For most of his career in career, Mikey Robins sat safely behind a radio desk or on a TV – often as a panelist during the good week or presenter on Triple J.
But in the early 2000s, the comedy took him to a very different place: Afghanistan. Robins made a two-week stay there during the war as an artist for the troops. Here, the author, the broadcaster and the actor tells us about this not so linked travel experience and shares memories of some less cortisol holidays.
Who makes an excellent travel companion?
My wife, Laura, was my excellent travel companion to take place for 30 years. I say that not only because we have the same interests and the two like to lose a little in big cities, but, above all, we know that of truism about a couple traveling together: no matter how extent you You like, no trip is never finished until you have “argument”.
It can be on tiny things and with hindsight, they were especially all my fault. Usually they are quickly forgotten. Although I always remember something regularly that has been lowered as “the fusion of the large Vatican taxi”.
What is your first childhood vacation memory?
Let me warn you that it comes from a time to cruel less enlightened and far. I went to Shoal Bay during a caravan trip as a boy. It was the same weekend as a game fishing competition. It was long before the practice of capture and liberation, so me and other children spent the end of the afternoon at Run and die of sharks on shore. Absolutely horrible.
Describe your most memorable – good, bad or simply surprising travel meal.
About an hour’s drive east of Auckland, we found a store of fish and fries in a parking lot. “Have the fried fold,” we were told. We did it and the memory of this one always makes me smile. From time to time, I will meet someone who has eaten there too and we spend a lot of time delirious.
What is the most relaxing place you have ever visited?
Port Douglas is my happy place.
And the most stressful?
I did two weeks in Afghanistan by organizing music shows for the troops, which was fascinating but certainly not a place where you would go if you wanted to relax. Some of my friends, such as Tom Gleeson, Fiona O’Loughlin and Lehmo, had already left, so when I was offered a place, I took the opportunity. During all this time, we had a security detail with us and we never left the safety of the bases.
That being said, there was one night behind the scenes at Tarin Kowt when I observed heated points in red steating between two hilltes just outside the basic perimeter when one of the details commented dryly: “Yeah , they are what you think they are. ” There was also a bit of missile fright on the transport aircraft to Kandahar who definitively increased the pulse rate.
What is your vacation ritual?
After promoting the newsletter
I become nervous unless I take double the number of socks and underwear that I think I will need, and I make my luggage the day before. Always pack the day before.
What is your strategy to harden long-haul flights?
Give it – Stop checking how long the flight should go. Remember that at the end of the day, you are used for food and wine in a comfortable chair. You are not chained under the bridge rowing a Roman slave cuisine.
What is your greatest regret of travel?
Eat in places for tourists. There was the trattoria right next to the ‘Fiori campo, too expensive and bland. Maybe I should have known that something was happening when the server, discovering that I was Australian, assured me that in Rome, John Howard was still eating there.
There was a crisp pork restaurant in Bali which was highly recommended in one of these old tourist travel guides. The only reason to darken your door is if you have an overwhelming desire to lose 6 kg in two days, if you get my nausea drift.
And the Fusion restaurant in Kyoto. Now, as a Australian restaurant, I know a fairly wide variety of Eastern-West dishes, but I was not prepared for a raw tuna plate seated in a cabbage pastry drowned in the custard. And I was certainly not prepared for the attractive invoice that accompanied him.
It’s simple: eating where the inhabitants eat, it’s always cheaper, it’s always tastier and it’s always healthier.