Remember "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"? It's one of my favourite movies, so when I saw a DVD in my favourite shop labelled "The Indian Dream Hotel", I immediately thought it was a cheap imitation of the Marigold Hotel but it wasn't.
Instead, it's a documentary - made by the BBC and unashamedly called "The Real Marigold Hotel" - of a group of celebrity pensioners, actor Miriam Margolyes, dancer Wayne Sleep, chef Rosemary Shrager, darts champion Bobby George, singer Patti Boulaye OBE, actor Sylvester McCoy, comedian Roy Walker, and ex-news reader Jan Leeming, who head to India to see if they can set up a better, more rewarding retirement there than in the UK.
Even though I don't know any of those celebrities, I can relate to them because back in 2004 I tried to drum up interest in creating a similar group to invest in a similar lifestyle place in the still unspoilt north of Bali - click here. Perhaps I wasn't famous enough because I could never get a sufficient number of famous or infamous people interested in it.
Years later I visited an even better place, a tiny boutique hotel of just four exquisitely built bungalows in the cool hills of northern Bali. I revisited it time and time again, often being the only guest, which may have been the reason why the owners put it up for sale some years later. I again tried to drum up some interest in a buy-out - click here - but again without success.
Perhaps people don't want to have their lives managed by a retired German accountant - see below:
Pity! I already had a name for it and had hired the man to run it for me: "Stalag 13" and Colonel Klink.
