Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon & Supermodel Yasmin Le Bon | Why Scotland is Underrated!

0:00You're listening to Travel Secrets with Tanya Rose, the podcast that shares wisdom for fellow travelers.

0:09Welcome to Travel Secrets with me, Tanya Rose, the podcast sharing wisdom for fellow travelers. Each week, I ask my guests to reveal their six travel secrets and the holidays and adventures that surround them. I would just like to say thank you to Mason Rose, the sales and communication agency that represents some of the finest hotels around the world for partnering with Travel Secrets the podcast. Today my guests are the dynamic duo. This is my first threesome so let's hope it goes well. Mine too. We're not Batman and Robin by the way. We may look like Batman and Robin but. Welcome Simon and Yasmin Le Bon.

0:50I'm so happy to have you on Travel Secrets. I'm sorry you got that wrong. It's not Simon and Yasmin Le Bon. It's Yasmin and Simon Le Bon. Oh that's so funny. Welcome Yasmin and Simon Le Bon. Yay. He thought he'd get the brownie points in early. Yeah. When we were talking before we were talking about how an interview with three of us goes so you said it's got to be band rules but I don't think that's going to wait. Well band rules when we do band interviews one of the things we realize is that it doesn't work when people talk over the top of each other but maybe that's not the same in a marriage luckily we're not in a band together so i can break all those rules excellent so before we go into your travel secrets perhaps you could both tell me individually about yourselves and how travel has impacted the person that you have become who shall we start with yes you're so funny um do you want me to start i mean actually you know um holidays holidays no i'll start holidays are not something that i ever really grew up with but i was blessed to be half persian and half english and so in our summers my father used drive us all the way to tehran which is quite is quite a journey you know 4 000 miles there 4 ,000 miles back, no air conditioning, no CD player, no iPod.

2:18You know, my poor parents had to listen to my sister and I singing the same song, just one verse of House of the Rising Sun all the way there and back. How they didn't actually leave us at the roadside in Turkey, I have no idea. But that was a real joy. And I was incredibly lucky because it opened my eyes to other cultures, other food, other smells, tastes, sounds, everything. You're driving across through Europe and then into Bulgaria, Yugoslavia then, and then Turkey. So I was incredibly lucky. Quite gruelling, but quite brilliant. But holidays were not something that was really something that I grew up with.

3:02We felt lucky to be in Oxford. And maybe it was a generational thing. I don't know. People go on holiday a lot more now. How wonderful, though. I didn't leave the UK until I was 18 years old. Yeah, I went to Amsterdam. I remember taking off from Heathrow in this Boeing 37, 337 or something like that. No, small plane-ish. And it went sideways and I was terrified. Absolutely terrified. Look how far you've come now. I know. All the way from Amsterdam and back. And back again. Do you remember your time in Amsterdam or as a blur? It was nice. I stayed with my girlfriend. sister and her partner and we hung around in bars a lot of bars I remember how wonderful it was good fun I'm lucky enough to have but I joined a band and travel is a huge part of being in the entertainment industry well for a band like us anyway and I count myself really lucky that I've had the opportunity to go around the world, not just as a tourist, actually, but feeling that I'm working and feeling I'm actually contributing something.

4:19And does it help you get under the skin of that destination if you're working there? Do you feel like a local more or do you feel like you go in and out? I wouldn't say I feel like a local. I mean, I do a similar thing in that I would, you know, I'd jump on a plane, I'd be in and out of places so quickly. You get a different sense of how a place works, I suppose. but maybe not like a local um you you get doors open for you in different places places maybe that you wouldn't normally be able to go to yeah um I mean I remember one one of the my favorite things was I got to finally work travel to India and work in India I've been saving India up like my whole life I turned down trips to India go no no no no I want to go there when I'm going to travel there I don't want to go and do a shoot there that'll just ruin it finally realized that I'd still never been to India and so got the and so I'd got this trip I was booked for the second issue of Indian Vogue and went to Udaipur in Rajasthan and it was the most magical journey altogether for me I mean they were a wonderful crew incredible photographer it was like being in a movie I was like in a cast of thousands and it was just so magical and that's when I knew we had to go back I had to take you.

5:41Yas came back from that journey and said to me you've got to go you've really got to go I think one of your questions later on is going to be what one destination must you go to well we've got more than one that's the good thing. So we'll talk about India now because the number one question is what's the number one destination but let's talk about India and then you can have your other choices. I didn't say that India was the number one destination. It is extraordinary. She took me over there and I was absolutely bowled over by the colour, the noise, the people, I mean, the smells, the food, obviously.

6:24But the culture is so overwhelming. It is, the music. so the night the first time we went there do you remember we drove um to that uh fort a chitraga a chitraga yeah and um and they had uh they had a dinner for us they'd laid on a dinner for us and um there was a there's a little indian band playing while we sat down and ate and it was just magical oh fantastic yeah that place was very very did you sing with them did i sing with them No, I don't know neither lyrics Did they know your lyrics? They could have joined in I doubt it Oh, how funny Let's go on to the number one destination What do you think is the number one destination?

7:07We've got, well, this is the joint thing, right? Now, we both talked about this in the bathroom before we came here And I think the one place that Well, it's one place that everybody needs to go to Yeah I would say one of those places because we've got more than one is Scotland. You said it together, darling. I got my eye on you, sunshine. Don't you worry. Scotland. How wonderful. Yeah, because Scotland, it's so close, but it is so wild in places and so wonderful. And Scottish people are amazing. But it's beautiful. I mean, it's on your doorstep virtually. You've got somewhere where you can go, where you can't actually see the sight of man, the hand of man anywhere.

7:54It's so rugged and beautiful and unspoilt. And there's so much of it. I mean, you know, we've only been to a few places, but there is so much to see. Where did you go when you went there? Well, Perthshire. Oh, it's so beautiful. Which is really not that. Oh, Rannoch. I mean, Loch Tummel and Rannoch. Yeah. Gorgeous. I absolutely love it. We know a tiny little hotel on the banks of Loch Tummel. It's called The Inn at Loch Tummel. And it's fabulous. It's really, really wonderful. That's a great travel secret. Yes. No TV. No TV. Very small, very basic. Six rooms. I think six rooms have got more now.

8:38Six. I think it's just six rooms. And the food is amazing there. And it is beautiful. You're on the edge of just the most gorgeous scenery that, you know, through the day. And you know what Scotland's like. You can have four seasons in one day. And everything just changes. It's like this extraordinary movie in front of you. You wouldn't even have to leave. Did you drive when you went up there in your sort of rally car? Yes, I love driving up to Scotland. Love it. And there's that Skyfall film, you know, the James Bond one. They drive up to Perthshire to run it, I think. Right, yeah. Well, the A9 is such an amazing road.

9:15The beauty of there, though, if you want to stay there for any length of time, is that it doesn't get battered by the weather in the same way that East or West Scotland, I think, does. Really? Really? You'll happily sit there watching the weather forecast and it'll be telling you that it's absolutely appalling. You're sitting in sunshine. I know Yaz is very, very optimistic and rosily tinted when it comes to talking about the weather in Scotland because you think that they're saying it's terrible. I know what they do. What they do is they tell everybody it's terrible, so they keep the house prices down for the locals.

9:51I've got it. I've cracked it. I've cracked it. Well, I'm going to go to that place. It sounds absolutely wonderful. It is amazing. Scotland is amazing. I mean, it really is the land of the big sky. My brother went to school at Loughranagh. Oh, really? At Rannagh School. It doesn't exist anymore, but he had that every day on his doorstep. Oh, my goodness. Wow. How lucky. Lovely. And there's a new hotel that opened a few years ago called the Fife Arms. Have you heard of that? We've still got to go to it. Right, we've got to go to Five Arms. John and Gila are in there. They love it. Apparently it's incredible.

10:19Really, really great. That's definitely on our list. Yeah. So let's go on to the next one. What is the most unexpected? Oh, don't you want the other? Oh, yes, I want another because there are two of you. Please give me the other. There's two of us. Please give me the other. Well, this is mine because Yasmin kind of, she appropriated Scotland in the bathroom. And I was thinking, well, I've done a lot of work in Japan. I've been going there regularly since about, well, I first went there in the early 80s. And every time I go to Japan, I discover something different. It is extraordinary. The first thing that gets you is just how different the culture is because it's a culture.

11:05The way people think, the way people are, it is wonderful. And it really makes you stop and think and assess your own self and your own life, you know. I love the way they do things. It's the attention to detail. It's attention to detail. It's very beautifully done. It's like an alternative view of the world. I really think they see things in a different way. They look at things in a slightly different way. Not a hugely different way, but in a slightly different way. And I think we can all learn from that. Do you like the Japanese food? I love Japanese food. You particularly love Japanese food in Japan, though?

11:46I think it's very different actually I remember once I was staying there I was staying at the Okura Hotel and I got a little bit adventurous and I saw on the room service menu the little baby octopuses I thought I'd get some of those so they sent them up they came up on a tray on a table and I got my chopsticks and I pulled out tiny little baby octopus like that it was put it in my mouth I just spat it it was so fishy oh it was really unpleasant it was like concentrated fish taste really not something I like but I mean I've had I've also I've eaten things like squid stomachs which did you manage that yeah I mean they're very they don't really taste of a lot but they've got a really crunchy sort of almost like a radish crunchiness of of of squid stomach i think that's a good title for my autobiography the crunchiness of squid stomach i love i love all the cars there though and the and the trucks yeah the trucks you've never seen number one they're so clean but every single one is a different custom colour.

13:09Really? You know, you look at cars and vehicles here and everything's grey or just very monotone. You're really boring. There, they're joyful, have these microcars that are such joyful colours. Everything's about joy. There's a delivery company and their logo is a cat carrying a kitten in its mouth, you know, by the scruff of its neck. And it's on the side of these loaves. And they're all painted lilac. That's their livery. and yeah I mean they're really beautiful they make the whole street look beautiful yeah they do actually when when Jodie came and did the podcast a few weeks ago she arrived at the peninsula in this enormous truck I mean I've never seen a truck like it have you seen her truck it's like she's just got a Hilux isn't she I don't know it's huge big red thing anyway it was covered covered in mud and by the time she left they had validated the whole thing it was like It was hilarious.

14:04And she took it back down to Sussex to get it muddy. Exactly, get it muddy. Oh, it's so muddy. What is the most unexpected travel experience you've ever had? I'm going to Jasmine first. Ooh, unexpected travel experience. I mean, the one in the Mille Miglia sounded quite unexpected to me. Well, to be honest, that was a thank you very much, Simon. I think you'll find I was in the car. That was unexpected. Uncalled for, really. I would say more than unexpected. And we were, David Gandhi and I were, I mean, I was, you know, but I had David Gandhi in the car with me. It was pretty fabulous. We were in a race, race prepared XK 120 and I'm overtaking another car.

14:49I'm second in a line of overtaking cars. And yes, and I'm sorry, but the guy who I was overtaking didn't realize and really got the hump with the fact he'd already been overtaken. so decided that he was about to overtake. He didn't check his mirror, in other words. He didn't check anything. He didn't check his wing mirror. He and I could see he was turning, like he was pulling out, but we were right next to each other. I had pedal to the metal, so it was either we were going to be pushed off, which would mean we'd both be in a spin, or I had to make a split decision. See, I think you just could have clipped him and sent him into a roll over the edge.

15:29Yeah, fantastic. No, I don't think so. Anyway, luckily it all ended very well. You survived, got back in the car and completed it. And thrived actually. Actually had the best run after that. That would probably be my most unexpected of journeys. But you know, I hadn't, again, on one of the journeys to Iran, we managed to, my father was a really strong-minded character. Nothing fazed him ever. the only time I think I've ever ever seen him not frightened but that focused was when we were going across Turkey and in those days there was barely a proper road going through Turkey you wouldn't see anyone else in the road and we're in the middle of nowhere and this huge storm came out of just just nowhere when it was it was extraordinary it was like being in the dead of night um a thunderbolt hit the back of the car on one side were mountains where the rain started coming down it was like rivers pushing the car off the road my father couldn't see anything it was really really incredible I've never been in anything like it in a vehicle in my life how in the in the distance he saw a couple of lights we managed to pull into this little tiny place, this inn in the middle of nowhere.

16:55Anyway, that was astounding. I have to say that, Jen, because the next day we drove out and the boulders on the road were the size of houses. Oh, my God, how terrifying. It was really incredible. That's why you get your intrepidness from, I'm sure. Really incredible. After that, I mean, everything's just, you know, everything's a breeze after that. Do you have one that's unexpected and not quite as dangerous? I can't really compete with Yasmin on the unexpected stories. What I would say is way back in 1982 when we finished the album Rio, while Nick Rhodes stayed in London mixing the album, myself, John Taylor and Roger Taylor, unrelated, and Andy Taylor, unrelated, We all took a flight We took an Air India flight out To Sri Lanka I said I've not been to India I haven't been to India But I have been to Sri Lanka And none of us were expecting anything We just weren't So we didn't know what we were walking into We'd just come off making this album And they said right You're going to go to Sri Lanka to make the video So we went okay fine whatever And we got off the plane and it was extraordinary.

18:20We just didn't have any idea what it would be like. I suppose it was our first time really in a proper third world country. In a very different culture as well. Yes, and a lot of the things that I've talked about in India really apply to Sri Lanka too. But it was just that coming from one world to another, the culture shock was extraordinary. I mean, when Nick arrived, he arrived wearing his leather stage suit into 35 degree temperature. They said, we said, where are we going? They said, we're going down to a place called Gaul. Beautiful. And it was, they said, how far away is it? They said, oh, 60 miles.

19:06We thought, oh, we'll be there in half an hour, 45 minutes. it took it was like a four hour drive because of the way that the roads are and the way they drive wow they drive scary do they do like chicken like they do in India it's not so much that they're very good at figuring out where a car's not going to be when they go past that spot when we went there the food wasn't up to much everything was coconut it was all coconut But we stayed in a hotel which would become the Amangala Then when we were there it was called the New Oriental Hotel And it was owned by an English lady called Nesta A lovely, lovely English lady I got told off because I was by the swimming pool And I saw this palm tree And I thought, hang on, it's got coconuts on it Did you try to?

20:03Oh, I got a coconut off it I did I didn't tell a lie it had fallen on the floor and I picked it up and I found a knife and I cut it open and drank the juice and then I was told off for eating one of Nesta's coconuts I stayed in that hotel and it turned into the Amangala I know, I left my swimming trunks on a bush to dry in the sun and went off, and when I got back they were gone. Did a fan steal them? No, no, no. Apparently, this is what in Sri Lanka, if you leave things on bushes, it's for anybody to take. Fair game, yeah. So the next question is, what is your most overrated or underrated? It sounds like Sri Lanka was quite underrated, actually.

20:52You weren't expecting it to be as lovely as it was. Yes, absolutely. It was a beautiful, beautiful place. Have you got any overrated places that you've been to? We had a bad experience. Overrated, Los Angeles? So we went to a, ooh, that's contentious. Contentious. Underrated Sweden. Absolutely. Underrated, yes. Love Stockholm. Sweden's fantastic place to go. Love the archipelago out of Stockholm. I mean, sailing out of there is, it's just magical. Pure, pure, pure magic. Frankly. And who built Stockholm is what I want to know. Every time I go there, small country, must have been even smaller a couple of hundred years ago.

21:31Very simple answer to your question, yes. Look at all these massive buildings. Swedish people. Who built all of this and where are they now? There is the most beautiful hotel in Stockholm. Not one of my clients, but I think one of the best hotels I've ever been to. Et Hem. Et Hem. Yeah, I know. It is so gorgeous. Because that means at home, doesn't it? Yes. Okay. And it feels like that, doesn't it? It's just so beautiful. I love it. That's my little, Et Hem is always my reference for everything. It's like, have you seen, do you like that? Have you seen Et Hem? Yes. No, but it's so beautiful. Everything.

22:04She's got exquisite taste. Yeah, she really does. Really exquisite taste. It's a perfect, isn't it? Yeah, fantastic. I'll be honest with you. I think when you're talking about sort of overrated places, I mean, there's not many places that if you know about stuff. And of course, because of our experience, we tend to have an idea. There's not many places we go to that we're really disappointed by. That's good. And I think the other thing is it's got a lot to do with how you are. If you go somewhere wanting to find the best in it, wanting to enjoy yourself, then you probably will. If you go there a bit disgruntled and looking for the, you know, the holes in the carpet and the walls, you'll find them.

22:47Yeah, I agree. Totally agree. Absolutely. I mean, it's tough, isn't it? When people talk a lot about somewhere and you do build up expectations. simon's been lucky enough to tour in south america and i only got to go to brazil and was super super super sick really bad bad brazil belly for the entire time we were there but i've never traveled to argentina or chile and i'd absolutely love to go but i'm almost scared to do it now because i want to so much i've heard so much you know is it going to live up to my expectations now. I think it absolutely will. And recently, some great friends of ours actually took three months off and went backpacking around South America.

23:34Yeah, at our age. Our age. Really? Can you believe it? Can you believe it? That is amazing. How dare they? What were they thinking? That is amazing. Can I interrupt here now? Yeah. Oh, gosh, here we go. Okay, so a real surprise, another real surprise was Chile, the second time we went there. The first time we went there was during the Pinochet era. Pinochet was his Chile? Pinochet, yeah. Chile. And we went there. I remember people looked really sad and really miserable. I don't think the weather was very good when we were there the first time. It was a bit crap. And I came away thinking. It's a technical term.

24:11I came away thinking, oh, I actually never need to go there again, do I? And for some reason, many years later, on a much more recent tour, say about seven years ago, we went back on the Lollapalooza tour and we entered San Diego, Chile, and it was like a different world. It was wonderful. It's a different regime, a different political regime, you know, not an oppressive regime at all. People were happy. There was music everywhere. there was dancing they are the hippies of south america are they chileans definitely they're like they're the new age ones they're the ones where you find all the really interesting kind of food and a different take on things you know um they're very they're very they're spiritual they're very very spiritual people too but i think i think all of south america's got that running through it So you need to take Yasmin with you next time.

25:12You need to do another tour in South America. We'll go back there. I've been saving it up. Or even not at all. You'll go back. We'll just go there. Why don't we backpack? Go on holiday. Yeah. No, don't backpack. Well, I mean, when I say backpack, I mean kind of slightly luxury backpacking. Yeah. The other place you need to go is Costa Rica. Do you mean with Sherpas? I mean, butlers. People carrying your baggage for you. Put it down in the corner over there. You drive that on ahead. He picked that one up. To the other five star resort. Yasmin's done a climb up Kilimanjaro. No, have you? When you do have people carrying you.

25:45You really are so brave. Well, not really. And adventurous. I mean, I just filled in. My daughter had supposedly organised this with a great friend who then she couldn't do it. So for the sake of my daughter, and I still to this day question whether there was ever really a friend going or whether it was always going to be me because I was going to end up buying all the equipment, organising everything. But we did go up. I was the only person who couldn't summit, actually. I got terrible altitude sickness, which I knew was on the way. The day before, they took us up to base camp level just for lunch, just to give us a little taste of what that was like and then take us back down to sleep.

26:33And when we went up to that level... You couldn't do it. it was really really extraordinary incredible thing to do when I heard it I thought she's just been a bit lazy you know your wife's not lazy she's so adventurous lazy definitely not but I mean it stops you in your tracks if you and probably we just went up too quickly let's go on to food and drink food and drink is so important in life and in travel what do you like eating where do you like eating where should we go to eat give us some tips just let's talk about travel first thing you've got to understand about us is we eat pretty much everything we're very there's not there's not many things that we don't like there is a few and I think we drink just about everything as well eat I wasn't going to tell them about I wasn't going to tell them about that Yasmin I'm surprised there are only reserves left you know what I mean yes Grand Reserver not if Simon and Yasmin have been there not if we're in town There's some lovely whiskey in one of the decanters in this residence.

27:38Don't tell him. Oh, no, it's a bottle of champagne. Don't tell him. But I mean, you can't go far wrong with, I mean, being in Italy, can you? Italy. Just the food. We were in Sicily a few years ago. Oh, my goodness. What's that little restaurant called? And we were staying at the sister hotel, the Belmond Hotel, the one that's by the wall. Tamina. We're talking about Tamina. Sant 'Andrea. That's it, down in Taormina, right? The Taormina by the coast. And we came out and we walked up the hill. So we came out of the hotel and turned left and walked up. I don't know if you know it, but there's that kind of covered walkway in the distance, which looks quite ugly.

28:17We didn't go as far as that, did we? No, no. But we found a little… Just a few hundred yards away from the hotel. Did it seem like a much longer walk than that? No, no, no, no, it really wasn't. We were really, really hungry, Simon. We were so hungry and I was getting very hangry, actually. Yeah. And so we came across this really simple, open, small restaurant. It was all whitewash and just windows out to the sea, but very small, very unassuming place, the kind of place that would have the menu outside and just a few things on the menu. Oh, my goodness. Do you remember the name of it? We had no idea what we'd come, what we'd...

28:53Yeah. Was it mine? Everything they brought, even the salad, just simple things, tasted incredible. They said, and the guy comes, he goes, hey, look at this. He says, I got this this morning. He brought this grubby sort of looking jar, plastic jar over. Then in it was sea urchin. That was the second lunch. We loved lunch so much. That was the second one. We'd gone back the next day for lunch again. We just loved it so much. And that's when he came and went, do you like sea urchin? And we both went, yes. Yes, please. And honestly, I'm salivating now thinking about it. This sea urchin pasta that they make is so delicious.

29:32It's possibly the best thing I've ever eaten. I've never had sea urchin. Never had sea urchin ever. It has just come out of the sea. I mean, when you go to Sicily, literally his cousin had just got it out of the sea like an hour before. Well, now we've had some sea. Let's talk about sea urchin for a minute here because sea urchin gets done different ways. This is a sea urchin pasta, so it's kind of mixed into it, made into a sort of sauce almost and were just mixed into the pasta, wasn't it? But we were in the island of Ithaki in Greece. And we went out to a jetty and a guy who was kind of associated with the house that we were on had just come back in the boat.

30:16He says, I've got sea urchin. And they'd been diving. And they use a chainmail glove to pick them up because they're spiky. so you have to have a chainmail glove to pick them up and he picked up one with his left hand and he got a little knife out and he cut it like he cut a and he just scooped out some and gave it to us fresh like that, that was extraordinary that was incredible really, ok I mean it is live and some people may feel a little uncomfortable at this but we've eaten live food fresh fresh really fresh it's like oysters you want to eat oysters live because it's the ones that are dead that might give you a tummy problem so that's why you squeeze the lemon juice on them because they pull their skirts up you can see that it's alive as long as it hasn't been separated from the shell but can we go back to Simon's tips that's a really good one by the way make sure the oysters pick their skirts up yeah um they um sea urchin the other really amazing um sea urchin is you get is in japan and they serve it as a sushi which is on top of a um like a futamaki roll you know with um with wakame seaweed around it and they usually put those big fish eggs on it which i'm not so keen on but then the other way is a sashimi which is just a sea urchin and they have this special nettle leaf called shiso and it's the most incredible flavour and it goes with the sea urchin and it's really wonderful so sea urchins are on my list sea urchin and shiso leaf absolutely and then quickly before we go on to the next question what about drink?

32:12do you have a favourite drink? no no I've got a favourite drink what's your favourite drink? booze

32:22so articulate my husband I love it I love it do you have a favorite drink within the category of booze within the category of booze yes I mean I can't go wrong with wine wine yeah it's just wine oh all together it's just such a great subject isn't it of course the other the other the The restaurant in, near Taumina is Bella. It's called Bella Issa. That one sounds incredible. It's fabulous. But it's such a tiny little sort of. Yeah, I mean, you could easily just walk straight past it. It's so unassuming, yeah. Really, we just felt so lucky. We'd gone in and had this just gorgeous, simple lunch.