Renata: So, what is your recent experience of travelling?

John: I've actually not travelled much abroad, erm, apart from conferences associated with my research for quite a long time now. But erm as a kid I always wanted to travel. I read a lot of books about about travel and I- I was always fascinated by what I read about other countries, so I worked abroad three- three times. I worked in Africa, er I worked in Singapore, and I've worked in North America, and each of those jobs gave me [the] opportunity to travel in surrounding countries so I travel- I saw a lot of countries in Africa,

Renata: Mmm.

John: and off the coast, Madagascar, and Mauritius, and so on. I travelled a lot from Singapore. Saw a lot of South east Asia. And in er North America I lived in Colorado and er I I travelled a lot and saw most of er South West and North Western states , North East, and down- down to Mexico as well.

Renata: M-hmm. Any particular country that stuck in your mind?

John: Erm, I mean Am- America is [an]amazing place. It's got such a variety of scenery, i- and erm if you love mountains and you love deserts then y- you you love erm the United States. Erm, the Himalayas were fantastic, er northern Pakistan. I travelled around Kashgar in the in the er n- north west of China, and nn- that that was amazing. Erm, the- so many amazing places an- and all very different, yeh.

Renata: Eh- was there any particular country that you would think I would never go again?

John: I- I found India - you were taking about India - and I found India very difficult. It was it was e- very hot when we went there. It was forty -seven degrees and a lot of people, I think, were bad tempered because of the heat, so travelling was- was very difficult. Travelling in China in 1986 was difficult because of my limited Chinese, and er it wasn't set up for tourists. Erm so we, it was difficult to to [find places to] sleep and so on.

Click image for full size worldmap and use click-magnification to zoom in and out