Who has had the most influence on you?
The person who has had the most influence on my life would be a TV documentry presenter and journalist called Alan Whicker.
Alan Whicker, who died in 2013 was my hero from being a small boy. As a child I would watch his travel documentries, 'Whicker's World' in which he wandered the world talking to interesting people with amazing stories to tell in incredible and often remote parts of the world. They were often on late at night so would have to do a lot of chores and try to be as good as possible to allow me to beg my parents to stay up late and watch, but it was worth it. I was awestruck at the places he visited and the sights he saw. As a kid from a small mining village it was like watching some sort of alternative universe.
He was always so smartly dressed and so polite with his interviewees but was never afraid to ask awkward questions, some of which made me squirm and Imwondered how he dare. His journalistic background shone through though and some of his more controversial subjects were not getting away lightly.
I wanted to see what he saw, I wanted to go to these places and meet interesting people around the world too.
My favourite of his programs were the ones where he visited Hong Kong, especially in the late 60s and 70s and even today I can watch these shows again and again on DVD and You Tube.
Hong Kong at that time was still under British rule as it had been leased from China on a 99 year lease in 1898. For me it was an incredible melting pot of East meets West. Traditional trading junks filled the harbour plying their goods and the streets were awash with weird and wonderful food and animals awaiting the pot and the language was loud and foreign. Skyscrapers and buildings were being constructed everywhere and this whole melee was punctuated by aircraft banking low across the harbour as they made their short final into the infamous Kai Tak airport which was bang in the city centre. Alan would be there, at the British press club sipping on a dry Martini. He was the James Bond of travel journalism!
It wasn't about the travel and glamour and the average working people with interesting tales tomtell he interviewed. He was so respected, he got excousive and now famous interviews with somemofmthe most evil leaders then world has ever known including Papa Doc Duvalier and Idi Amin. He was still a true journalist at heart.
After I left school, I started a career, went back to university and my thoughts of exotic faraway destinations all but forgotton. Marriage and mortgage soon followed until 2004 when everything changed.
In 2004 my business collapsed, soon followed by my marriage and home. Everything gone. I was sat one day on the computer when I came across an knterview with Alan Whicker in which he was reminiscing about his life and his travels.thatnight I booked a ticket to Laos as I hadnsomemonline friends there and 4 days later found myself in a small guest house in downtown Vientiane, sweating profusely and staring at a plate of god knows what!
Two weeks later upon returning home, the bug had bitten and over the next 7 years, my travels had become longer than my time in the UK and I eventually got myself into a position where I could settle down again, this time in Thailand, not my first choice but a very good close second and very easynto live simply and cheaply.
Hong Kong?
Yes, I went many times, usually bookending a trip and I visitied all the places that were left that he had visited and tried to recreate those times I saw onthe TV so many years ago. Sadly though, Hong Kong had reverted to Chinese rule at the end of the lease and their were no Junks on the harbour. The airport had long since closed and was now out off town however, I still treat myself to a cocktail at The Peninsula Hotel where the Green Rolls Royces still ferry the guests to and from the airport and take a trip across to the Island on the Star Ferry. One of the last steps back into a bygone era and I smile and raise a glass to Alan Whicker, the man who gave me a love of travel and inspiration to meet all the amazing and interesting people I've met over the years from all around the world!
Apart of ocassional clips on TV I've never actually watched much of Alan Whicker. But I think its great how you were sort of able to retrace your hero's footstep on HK.
He was great. He had this quintessential English style and demeanour from a bygone age and I guess was the first TV globetrotter. He just fuelled my childhood dreams!
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