Bizarre Bolivian rituals, a penchant for shiny things and wit switched on 24/7... u00a0Globe trekker host Ian Wright is on a roll

Do you ever stop yourself and say, 'Nope, can't do that in front of the camera'?

We have to have our own moral code or things that may be not even moral,but things we might feel uncomfortable about personally. So if there's something that I feel is uncomfortable, personally or morally, I feel, no, that's out of order.
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In Chile, the llama farmer just herded up his entire llama and the director's going, "Just walk through all the herds, scattering them," and I agreed. It would look brilliant and it would be funny, but it's well out of order. You can't do things like that.

And there was another time where we were talking to people, tribal people, in Fiji, and none of us understood a word and we were just having a laugh with them and filming me eating beetle nuts. When we finished, the cameraman sent me in, asking me to "Make one of the farmers laugh," and shoved the camera right in his face and he was like, "Make him laugh now," to get a cutaway. I understand why but that's treating people like objects, so I said that I'm not going to do that because it pissed me off.u00a0u00a0



Isn't there too much pressure on you to be witty all the time?

I'm not sure, because it's just the way your personality is and the way you look at the world and the only reason why I got the job and the only reason why I've been so successful for 15 years. If I dried up and had no more jokes, I wouldn't last two minutes.

There's always something because every situation is so fresh.u00a0u00a0

Since you like travelling so much, have you ever wandered off on your own?

Only if I'm shopping. I get distracted by shiny things. They'll be filming, getting some cutaways, and then I see a shiny thing in the shop and I am gone.

What was it like visiting Vienna, the birthplace of Hitler, in this season of Globe Trekker for the World War II special?

We didn't do too much of a Hitler thing when we were in Austria. We did just where he was up on the balcony doing his speech and stuff. We didn't go to his birthplace or his thing in the mountains or anything like that. Austria's quite a safe place but no big undercover Hitler stories, I'm afraid.

Has there ever been a moment that wasn't captured on camera but which you treasure and/or loathe?
One of the bizarre ones was in Bolivia when we went to this small village where every year at the beginning of harvest, they pour a bit of blood and alcohol on the ground so they have a good year. It's like an offering for a good harvest, but these villages do it differently.

Two villages converge on one village and get pi***d all night on this dodgy liquor and khat leaves so, come ten o'clock in the morning, everyone in that village is utterly off their face.

Then they dress up in these conquistadors, Spanish conqueror stuff.u00a0 A bell goes, and all they do all day is kick each other. You've got a men's section. Then you look at the corner and there's the women's section, and they're all beating each other up. In another corner there's a boy's section. It's absolutely insane.

And then they'll have a break and there's one copper that controls the whole thing, and he's got a whip and he's got talcum powder with sulphur in it, which he squirts into people's eyes when they get a little bit too aggressive and too insane.

And there's me, right in the middle of it. So on the one hand, it's the best, and it's also the worst because I'm there and then it stops and everyone looks around and there's a silly little western boy going, "Oh, hello, hello." Of course, the camera crew is all up on top of a balcony going, "Get in there and get a bit closer.

Get a bit closer."u00a0 And I'm like, "You're joking, aren't you?" And we had to do a big run out of that place. That's why it got a little bit dodgy. So we had to grab our bags and go because they were like, "Well, this is a bit mad."u00a0

You make a rapport with your drivers during every trip. Do you keep in touch?

Yes, there are a few that I still send some dodgy status quo tapes to, like the one in Mongolia, and Libya is another one, because the drivers know more about their country than the people that you usually hire to be shown around, because that's their lives. They go to every city.

They're every day, so they're bound to know more. And also, they're a bit more down to earth and stuff, and they all love rock music for some absurd reason, especially in Mongolia.

When do travel show hosts retire?

They don't retire. They just have to be removed by force, because obviously they're never going to leave, are they?u00a0 You're never going to leave the best job in the world, so you have to be taken down by someone, so some young buck has got to come.

Would you ever write a book based on all your travels?u00a0

Yes, I am going to write. It's just that I've been lazy with it. I enjoy writing but I don't think I'm particularly good at it. I've got so many sketches and drawings and paintings that I've done from all those experiences that now, I'm in the position to write a little scrapbook of all my travel memories. And that'll come out next year. I promise you that.

Starting tomorrow, a new season of Globe Trekker will air on Discovery Travel & Living every Monday night at 9 pm