy hard-hats, when they said no, I told them that they had better stay indoors next month, as that's when meteor season starts.

With the look on their faces, I couldn't stop the grin on mine quickly enough.

At last, someone started a thread about me.

At last, someone started a thread about me.

You're Karl Pilkington? Cool. I will boast to my mates that I know you online.

I watched the first part of this the other day, he went to china to see the great wall & they were trying to get him to eat odd food, he had about 50 packs of crisps in his suitcase & got worried cause they were running out. funny to hear his commentary whilst watching a chinese girl eating bugs on a stick.

karl pilkington, manchesters very own homer simpson. part 1 china.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4ZyNGLFMP0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0klqwbTMS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlkiUqmW0QI

I was alright. Felt a bit 'cobbled together'. Ricky's laugh is a bit annoying though.

HERE I AM !

I watched about 45 minutes of that earlier today.

................

I honestly don't know whether to laugh or be embarassed.

I enjoyed it, but would have liked to have seen him eat more of the food. Funny when he stabbed the camera man!!

And agree, Ricky's laugh is a tad annoying.

Have you seen the next one, when he goes to the Taj Mahal?

Befuddled Brits abroad

The most common lingual mistakes made by British holidaymakers while overseas include calling Greek locals a "squid", asking for a "condom" at breakfast, and declaring yourself "pregnant" to a French waiter.

The Greek word for "good morning" - "kalimera" - bears a resemblance to "calamari ", while "Je suis plein" means "I am full" in French, but when mispronounced as "pleine", translates as "I am pregnant".

In Portugal and France, the word for "condom" is "preservativo" and "preservatif" and is sometimes mistakenly used when asking for jam.

Other mistakes include one holidaymaker who asked for her "head baked al forno" when wanting a hairdryer.

A traveller in Hong Kong who told locals she worked as a "prostitute".

The study also revealed that 95 per cent of Britons attempt to speak some of the local language on holiday, particularly those travelling to Spain or France.

The most commonly used words and phrases were "hello", "please", thank you", "goodnight", "where are the toilets?" and "a bottle of house red". (Source: Telegraph.co.uk)

It's a reasonably amusing programme though some of the set up's are obviously rehearsed and edited to show Pilkington up as a fool.

Personally what I like about the show is his honesty and sometimes he hits the nail on the head with his comments.

No longer available.

I am sure it is on u toob.

I object to upstarts trying to steal sounders mantle

I am sure it is on u toob.

Patsy, not being nasty, but do you board at You Tube.?

All you seem to post these days, are YT stuffs.

There's nothing wrong with youtube, there's loads of good stuff on there to watch.

It's entertainment, that's all.

I don't just watch music on You Toob, I watch documentaries which make me cry, I watch fun stuff and I enjoy it. I do not have Satellite TV in my home, so what I can't see on TV I watch on u tube.

Just been going through Banged up Abroad, now into The World's Strictest Parents - great stuff. And the Idiot Abroad.

Tonight is munchy night - Strictly Come Dancing, X Factor, the Piers and Rod Stewart. All on the computer. Feet up.

With a good meal and a nice bottle of vino...

And after all that I will probably bore you lot with some 80's musak!!! Or just go crash...

We have something called Zatoo in Swissland which lets me watch BBC and ITV on the computer.

As I said, tonight is MUSIC night!!!

Get me jammies on - and rock.

I'm currently watching never mind the buzzcocks for some easy viewing to nurse me through my hangover.

I too love the documentaries, especially the science and nature stuff. Professor Brian Cox is ace, whereas David Attenborough is god

oh...this is such a wonderful story but it's long and I don't want to go into details but suffice to say that I was 15 y/o and one evening found myself with a couple of dump truck drivers in the bolivian jungle headed toward the nearest chicheria on foot from our jungle road maintenance installation (my uncle was the engineer in charge and I was on my summer holidays)...it was about 10pm but there was moonlight...

these two guys were coarse types but one was friendly and I knew enough spanish by then to get by and they spoke between themselves in quechua and I knew that they were up to something...then the other guy said 'yew like the girls around here? (referring to the local cholitas, the indigenous girls)...I said, yeah sure, they're pretty girls...then he growled 'well, ye better watch out as their genitals are arranged this way' and he made an horizontal gesture across his crotch (sus chuchas son asi!)...

as I was only 15 and had never contemplated female genitals before I felt that his suggestion was plausible and nodded to indicate my fascination...

an innocent idiot abroad...later we tapped the freshly delivered barrel of chicha laying in the chicheria forecourt and we sat in candle light with the ancient inca brew in a scene that I'll never forget...

I just watched the latest one when he goes to Machu Pichu. Great fun.

I just watched the latest one when he goes to Machu Pichu. Great fun.

it really happened, honest...I know that it sounds fantastic (derived from fantasy) but there we were in the candle light and I had the truck driver Raul's profile outlined as they chatted with the duena, an indigenous lady, in quechua with the free flowing chicha which is cheap; cost then in 1965 about USD0.50 for a large jarra (pitcher)...but I remember that it was mild chicha dorada that is mildly alcoholic...you could only get the strong chica clizena or punatena back up over the pass back in the Cochabamba Valley...bein' in the jungle you had to drink what you could get...

didn't have no beer locally, ye had to go into the nearest town Villa Tunari where all they had was room temperature Cerveza Taquina as there was no electricity and no refrigeration...chicha is meant to be drunk at room temp. so I got useta it pretty fast...

the whole area is now overrun by narcotraficantes...them were simpler days...

an', I can't help it if i was only 15 y/o...just the usual bizarre combination of circumstances...that produces a story...that I now present to you to enjoy...

I also had a big hat and a machete as my job on the road crew was to clear brush from the culverts that ran under the road...paid USD1.00 per day from the bolivian servicio de caminos...somebody managed to find me some ill fitting boots that did OK...my next paying job was at a MacDonalds in California a few years later...in the meantime I attended high school under the bolivian baccalaureate system...

harsh?...nah, I turned it into a party and had a great time for most of the time that I was there...