Nepal is the best place to travel for famed Hollywood filmmaker

Filmmaker and comedian, Emo Phillips says:

• ´Nepal´s one place I want to go back´
• ´Fascinated by animals´
• ´Nepal is  crazy and wonderful place´
• ´Nepalese dirt poor but dressed nicely´

His high-pitched voice and shaggy bangs are as much his trademarks as his dry, sardonic wit. And Emo Philips, 53, a comedian for most of his adult life, can´t imagine doing anything else.

“It´s just something that works for me,” said Philips, who lives in Los Angeles. “I get to travel and tell my stories onstage. It´s the ideal life for me.”

Though he was executive producer of the original 1992 version of “Meet the Parents” (the film that didn´t star Robert De Niro) and dipped his toes into film and television work, Philips isn´t looking to make a mark for himself as an actor. “I´m a good stand-up comedian and can´t say the same about my acting abilities,” he said. Philips talks about his travels, including a trip to Nepal where he got to witness — among other things — a cremation ceremony.

Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?

A: San Francisco is an amazing city. Lombard Street there is fantastic. But if I could just wish myself back to one place, it´d be Nepal. I loved seeing the wild dogs and monkeys in the streets. It´s so different from what I´m used to. There´ll be like 30 people riding in the back of any kind of vehicle, and people will pass on the hills going the wrong way. It´s crazy, wonderful and so much fun. A lot of Westerners will mistake poverty with spirituality. It´s interesting because many Nepalese are dirt poor, but they all dress nicely. Their pants are pressed, their hair is combed, and they´re thin and presentable. And then you see Americans earning more than the whole village, and we look like a bunch of clowns wearing T-shirts and gym shorts.

Q: What is your best vacation memory?

A: In 1995 on a riverbank in Nepal, I watched a cremation ceremony during which a few boys chatted pleasantly on a ledge 10 feet or so above the burning body, oblivious to being completely enveloped by the rising smoke. At the same time, perhaps a half-dozen yards upstream, a group of monkeys amused themselves by repeatedly jumping into the river from an overhanging tree branch.

Q: How do you try to fit in when you´re a tourist?

A: When I hung out in Paris a lot, I bought a street cleaner´s uniform and carried a local paper around and didn´t brush my teeth a whole lot, and I fit right in. Actually, it´s a myth that the French are snooty and rude. They´re very friendly actually — among the friendliest in the world. I don´t understand how they got the reputation for being rude. I don´t speak French, and they could not have been nicer to me or more helpful. I love the French!

Q: When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?

A: There is nothing I have to have with me to be OK on a trip. I always want to travel light because then you can just jump on any train. But then you´ve got to go to the store and buy everything, or you wear the same thing and wash it in the sink every night.

Q: Have you ever been guilty of being an “ugly American”?

A: No, but I have been mistaken for being Canadian. When you say “please” and “thank you” in some countries, they just assume you´re from Canada and not the United States.

Q: What have you learned from all your travels?

A: The food is worse in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.

Source: Chicago Tribune