DARA & ED's ROAD TO MANDALAY: A good travel show, but I'm still not going

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DARA & ED's ROAD TO MANDALAY: A good travel show, but I'm still not going

May 30, 2017 - 14:35
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Having never had any inkling to travel to Thailand to say nothing of having any desire to travel to south east Asia, I particularly enjoyed this documentary thanks primarily to Dara & Ed's witty banter.

Dara & Ed's Road to Mandalay

As well as bite-size dramas, the occasional episode of Emmerdale, quiz and irritating talent shows, I do enjoy a travel show. And the latest offering from the BBC has certainly held my interest.

I'm referring of course to Dara & Eds Road To Mandalay.

Having never had any inkling to travel to Thailand to say nothing of having any desire to travel to south east Asia, I particularly enjoyed this documentary thanks primarily to Dara & Ed's witty banter.

They make a fairly good double-act

In episode one, Dara O Briain and Ed Byrne arrive in Malaysia and whilst in Kuala-Lumpur (Malaysia's capital city) and in keeping with local traditional weekend activities, our heroes set off to watch a beauty pageant, for chickens.

Yes; you read that right. Chickens.
I suppose some would indeed find beauty in a chicken.

I mean I would too; provided of course that it's plucked, gutted, shoved in an oven at gas mark five for two hours, carved up and served on a large plate with an assortment of tasty vegetables, roasted potatoes, a couple of reasonably sized Yorkshire puddings thrown in and a good helping of gravy.

As Bernard Mathews might say, "Bootiful."
Anyway; back to Kuala-Lumpur.

Ed and Dara didn't raise many laughs when they did a spot at a stand-up comedy club called The Crackhouse. That's a catchy name eh? Ed later explains, “We struggled quite a bit getting the jokes to translate. I am grateful to how they edited it,”

So was I. Have to admit even I was cringing for them.

I've heard better jokes at a Britain's Got Talent audition. And if you have ever watched BGT, then you'll know, that's saying something.

Episode two sees our comedy un-dynamic duo moving steadily northward towards their final destination, Myranmar.

Thailand is without doubt a big tourist hot-spot with its beautiful beaches, historic temples and exotic nightlife. And it's here that we rejoin Dara and Ed as they continue on their journey.

Bangkok is huge, busy, brightly lit and beyond dispute, the single most visited destination in the world, closely followed by Phuket where at the appropriate time, they shut off certain beaches to the public so that the turtles can go lay their eggs.

You can almost hear the turtles muttering,
"Bloody tourists. They're everywhere."

Yet despite all the things Thailand has on offer, I couldn't help but wonder if the country was feeling the enormous pressure of its own popularity? The turtles were certainly feeling it.

Thailand first caught westerners attention during World War Two when the American GIs apparently used it often to get away from all that "gun-ho" stuff they're now sadly, so used to.

And when Thailand joined the United Nations after World War Two, its popularity as a tourist attraction greatly increased and quite frankly; Thailand's appeal, has never really faded since.

The final episode of this three part travel series sees Dara and Ed arriving in Myranmar, Mandalay (formally Burma)

Myanmar; a Southeast Asian nation of more than 100 ethnic groups, borders India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand.

Yangon (formerly Rangoon) is the country's largest city and is home to busy markets, beautiful parks and lakes, and the impressive towering Shwedagon Pagoda, that contains many Buddhist relics which apparently go back as far as the 6th century.

The series also sees Dara & Ed taking part in a Buddhist Light Festival, having their fortunes read using some chicken bones (Chickens? Again?) and trying their hand or more accurately their legs, in the art of leg rowing.

It would be interesting to see how Oxford and Cambridge would do with their annual boat race, if they adopted such a method.

I did enjoy this series however; it didn't in any way give me the urge to phone up my local travel agent and make a booking. Despite all the hype, I really wouldn't personally like to go to Thailand.

I'm not exactly enamoured of a country that took baby elephants from their adults, to exploit their "cuteness" for tourists to enjoy, and then simply dispose of them, when they got older.

Apparently elephant torture still goes on in Thailand. They are allegedly forced to work long hours, and often in bad conditions.

A very ugly way to treat such a beautiful creature.

No. I am more than happy to let the BBC go to these places for me, and then bring their findings to me via the more comfortable and cheaper medium of the telly. Granted; Dara O Briain and Ed Byrne were no match for legends Bing Crosby and Bob Hope . . .

But they made a pretty good effort.

If you would like to see the world, and like me, you can't afford to see all of it, then shows like Dara & Ed's Road To Mandalay, is without doubt; the next best thing. It's well worth watching.

It was a good travel show, but I'm still not going.

Dara & Ed's Road To Mandalay, is currently available to watch on the BBC's iPlayer service.

Thanks for reading.

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