One of my favourite British shows at the moment is An Idiot Abroad. It stars disgruntled Karl Pilkington as he reluctantly travels across the world to the amusement of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant who monitor his globe trotting from the comfort of home. In the first season Karl grudgingly sees the seven wonders of the world. One of my favourite episodes is when Karl visits Mexico to see the ancient city of the Mayans and the Chichen Itza. He arrives before dawn in anticipation of seeing the glorious sun ascending from behind the ancient bricks of a lost civilization, only to be greeted by a telephone call from his girlfriend Susan who can't figure out how to work the DVD player back in the UK. The series has a lot of these satirical moments, when the fantastical moments of travelling are eclipsed by the realities of it. He visits Egypt and the pyramids are overshadowed by paper napkins floating about in a small tornado of garbage, and when he visits the great city of Petra carved into the rocks of Jordan it is outshone by the oddly efficient postal service that delivers mail even to the most remote cave dwellers. In these moments the underbelly of travelling stories becomes unearthed and you realize the potential pitfalls of exploring. At times like these, high expectations are often underwhelmed and self deprecating humour is at its finest.
However, after finishing his phone call with Susan and walking around the ancient civilization further Karl decides to have a snack and meets an iguana. As he feeds the iguana bits of food he turns to the camera and comments that its amazing you can have something in common with something so different than yourself. Despite thousands of years between the two, they both enjoy a good snack together. In this moment Karl unknowingly, yet poignantly points out that it's not always the greatest wonders of the world that mystify the most, but instead the small wonders in the simple things. In the shared snack between an iguana and a bald headed man, in the small moments between different people taking part in an experience.
