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Documentary
SEASONED traveller Joanna Lumley shares some of her best travel adventures with viewers in this series Joanna Lumley's Postcards.
The actress recalls some of her journeys to far-flung places across the globe, beginning with her journey along the Nile and her stop-offs along the way. Highlights of her trip include a camel ride to Egypt's most famous landmark, the pyramids at Giza, her tour of the ancient tomb of Queen Qalhata in Sudan, filled with fascinating hieroglyphics, and undergoing a Sudanese beauty treatment.
The actress recalls her journey around mainland Greece. She begins in Athens with a trip to the Parthenon, a temple to the goddess Athena built nearly 2,500 years ago. Joanna also visits a festival where fortunes are read out to large crowds, although the revelations are often quite shocking and rude, watches the singer Nana Mouskouri perform at the ancient Epidaurus theatre and ends her trip with a visit to the mountain monasteries of Meteora.
The actress recalls her mammoth journey across Russia - a country she visited as a young model - as part of her 6,000-mile trip along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Highlights include a tense border crossing and drinking gold-flaked vodka with an oligarch.
The actress recalls her journey across the Greek islands. She starts out on the island of Evia, where she engages in an ancient language of whistling with the local people, and on Kos she visits the birthplace of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. Travelling to Nysros she carefully climbs a slumbering volcano, before setting sail for Crete, where she spends time in the mountains with shepherds and learns how their ancestors played a key role in the fight against Nazi occupation.
The actress recalls her journey through China and Mongolia on board the Trans-Siberian Express, and her various stop-offs along the way. Highlights include walking the Great Wall of China at dawn, cruising through the streets of Beijing in a Rolls-Royce and a visit to a strange restaurant boasting a Chairman Mao cabaret. She also recalls milking horses with Mongolian nomads, and hearing the music of the Mongolian throat singers.
The actress recalls the second half of her journey along the Nile. She learns how the waters at the source of the river in Uganda are believed to have powers of healing - and gets accidentally baptised. Joanna also goes on safari, where she encounters shoebills, hippos, rhinos and crocodiles, attends an early morning service at one of the many monasteries and samples the national dish. Last in the series.
Cast
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure is a 1999 BBC television documentary presented by Michael Palin. It records Palin's travels as he visited many sites where Ernest Hemingway had been. The sites include Spain, Chicago, Paris, Italy, Africa, Key West, Cuba, and Idaho. After the trip was over Michael Palin wrote a book about the journey and his experiences. This book contains both Palin's text and many pictures by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was on the team.
Michael Palin embarks on an epic, revelatory journey through Iraq, one of the most dangerous and complex countries in the world. Following the Tigris river for over 1,000 miles, from its source in eastern Turkey to the Persian Gulf, Michael wants to discover what life is like for the 40 million people who live in Iraq.
The cameras follow Joanna Lumley as she travels from East to West on a Trans-Siberian adventure. She starts in Hong Kong and crosses 5777 miles of both Asia and Europe, through seven time zones, taking in an immense panorama of vistas and cultures, people and places, before her final arrival in Moscow.
