The work of Kash Battacharya, the Budget Traveller, has won him National Geographic Traveller Writer of the Year, jobs for for Lonely Planet and the BBC and resulted in his book The Grand Hostels, Luxury Hostels of the World. Kash, in easing-lockdown Berlin, talks budget travel, culture shock from Kent to Calcuttta age 9, being ‘the English kid’ at a 18,000-pupil school, Dutch houses in Scotland, hanging with Rastas in South Africa and a surreal encounter with Tommy Lee Jones in an ancient Samurai King Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices