The Wrong Way Home Quotes

“Singapore had taken a much more, well, Singaporean approach to the problem of hippies than the Malaysians had. They’d let them in, but only if they got a haircut.”
― Peter Moore, The Wrong Way Home

“I justified my decision to take the bus by the fact that hippies had never spent much time in Malaysia either. To put it bluntly, they weren’t welcome. An official government regulation at the time banned hippies from staying in the country. It read: If you are dressed in shabby, dirty, or indecent clothes, living in temporary or makeshift shelters you will be deemed a hippie. On being deemed a hippie, your visit pass will be cancelled and you will be ordered to leave Malaysia within 24 hours, failing which you will be prosecuted under immigration laws. Furthermore, you will not be permitted to enter Malaysian again.”
― Peter Moore, The Wrong Way Home

“Sure, there was also a lot of scaffolding, but anyone who has visited any of the great cities of Europe, particularly Italian ones like Venice and Florence, comes to expect a bit of scaffolding – especially over the most famous buildings and especially during peak tourist times. In fact, there was a time I was convinced that the city fathers of Venice kept St. Marks under scaffolding in a deliberate ploy to get tourists back to Venice when their natural inclination after being ripped off unnaturally for a single slice of pizza was to never visit again.”
― Peter Moore, The Wrong Way Home

“Just outside Tehran we passed a sign that said, ‘Servitude is never accepted in an ideology that believes in Martyrdom’. Below was a picture of a white dove copping a bullet in the heart.”
― Peter Moore, The Wrong Way Home

“The doors had a peephole, and periodically an Iranian guard would look through and choose who he would let in. It was a bit like waiting to be picked for a sports team at school. You stand there trying to look as useful as possible to the two kids lucky enough to have been chosen as captains. If they were picking you for footy you tried to look as tough as possible. For basketball, you tried to look as tall as possible. For cricket, as long-suffering and patient as possible. That day, every time the guard looked through the peephole, I tried to look as un-Great Satan-like as I could.”
― Peter Moore, The Wrong Way Home

“If there is one thing I’ve discovered in all my travels, it’s that you can’t take Italians anywhere… They strolled leisurely, smiling and waving, convinced that the crowd had gathered to see them. The really annoying thing is that they look so damn stylish doing it.”
― Peter Moore, The Wrong Way Home