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

Tahir Shah

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Tahir Shah
Age: 58
Born: 1966
Born: November 16
Author
Comedian
Explorer
Journalist
Novelist
Writer
London
England
History
Hunts
Ends
Layers
Search
Treasure
Amazing
Travel
Damascus
Beginning
Slice
Journey
Hunt

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In Morocco, before you even get to the matter of the sale, you have to coax the owner to sell.
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My father used to say that stories are part of the most precious heritage of mankind.
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Spend sixteen weeks in the jungle and you being to question your own sanity, especially when you are the one goading everyone else ahead.
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In moments of great uncertainty on my travels, I have always felt that something is protecting me, that i will come to no harm.
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Move to a new country and you quickly see that visiting a place as a tourist, and actually moving there for good, are two very different things.
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I felt sure we could gain the upper hand by putting ourselves in the mindset of the Incas.
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Real travel is not about the highlights with which you dazzle your friends once you're home. It's about the loneliness, the solitude, the evenings spent by yourself, pining to be somewhere else. Those are the moments of true value. You feel half proud of them and half ashamed and you hold them to your heart.
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On a harsh expedition, there's no space for anyone who does not intend to finish.
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I believe that Marrakech ought to be earned as a destination. The journey is the preparation for the experience. Reaching it too fast derides it, makes it a little less easy to understand.
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To be selfless, you would give charity anonymously, walj softly on the earth, and look out for others-even total strangers-before you look out for yourself. For the Arab mind, the self is an obstacle, an impediment, in humanity's quest foe real progress.
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The pursuit of illusion is not about studying for prizes, or for study's sake. There's no right or wrong, no pass or fail.
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For my father there was no sharper way to understand a country than by listening to its stories.
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During the days I felt myself slipping into a kind of madness. Solitary confinement has an astonishing effect on the mind. The trip was to stay calm and keep myself occupied. I spent hours working out how to break free. But trying to escape would have been instant suicide.
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Buy a house in a foreign country and, it seems, that anything which can go wrong usually does.
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The Occident has never found it easy to grasp the strange netherworld of spirits that followers of Islam universally believe exist in a realm overlaid our own.
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The taste for glory can make ordinary men behave in extraordinary ways.
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Previous journeys had taught me the danger of taking too much stuff.
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I was no longer troubled when he pulled out a machete in a crowded bar, tried to pick up schoolgirls, or threatened to scalp us, then rip off our heads and scoop out our brains.
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Most journeys have a clear beginning, but on some the ending is less well-defined. The question is, at what point do you bite your lip and head for home?
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There’s nothing quite like a good quest for getting your blood pumping.
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