Explorers like to pretend that they are a select breed of people with iron nerve and an ability to endure terrible hardship. — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Only a man who has his health, a full stomach and wears clean clothes would ever entertain the notion of tracking down… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
There is nothing quite as unpleasant as wearing a pair of briefs which have been trailed through a Calcutta courtyard. Nothing, that… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Venture to a remote corner of a faraway land and, from the moment you get there, every person and every thing becomes… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
Visit Cape Town and history is never far from your grasp. It lingers in the air, a scent on the breezy, an… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“The porters could always be coaxed to continue a little further through driving rain by the mere suggestion of a Pot Noodle… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
A cross between a foreign legion boot-camp and a secret-society initiation ritual, the ordeals were grounded in pain. One thing was obvious:… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Previous experience had taught me that any expedition marches on its stomach.” — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“The situation was different in the jungle. Every inch of ground had to be earned, and was done so through much exertion… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“As the head of an expedition, you can't pussyfoot around being polite to everyone. You have to show your teeth once in a while;… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“The last thing we wanted was for the Machiguenga to be sad again. Sadness appeared to bring out their violence.” — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
If hot food is they key to maintaining an expedition's stamina, then low grade gut-rot alcohol is the key to sustaining its sense of… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Normally I would have been the first to go in search of cannibal monks, particularly as I had heard of a similar tradition at… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Inscribed on it was a verse from the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam, the eleventh-century Persian mystic. Reading the words aloud I prepared for a… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Moroccan traffic isn't like normal traffic. It's armed combat, a war of wills, in which only the very bravest have a chance to survive.” — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Prideep pointed to the flames of paraffin lamps as they came alive in the distance and cackled in awe at the experience. (…) I… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“The very fact that a Frenchman was prepared, after tow minutes of conversation, to be so friendly towards anyone, especially one who had come… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways. — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“As anyone who's ever taken an Ethiopian bus knows, there is an unwritten rule that the windows must remain firmly closed.” — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“In some warped way, having an embalmed body with us made perfect sense.” — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
“Back at the guest house I tried to acclimatise. A travel-worn adventurer had once told me that leaning with one's head dangling over the… — Tahir Shah Copy Share Image
