Yemen? Yeah, man.

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Travel writing is usually at its most interesting, in my opinion, when it takes us to places we’ve never been, and especially to places where we’ve never thought of going. Like most travel-lovers, I daydream constantly about visiting scores of different places, but I can confess to never having given much thought to the country of Yemen. That’s why I was so interested to read a new feature article in the New York Times travel section, “Yemen’s Exotic Secrets.”

The author paints a vivid though somewhat disturbing portrait of the Middle-Eastern republic, a country plagued by an unreported war, religious and political extremism, and consequentially, a poor reputation among tourists. Indeed, the only thing I associated with Yemen before reading this article was the bombing of the USS Cole that occurred in a Yemini port in 2000. Still, the author of the article maintains that, despite its poor reputation, Yemen is a place well worth a visit:

“So why visit a place this volatile? I came to find a complete and ancient way of life that is still largely intact. Moreover, despite the country’s problems (and a need for tourists to be both alert and cautious), the place feels surprisingly safe. Indeed, few attacks on tourists have taken place in what I consider Yemen’s two most spectacular draws: the Old City of Sana and the eastern oasis of Wadi Hadhramaut.”

Be sure to check out the excellent slideshow that accompanies the article.

Talking Travel with Chuck Thompson

by Abha Malpani on

Aaron recently introduced Chuck Thompson’s new book, Smile While You’re Lying, and today Gadling got the opportunity to have a chat with him. The interview talks about savage travel stories, “Journalistic Tiramisu,” travel-blogging, the authors complaints on the road, and the future of the travel-industry. Enjoy!

We also have 5 copies of the book to giveaway, so stick around after the interview to find out how you can score one for free!

Thank you for talking to us here at Gadling! The content of your book elaborates on savage travel truths that are usually off-limits for general travel-press, what motivated you to make this book happen? What were the challenges you faced in getting this book published?

I got fed up with coming back from intense experiences on the road – and I mean ??intense?? in both good and bad ways – and being muzzled by editors who demanded copy that sacrificed intelligence and storytelling for the sake of advertiser-friendly pap. Not just in travel, but a lot of magazine writing these days is basically glorified PR copy. The stories I told my friends over beers or wrote about in emails never seemed to make it into my bylined pieces. I’d have a story published somewhere and weeks later a friend would call and say, ??Hey, I saw your article on Panama in such-and-such magazine.?? And I’d sort of cringe and say, ??Oh, man, let me tell you what really happened in Panama.??
The challenges were pretty much the challenges faced by any unknown writer with a book proposal-it’s matter of finding the right agent and editor who really “get” your idea in the same way you do. The first agent I sent my proposal to sent back a nasty note telling me how appalled she was by the pitch and my Thailand chapter and how I’d better rethink what I was doing. She actually sent me some photocopied pages from a book on how to be a successful writer. But I remained pretty confident about finding the right people to get behind this. From the time I sent the first proposal out to the book actually getting published took about three and a half years.

What inspired the title of the book and its visual?

The title alludes to the small fibs that travel writers such as myself have to go along with in order to preserve their jobs as travel writers, the larger ones told everyday by the travel industry that perpetuate the accepted myths of the industry, and also the broader triumph of public relations that’s made our mainstream media supplicant to corporate and government spin. As for the cover, it’s meant to express what the book aims to be-fun and entertaining, but also something that shines a subversive light upon travel icons. A lot of people don’t catch it, but if you look at the cover closely, you’ll find a little subversive visual joke hidden in there.

I had to laugh as you tagged travel stories in glossy commercial magazines as “Journalistic Tiramisu,” could you explain this term?

Just the sort of lightweight, drooling, praise-heavy hack copy routinely applied to make mundane places and trips sound “magical” and “resplendent.” Travel writers can’t just walk, they have to “amble” or “meander.” They don’t simply eat, they “dine.” Any store opened within the last two years is “hip,” “hot,” or “happening.” All seas sparkle, all views are breathtaking. My favorite descriptions of this sort of travel reporting are “witless puffery” and “sun-dappled barf,” both of which I heard from other travel writers. (So please don’t present them as mine, even though I wish they were.)

You talk about the travel industry being in a state of dramatic flux and that the “golden age” of international tourism may be drawing to a close; what then, in your opinion, is the future of the travel industry?

There seem to be two divergent opinions on the matter. Boeing and Airbus and other travel and transportation companies-many based in China and around Asia-currently forecast a five-percent annual increase in air travel over the next two decades. This will cause world air traffic to triple by 2030. Imagine three times more babies and three times as many wankers in the middle seat battling you for armrest hegemony on your flight from New York to L.A.

There is a mitigating factor and that is oil. Can we get a stable supply of it out of the Middle East for the next twenty years? Even if we can, is Peak Oil for real and, if it is (which I happen to believe), how soon will it begin causing major problems with mass transportation? Look, you can build all the battery-powered cars you want and probably make ’em work, but getting a fully-loaded 757 off the ground or turning diesel-powered props of a cruise or cargo ship is quite another story. At the moment, there’s nothing even close to alternative fuel for those monsters. Those things aren’t little, plastic four-seaters that need to range 150 miles at a time. They require real power.

The “savage” type of content in your book is often found on travel blogs. How do you think the blogging industry — that warrants personal, raw and original content — will affect the travel publishing industry?

I love blogs. I like contributing to them, reading them, and being a part of them. It’s the best place right now to find authentic travel writing, even if it’s sometimes rough. I wish I had more time to spend reading them. However, I firmly believe the demise of print media has been greatly exaggerated. I don’t expect print to go away in my lifetime, I don’t expect books or magazines to lose their appeal, especially not as long as we continue to condition our kids to read on paper. You know what’s happening with the children’s book market in this country? It’s a gold rush, a boom economy. When I walk into a bookstore and see rows and rows of featured children’s books, I think, “Good for all of us in the print biz.” And just for portability and tactile pleasure and saving my eyeballs, I do prefer books, magazines, and other hard copy to reading on a monitor. I think blogs already are and will become an even larger part of the legit media mix. This is great. But they aren’t going to replace mainstream media anytime soon.

You say in your intro that one of the best things of being a traveler is complaining about the parts you don’t like, I couldn’t agree more! Care to share some of your biggest complaints on the road with Gadling readers?

I know it comes with the territory and I’m generally good-natured and smiley about it, but I absolutely hate being the zoo-animal white guy celebrity in rural Asian and African villages. There’s a smile-when-you’re-lying moment for you-me surrounded by thirty kids yanking at my arm hair with a big idiot grin of affability on my face. I’ve got a bunch of those photos and in every one I was hating life when it was taken.

Another complaint I have is with uppity “travelers” who complain about all the damn “tourists.” We’re all tourists, to a degree, none really any better than the next. If someone wants to spend his travel dollars squatting for two weeks in a bamboo hut in Cambodia, cool. If someone else wants to take her three kids to Walt Disney World in Orlando and stuf
f them with fried dough and Mega-bucket Dr. Peppers, as far as I’m concerned, that’s just as authentic an experience, whether they enjoyed it ironically or not.

What is the worst thing that has happened to you on the road?

I guess having all my money-$1,200-stolen in Thailand. I attempted to turn this into a humorous story in Smile When You’re Lying, but it was absolutely horrible when it happened and I was not thinking at the time how enriching an experience it was. In fact, I was sort of panicked. I was on an island and couldn’t even get off to make a phone call for help for lack of ferry fare. Wandering around that island starving and begging for help was lonely and miserable and embarrassing.

The biggest travel myth in your opinion?

That places are dangerous and people are scary and out to get you. I’ve been to a lot of cities and countries I was repeatedly warned not to go because it was so dangerous. Muslim-rebel territory in Mindanao in the Philippines. The Congolese jungle. Caracas. Wherever there are people, there’s normalcy. People go to work and school, they buy food at the market, they make dinner, they love their families, they’re generally kind or at least civil with strangers. I’m not talking about legitimate war zones, which are different, but for the most part, the paranoia of many people about international travel is grossly unjustified. People who don’t travel to these places think that those of us who do are adventurous and brave. But you go to these places and you see what a lie that is. And you come home and smile about it. What the hell, let ’em think you’re brave. Maybe they’ll buy one of your books.

Thanks, Chuck!

More information can be found at www.chuckthompsonbooks.com

Want to win a copy of the book? It’s easy. Here’s how:

  • To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us about the worst thing that’s happened to you while traveling. Make sure to use a valid e-mail address, or else we’ll have no way to contact you if you win!
  • The comment must be left before Friday, January 4, 2008 at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter once.
  • 5 winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  • 5 winners will receive Smile When You’re Lying (valued at $15.00).
  • Click Here for complete Official Rules.

CDC says TB patient on plane may have infected others

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are saying that a woman who was diagnosed with a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis may have exposed others to the disease on a December 13 flight from New Delhi to Chicago.

According to a USA Today story, “Altogether, 44 passengers sat in five rows close enough to the woman that they might have been exposed to her illness. Health authorities recommend that they all undergo testing for tuberclosis, with follow-up in eight to 10 weeks. They’re concerned because the woman reportedly was coughing on the plane.”

The woman, a 30-year-old native of Nepal, is currently being treated in isolation at a California hospital.

More coverage here and here.

And a bonus prize for whomever can find the first “Andrew Speaker: Where is he now?” article in response to this new TB scare.

National Geographic Traveler World in Focus Contest winners

by Jamie Rhein on

I just opened the link to the Intelligent Traveler from December 28 and was treated to this awesome photo that made Mark Unrau the first place winner of this year’s National Geographic Traveler’s World in Focus Contest. (Click on photo for larger view.)

Unrau is not a photographer by profession. According to the blurb about him at National Geographic Traveler’s Web site, he works in mining in Canada. But, heavens! The guy certainly knows how to capture a perfect image. The prize is a sweet deal. He gets to choose between an 11-day trip to Artic Norway or a 10-day trip to the Galápagos Islands. Personally, I’d head south.

Click here for the link to the other photos and for an explanation of how Unrau made the shot and where he took it. The other photographs are similarly explained. I like reading about the people and their traveling as much as I like looking at the photographs.

The next contest is being announced in May 2008. If you want to hone your photography skills, National Geographic Traveler has photo seminars that are being offered in various cities. There are several options over the next few months. Click here for information.

Two new year’s travel resolutions everyone should make

by Jamie Rhein on

Here are two travel resolutions that have to do with letting people in on your plans, at least the basic idea of what you are up to. They may seem like they’ll cramp your free spirit, hit-the-road on a whim style if you’re that kind of person, but these are the details that could save people at home some headache and give you a heads up if there has been a problem while you are away.

When I watched Chris McCandless burn all of his identificiation and not let people know where he was heading when he went off on his going it alone adventure as depicted in the movie Into the Wild, I thought, “Ya know, not the best plan.” I understood the sentiment, but still, not the best plan. Therefore, here are my two don’t be like Chris McCandless resolutions.

Resolution 1: When you are traveling, let people know you are going and for about how long.

A few years back I found out from a relative that my dad was trotting off to Europe or some such place and he had yet to mention it to me. He’s a big boy and can travel wherever and whenever he wants for sure, but I called him up to find out how I might be able to reach him in case there was an emergency. Ever since that day when I reminded him that we need to know when he’s traveling, he’s been good about filling me in. At least I know when he’s leaving and coming back and, if he has it, one contact number.

Also, if I had called him while he was away and he never answered, I’d get worried. We don’t live near each other. I’d rather know he’s out of town then wrack my brain figuring out how to get in touch with him or if something bad has happened when actually he’s drinking a glass of red wine in the south of France.

Likewise, most of the time when we travel, we let our families know where we’re going and when we will be back and our contact information in case they have to contact us.

Although I’ve never had to contact anyone because of an emergency, years ago a friend of mine had to contact me because my apartment was broken into. This caused me to cut my trip short by a couple of days since I wasn’t particularly comfortable letting him handle a broken window and my missing belongings from a couple thousand miles away.

Resolution #2. Leave important documents with someone and instructions just in case there is a medical emergency

My mom is big on telling me just where her documents are whenever she goes anywhere. Everything is written down in an elaborate list even. She’s done this for years despite my eye rolling. However, it’s not a bad idea. She’s also one to carry around a list of the medications she takes in case she has to go to the hospital, which could be resolution #3. She did have an emergency this past February and the list saved the ER folks time and energy.

In Chris’s case, he gave up all life’s trimmings ahead of time, but for the rest of us with bank accounts and what not, instructions are in order.