Where did the commies go?

by Grant Martin on

With September came the near fall of another Communitst leader, as Kim Jong Il, dictator over North Korea vanished from the limelight, joining his Cuban counterpart Fidel Castro in the murky depths of unknown, fiercely hidden ailments.

The realist in me knows that both leaders are gravely ill. Kim Jong Il is said to have suffered a stroke early this month and hasn’t since been seen in public — even for state celebrations. In a similar light, Castro, who seems to have largely recovered from last year’s digestive problems, has resigned from his official state role in Cuban politics and now stays largely out of the public eye — no doubt because he is still an aging, fragile man.

But the conspiracy theorist in my has broader, more hopeful aspirations. I think about these two ailing leaders and wonder if perhaps, Communism has taken a toll on them over these last years and if maybe they’ve finally thrown in the towel and headed out to the beach for some good old vaycay.

I see Kim Jong and Fidel sitting on chaise lounges in the Indonesian Archipelago somewhere, bare feet up and drinking out of coconuts while looking out at the setting sun over a crisp, white beach. And Kim Jong looks over, out of his massive blue blockers at Fidel as the Cuban puts down his latest Harry Potter book to take a pull off his strawberry daiquiri. And Kim says, “Hey buddy… we gave it a shot.”

Wherever you two are, know this: I would take two old school Communist evil doers over one rambunctious Latin American president any day of the week. May your countries be open and peaceful and prosperous without you.

Talking travel with author of “The Snake Charmer”

by Jerry Guo on

I’m here with Jamie James, a former critic at The New Yorker turned author. His latest book, “The Snake Charmer”, centers around a renegade herpetologist who ultimately dies in the jungles of Burma after getting bitten by a krait, one of the world’s deadliest snakes. Jamie traveled to Burma to research the book.

He also writes frequently about travel and culture for The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times. He currently lives in Bali.

The NYT review of Snake Charmer declared the book’s protagonist, herpetologist Joe Slowinski, a “Class A jerk.” From all the research you’ve accumulated, what’s your take on the guy?

The Times review presented a very shallow analysis, concentrating on one sliver of a complex character — 5% of the book yanked out of context. It’s true that Joe was ruthless in his pursuit of knowledge, and rubbed some people the wrong way; but few scientists bother with “please” and “thank you.”

Joe was also widely loved and respected by his colleagues. One fascinating reflection of Joe’s personality, which I never could find a place for in the book, is that no fewer than SEVEN people told me that he was their best friend. That seems truly remarkable to me — how many people have that kind of impact on the people around them? And from his colleagues he commanded widespread respect for his brilliant mind and original thinking, more important qualities for a scientist than simple niceness. Joe Slowinski truly did not care what people thought of him, which is a key aspect of what makes him so fascinating.
You traveled to Burma in the process of writing the book. What was it like to travel in one of the world’s most closeted countries?

In some ways, travel in repressive totalitarian regimes is easier — as long as you’re willing to pay. That’s the upside of corruption: as long as you have American dollars and don’t show any interest in the Army, they’ll usually do whatever you ask.

Why did you decide to pursue this project (especially when his adventures have been covered before, in Outside Magazine, for example)?

Mark Moffett’s article in Outside was an excellent account of his personal recollections as a member of Joe’s final expedition, and a good starting place. However, no one had ever attempted to do a detailed, objective reconstruction of Joe’s final trek, and it proved to be the most interesting research I’ve ever undertaken. The first time I heard of Joe Slowinski was his obituary in the newspaper, which a friend clipped for me. It came out more than a month after he died — he received his fatal bite on Sept. 11, 2001, and the attack on America just ate up the news.

As soon as I read it, I thought, this would be a fantastic book — what a story! The sheer drama of it seemed so compelling. I had an instinct that a life that ended that way must have been interesting from childhood on — and that proved to be true. Joe Slowinski’s whole career was fascinating; his last expedition into remote northern Burma was the tragic finale of the drama.

Many readers will be jealous to hear that you live full-time in Bali. Sounds like the dream home. Any downsides or is it umbrella drinks on the beach all day long?

Living in Paradise has the advantages you suggest — one of the most gorgeous beaches in the world is a five-minute bike ride from my house, and the Balinese are among the most interesting and lovable people I’ve come across. It’s probably the best place in the world to have car trouble, people are so kind and eager to help.

The main disadvantage for me has been the lack of outside intellectual stimulus, but Bali is getting more connected all the time. When I came here 9 years ago, there were no decent bookstores, the world’s slowest dial-up internet service, a bottle of scotch cost $50, and so on — now we have gourmet food shops, book shops, reasonable DSL internet, and so on — but residents complain that every step “forward” makes the place a bit less special. The price of globalization.

Besides your work as a nonfiction author, you’re a prolific travel writer. How do you pick your stories?

I must answer you as a journalist. Every story I do is based more or less equally on two factors: I try to find places that I really want to go and a good market that might be likely to take an interest in it. They are two totally different worlds, the places I want to go and the places editors need to cover, and they’re both always shifting. I did a story about Shanghai for Condé Nast Traveler in 2001, concentrating on the futuristic architecture; and since then, especially during the build-up to the Olympics, there have been a zillion stories about China, Land of Tomorrow. Now I’m totally China’d out, but travel editors can’t seem to get enough. That’s not a knock to China; it’s just that my interest is much more in seeing places unlike any I’ve seen before.

Your favorite trip in Asia?

A hard question. Maybe it was my first trip to Laos, in 1994, when there was no tourism. Luang Prabang was a quiet little village with two crummy hotels, 500 ancient Buddhist temples, and thousands of monks, gentle young rice farmers coming to this holy city to meditate and beg alms. It was incredibly beautiful and moving. Now it’s another pretty place to get a massage and a manicure, a pizza and a beer. That kind of other-world experience is harder and harder to find — you have to go to the places you’ve never heard of. By the time a place has made it into the magazines, it’s already been mainstreamed.

You’ve been to some pretty grungy locales. What’s one place, if any, that you refuse to visit? (Sudan, North Korea, etc?)

I would love to go to North Korea — it’s practically at the top of my list. The Sudan…no thank you. The difference? As a foreign visitor, I know I would be secure in North Korea; but in Sudan they’re shooting real bullets and have hideous incurable diseases. When I was traveling in Cambodia in the days when the Khmer Rouge were still active, I always followed what I called the Driver Rule: if the driver was willing to go someplace in his own car, the probability was that we would get home safe — the driver always knows more than you do. If the driver refuses to go, then you don’t want to go there either.

What’s your travel style? Do you try to map out most of the details beforehand? Or just play it by ear? Any tools of the trade you can divulge?

I used to play it by ear, traveling without a map or a plan — until the night I had to sleep (or tried to) in my tiny toy Fiat, after I arrived in Florence and found out that there was a dentists’ convention going on, and the nearest hotel room was 50 miles away. I do like to plan at least two or three days ahead. The tools of the trade vary from place to place. One of the most essential (and most difficult) tools to pick up is learning what people mean when they give you a polite refusal. In Asia, “It’s impossible” may mean it’s really impossible…or it might mean “You’re not paying me enough.” Here in Indonesia, it took me years to realize that “thank you” means “no.”

Taiwan’s road signs will make more sense next year

by Jamie Rhein on

When I lived in Taiwan, I normally didn’t have a clue where I was going. The signage was not particularly helpful. I didn’t read Chinese, and, outside of Taipei, that’s mostly what you saw. Even when there were signs in English, there was an inconsistency with how street names were spelled.

Ask people to spell a word phonetically, and you’ll see variation. In Taiwan, up until recently, there were various systems used to translate words from Chinese into English. Unless there are standardized rules that everyone adheres to, variety might remain the spice of life, but getting from here to there is problematic.

Recognizing that when visitors come to Taiwan, whether for business or pleasure, they have a desire to be able to find their way easily, Taiwan has officially adopted the “hanyu pinyin writing system” for translating Chinese to English. This Reuters article explains the details about how the government is publishing a spelling guide in order to redo road signs in order to reflect the consistency. The changes will start in 2009.

No longer will you see “Minquan Road,” “Minchuan Road,” “Binjiang Street,” and “Pin Chiang Street” on various signs for the exact same street. See what I mean? Wouldn’t that drive you a bit NUTS?!

(Although, as you can see from the Flickr photo by onkio & di’s, some signs in Taiwan do reflect the adage, “A picture speaks a thousand words.” At least the part about the car getting towed.)

How to get cheap deals for that Las Vegas trip

by Jamie Rhein on

Depending on which part of the U.S. you live, Las Vegas can be a very cheap vacation. As a person who would not put Las Vegas on my top 10 list, I’ve been here five times, partly because it has been an inexpensive get-a-away with careful planning.

These days, with careful planning, Las Vegas can still be an affordable, doable trip, but the planning takes a bit more work because of the number of flights being cut from airlines’ schedules. In an article in the Dallas Morning News, Tom Parsons compares travel packages from Southwest Airlines, US Airways, and American Airlines and showed the price difference between them, as well as what the trips would cost if the plane tickets and hotel had been booked separately. The price difference was substantial, although in a few cases, booking separately snagged him a better deal.

The cheapest deal was on US Airways, but Parsons said to register for e-mail programs from the hotels where you would like to stay in order to receive e-mails about an upcoming deal. (He said the timing is usually two months in advance.)

Be persistent is the motto of Parson’s missive. He was able to get a cheaper room deal at the Mirage by calling the hotel directly after he found out that the room rates had dropped from the time he originally booked a reservation. He actually did this twice. The result was a $344 savings.

Here are other tips:

  • Plan your stay for days between Sunday and Thursday
  • Avoid the second week of January when conventions are plentiful and prices go up
  • He also says to be aware of cancellation policies so you don’t get stuck having to pay a higher price if the price drops later.

My advice to cut costs is to stay at a cheaper hotel, eat at cheaper places most of the time based on which casinos are giving out meal deals, and then use the extra money to take in a show, but only consider the ones that are offering discounts. Make snagging the best deals part of the fun.

As Grant’s recent post on his first hand experience in Las Vegas indicates, the number of folks in Las Vegas has gone way down so hotels will be looking for you. Their need could be your gain financially. Keep an eye out.

Oprah a hit with women in Saudi Arabia

by Jamie Rhein on

Admittedly, I watched Oprah’s talk show when I lived in Singapore. Not often, but sometimes. The room with our TV was the only one with air-conditioning, so that had something to do with it. Still, there was a familiarity in all the advice.

Plus, since the shows were not aired in any particular order, some days Oprah would be thin, other days heavier, and along with her weight shifts were shifts in her hair style and clothing. Because Oprah was on every day, sometimes twice, I assumed it was because she was a big hit with the Singaporean audience.

In Saudi Arabia, women also watch Oprah, and with far more attention than I ever did. Oprah, according to this article in the New York Times, is a bit of a life-line for many Saudi females. The article starts by describing one woman who writes to Oprah Winfrey every month even though Oprah has yet to write back.

Nayla said that Oprah gives her hope and energy, and that Oprah is the only one who understands her. This feeling is echoed with Saudi women of all ages, but particularly with younger women. Part of what the women relate to is Oprah’s own struggles that she has overcome. As women in Saudi Arabia struggle to find their voice and use it, Oprah gives them a sense of how it is done.

The women also relate to Oprah because her style of dress fits Saudi Arabian women’s sensibility and taste. They would probably love Oprah’s closet, the store in Chicago where you can buy Oprah’s old clothes.

As I read the article, besides being interested in this particular Western influence on the Middle East, I wondered if Oprah has read the article yet and thought how terrific it would be if she would visit Nayla and Nayla’s friends–quietly and sincerely. It would not need to be a visit that showed up on TV, but one that would make a fairy tale ending to this story of a cultural mixing. I certainly hope Oprah has written Nayla back by now.

(About the photo: I couldn’t find a Creative Commons photo of a Saudi woman. This woman is from Iran. Yes, I know the difference. Please Don’t Smile, the photographer of this shot has several lovely photographs of women in Iran posted on Flickr.)