Tahir Shah

“There is nothing like a train journey for reflection.”

— Tahir Shah

Contemplation is a luxury, requiring time and alternatives.

— Tahir Shah

“Bombay is a city where gossip is treated as a commodity.”

— Tahir Shah

“Stories are a communal currency of humanity.”

— Tahir Shah

“Exploration is a dirty game.”

— Tahir Shah

A little imagination goes a long way in Fes.

— Tahir Shah

With an enthusiastic team you can achieve almost anything.

— Tahir Shah

Money spent on good-quality gear is always money well spent

— Tahir Shah

“The last thing we wanted was for the Machiguenga to be sad again. Sadness appeared to bring out their violence.”

— Tahir Shah

The first rule of an expedition is that everyone should stick together.

— Tahir Shah

“The idea of my heart dancing with delight was far too good to pass up.”

— Tahir Shah

“The only thing they valued higher than ammunition were Man United footballs.”

— Tahir Shah

Enlightenment, and the death which comes before it, is the primary business of Varanasi.

— Tahir Shah

Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.

— Tahir Shah

“It was an awkward moment. We were burning down our host's house, a situation which any guest seeks to avoid.”

— Tahir Shah

Any man who has ever led an army, an expedition, or a group of Boy Scouts has sadism in his bones.

— Tahir Shah

“At the dealership, I pulled out the sieve and toyed with it threateningly. When the salesman was ready for me, I held…

— Tahir Shah

“I'm a fool, that I should simply trick the tourists like everyone else. after all, most of them will never come back.…

— Tahir Shah

I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too…

— Tahir Shah

Through bitter experience I have learned that it is best to promise little and then to reward hard work with generosity.

— Tahir Shah

For me, a journey to Damascus is an amazing hunt from beginning to end, a slice through layers of history in search…

— Tahir Shah

Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and…

— Tahir Shah

The pursuit of illusion is not about studying for prizes, or for study's sake. There's no right or wrong, no pass or…

— Tahir Shah

“The quest for a lost city erodes your body, damaging you beyond all reason. But it is your mind that bears the…

— Tahir Shah

Back at the Chateau Windsor there was a rat-like scratching at the door of my room. Vinod, the youngest servant, came in…

— Tahir Shah

“You have no idea. when you're a salesman here in Marrakech medima, lying is the first thing you learn. generation after generation,…

— Tahir Shah

During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The…

— Tahir Shah

“An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or,…

— Tahir Shah

The mere mention of the Farakka Express, which jerks its way eastward each day from Delhi to Calcutta, is enough to throw…

— Tahir Shah

The backstreet cafe in Casablanca was for me a place of mystery, a place with a soul, a place with danger. There…

— Tahir Shah

“Osman and Prideep had been in my employment for some weeks. Every Friday I would take the to lunch. It was the…

— Tahir Shah

Once in a very long time you come across a book that is far, far more than the ink, the glue and…

— Tahir Shah

“I take reeds from the river that have been nurtured by fresh water and grown in good soil, and I turn them…

— Tahir Shah

A man who embarks on a journey must know when to end it.

— Tahir Shah

In India everything has a use and a value.

— Tahir Shah

“As I saw it, a little threatening was a good thing. It kept the men on their toes.”

— Tahir Shah

The desert was bad, but nothing could compare with the horrors of a tropical rain forest.

— Tahir Shah

For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.

— Tahir Shah

A journey, I reflected, is of no merit unless it has tested you.

— Tahir Shah

“I had learned years ago never to give original documents to anyone if I could help it.”

— Tahir Shah