Talking Travel (and Cuba) with award-winning travel journalist Christopher P. Baker

by Brenda Yun on

Christopher Baker is the 2008 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year and has visited Cuba more than 30 times. He’s personally met with Fidel Castro, as well as leading members of the Cuban government and is personally acquainted with key figures within Cuba as well as key industry figures outside Cuba. Baker is not only a Cuba fanatic who is intensely interested in Castro’s family life and lovers, Cuban cigars, Che Guevara, and classic American cars, he happens to know a great deal about other parts of Central America, too. Baker has appeared on ABC, CNN, NBC, and NPR Public Radio.

I had the privilege of corresponding with Baker about his contributions to his Moon Cuba handbook (for which he keeps a very informative blog) as well as his future endeavor in Colombia. As my Cuba Libre posts come to a close, I feel it may be most poignant for Gadling readers to get some perspective from Baker, whose insight on Cuba is not only enlightening, but also educational and inspiring.

BY: How many times have you been to Cuba, and how much time did you spend them collectively?

CB: More than 30. I shall be there for three months total this year over three trips. Most visits I fill my days and evenings researching for my guidebooks and magazine stories. I’m always looking for what’s new.

BY: What is your favorite place in Cuba — and why?

CB: No doubt about it. I have two. Habana Vieja (Old Havana) simply astounds with its wealth of historic buildings, and its heady atmosphere and endless this to see and do. But I am never happier than when simply rocking in a rocking chair, with a rum and cigar, watching the pretty Cubanas go by. Meanwhile, I always long for Trinidad, another UNESCO World Heritage site, for its intact colonial charm and sleepy pace of life.
BY: What is one of your fondest memories in Cuba?

CB: After 15 years of traveling to and reporting on Cuba, I never cease to be amazed by its surrealism tinged with sensuality. I often regale the tale of having gone to pick up my girlfriend Mercedes (a showgirl dancer at the Tropicana nightclub) after work. This night she had shaved her head entirely and was dressed all in white, from turban to white high-heeled shoes and bobby-socks. She wore many colorful collares (necklaces) and bangles. She had just been initiated as a santera, in the Afro-Cuban santeria religions and for a year henceforth would wear only white and follow specific proscriptions. We hailed a 1950s taxi and settled into the back seat. Passing through a narrow dark street in Centro Habana, a policeman jumped out and stopped the taxi. A man lay at the side of the road, bleeding profusely. The policeman was commandeering the taxi to take the man to the hospital. Mercedes wound down the rear window and poked her turbaned head out.
“You can’t do that!” she said in Spanish. “I”m Santa Teresa!”
The black policeman looked aghast, fingered his own collares, and shouted at the taxi driver to go. He waved us on and ran off to look for another vehicle.
“What on earth did you tell him?” I asked her.
“I told him I’m Santa Teresa, the patron saint of the dead. If he’d put that man in the car I might have killed him!”

BY: Why did you pursue Cuba and not some other place in the world? What did Cuba have that piqued your interest more than any other country?

CB: Cuba pursued me! When asked to author a guidebook in 1991, I instantly knew that this would be a unique adventure. Cuba seeped into my soul. More so back then, but still today. Its unique combination of socialism and sensuality, its unique history, combined with its Hollywood time-warp settings, twine to produce a haunting realm of eccentricity, eroticism, and enigma.

BY: You wrote a book about motorcycling through Cuba. What was that like?

CB: Well, it was one of my greatest adventures. The bike opened me up to the people, made me more accessible as well as more of a curiosity. It permitted me to go places I could never go in a car — the bike was a BMW GS adventure tourer. There was never room for males, but somehow I did managed to squeeze a few slender females behind, although not all at the same time (alas).

BY: What is your take on the U.S.-Cuba trade embargo? How could a lift of the embargo affect Cuban life?

CB: Here’s an extract from my op-ed piece, “Save Cuba first, ruin it later,” in today’s National Post newspaper (Canada)…

Possibility hangs in the air like intoxicating aromas of añejo rum. After more than a decade of traveling to and reporting on Cuba, I’m suddenly feeling quite giddy.

What this means for Cuba is another matter. An invasion of U.S. tourists should prove a godsend for the impoverished Cubans. Then again, as American influence spreads more, the isle may be spoiled. It doesn’t take great imagination to envision how Cuba could again become, in Somerset Maughan’s piquant phrase, “a sunny place for shady people.” The country’s demimonde bubbling beneath the surface is just waiting for someone to marshal it.

That’s my biggest fear. That the yanks will ruin Cuba. But it’s a risk I’m prepared to accept in order to advance the long-overdue right of all U.S. citizens to smoke the finest cigars in the world, and hire a 1950s Caddy to explore this wonderful realm.

BY: What is next for you? Will you return to Cuba, or do you have your heart set on another destination?

CB: See my website for my travel schedule. Colombia is calling… but this year my time will be filled with Cuba!

Tim Patterson on the Kachin struggle for freedom in Myanmar

by Brenda Yun on

My travel writing buddy Tim Patterson has been traveling around Southeast Asia for six months now doing a bunch of things, but when I learned of his latest project in Myanmar, my eyes and ears perked up and I hope yours will too. He and his friend Ryan Libre have been working with the Pulitzer Center to provide crisis reporting in the Kachin state of northern Myanmar. Their first report came in December 13, and certainly brought to my attention a frightening situation that many are not aware of.

Tim and Ryan had been invited to Kachin by the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) to lead journalism workshops to young writers. Upon arrival, however, the two were quickly ushered into their hotel room, where they were kept protected from the watchful eyes of the country’s reigning military junta, which has long opposed foreign journalism coverage of any activities taking place in Myanmar.

Instead of telling you, second hand, what transpired during their precarious stay in Myanmar, I thought it would be more worthwhile to hear some of the story straight from Tim. I prepared these questions for him by email, and he graciously and promptly responded.
BY: How did you and Ryan decide on this particular project, through this particular non-profit (the Pulitzer Center)?

TP: Ryan and I had been talking about a trip to Myanmar for several years. He lives in Thailand, where many Kachins go for various training workshops, and met a KIO operative at an ashram near Bangkok. When Ryan asked if I wanted to make the trip it took me about .8 seconds to say YES!

It’s been an immense privilege to work with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and I’m incredibly grateful to Jon Sawyer, Janeen Heath and the rest of the Pulitzer staff who decided to take a chance on this project.

There are a lot of terrific young journalists supported by the Pulitzer Center, like the folks at the Common Language Project, and it’s intimidating to see my name alongside those of more accomplished journalists. Ryan and I have a big responsibility to turn in quality work.

BY: Had you traveled to Myanmar before, and what were your impressions of the country upon arrival this time?

TP: Nope, I had never been to Myanmar before, and now that news of this project is plastered across the web I doubt the junta will ever give me a visa. It’s hard to talk about impressions of the country in general terms, because we were limited to small strips of territory controlled by the KIO.

My overall impression is of a rich and fertile land populated by deeply sincere, ambitious, learned people who – tragically – have almost no opportunity to pursue their dreams. The perpetual rule of the Myanmar military government is a travesty and countries who continue to deal with the junta, notably China and the ASEAN member nations, should be ashamed.

I should also mention that although what Ryan and I did sounds like hardcore journalism, our time in Kachin was quite relaxed. The Kachins were gracious hosts and we spent a lot of time drinking tea in front of a space heater and watching the BBC.

BY: What do you and Ryan hope to accomplish by telling about your experience in Myanmar?

TP: It’s shocking to see how little information on Kachin is available. Our main goal is to get the word out however we can, to make people aware that such a place exists. We’ll do this by hitting up as many forms of media as possible – online, newspaper, magazine, radio and even a short documentary film that we hope will air on the PBS program “Foreign Exchange.”

Our biggest challenge is to make our work accessible and entertaining to a general audience while doing justice to the complexities of the situation on the ground. There’s nothing black and white about politics in Myanmar, and that’s especially true when talking about the ethnic minority areas like Kachin, where the central government doesn’t have total control.

We’ll try to let the Kachins speak for themselves when possible through interviews and personal portraits, but it’s also important for journalists to be skeptical and try to capture the many facets of a given issue.

I’m more comfortable with the sort of personal travel writing where exaggeration isn’t a big deal. With serious journalism, there’s a much greater imperative to stick to the facts.

BY: How many more “Untold Stories” can we hope to read from you, and can you give us a little hint as to what to expect in future dispatches?

TP: A lot! Ryan and I are holed up in a teeny-tiny room in Hong Kong now, living on instant ramen and cheap beer and sorting through stacks of notes, thousands of photos and hours of video. We hope to publish dozens of stories across a range of media.

I’m working on a feature article that gives an overview of the political situation in Kachin, along with a more personal piece for BraveNewTraveler.com about the power of the Kachin’s Christian faith. We’re also putting together a piece for the Kyoto Journal’s special issue on War and Peace.

Going to Kachin was the easy part. Now the real work begins.

BY: Back in September, you had hinted about growing roots in Vermont. Is this still the plan, or have your plans changed after what you’ve experienced on your extended trip in Southeast Asia?

TP: I still want to settle down in Craftsbury, Vermont, and plan to break ground on my cabin this summer. There are lots of opportunities opening up in Asia, however, and I’ll be shuttling back and forth across the Pacific for a few years to come.

Next week I fly home to the States, where I’ll be recruiting students for Where There Be Dragons educational travel programs. In March I go back to Laos to finish scouting the new Dragon’s Mekong River semester program, then home again for cabin building, then back to Asia to lead a Dragon’s trip, and then maybe back to Kachin….

As much as I want to live a simple, low-impact life, the travel opportunities are difficult to turn down.

Tim continues to be an inspiration for me as a travel writer. He seeks the truth in every experience, no matter how heartbreaking or difficult the story is to tell. He and Ryan’s journey to Myanmar is living proof that stories are worth telling, no matter how dangerous or dire the consequences.

To read recent stories from Pulitzer Center writers, visit their Untold Stories blog site. You can also read up on Tim and Ryan’s project (as well as other Pulitzer Center projects) here.

All photos are courtesy of Ryan Libre. More images taken during the Myanmar project are viewable through his Idioimagers site.

2008 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award Winners

by Abha Malpani on


The 2008 Society of American Travel Writers Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition recently announced its winners. In its 24th year running, the competition attracted 1,356 entries in 24 categories from which 81 winners were selected. The competition, named after American writer and traveler Lowell Thomas, is today considered to be one of the most prestigious awards in the world of travel journalism. The entries were judged by members of the Missouri School of Journalism Faculty.

National Geographic and the Boston Globe took most of the awards, and freelance writer/photographer Christopher P. Baker won the Lowell Thomas travel journalist of the year. Other than him, and bronze winner of the same category — Sarah Wildman, all other winners are part of established travel titles such as the Miami Herald, the Chicago Tribune, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, and a bunch of other American news titles.

You can find the list of gold winners with relevant links to their stories at the LA Times Daily Deal travel blog; the LA Times won a gold for the best travel section. A list of all the winners (gold, silver, and bronze, across all categories can be found on the Society of American Travel Writers website.

So, if you’re looking to read some good travel-writing, spend some time going through the links of the winners. The full list of winners has the titles of the winning stories so you can dig them up to read. I thought I would go through them all and give you my top three, but there are just too many good ones! Perhaps a good time-spend idea for a Sunday afternoon.

Photojournalist Offers Glimpses into the Muslim World

by Josh Lew on

Veteran photojournalist Alexandra Avakian has spent much of her twenty-plus year career working for prestigious magazines like Time and National Geographic and newspapers like The NY Times. Much of her work has been focused on the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Northern Africa. Stints in Iran, Somalia, Gaza and amongst American Muslims has given her ample opportunity to photograph the adherents of Islam in many different settings, both religious and cultural. A sampling of some of her best work is coming out in a photo-book published by Nat Geo. It is titled Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World. Avakian has also started a blog, which has the same title as her book, on National Geographic’s web site. The blog is an interesting introduction to her work. Avakian reminisces about things like visiting a movie set in Iran and learning how the country’s leading actress got around the strict theocratic laws by donning wigs and being hush-hush while applying make-up. While Avakian has by no means produced a definitive work on Muslims (I don’t think that was her goal), she offers a unique and human take on a culture that is often in the press, but not usually seen in-depth.

[Via American Photo’s State of the Art]

Journalist Eats Things That Weren’t Meant to be Eaten

by Josh Lew on

Has the eating of strange foods gone too far?

Sure, Andrew Zimmern might be brave, but does he really know what he’s putting in his mouth? While the Bizarre Foods guru (or his producer) usually provides a bit of background on what he’s eating, you have to wonder, is it considered a normal food in whatever “exotic locale” the show is currently being filmed in?

Phil Lees of The Last Appetite points out that you can’t always believe what people tell you.

A journalist named Sean Thomas found himself in Cambodia. He penned an “eating weird food” article for a U.K. newspaper. Aside from the fact that his article is rife with the gross over-generalizations typical of a parachute journalist, Lees, an old hand in Cambodia, points out that Thomas ate some things that were not meant to be eaten. The poor guy chowed down on a dried frog and compared it to a eating a dead mermaid. The problem: in Cambodia dried frogs are not meant to be eaten as a snack. According to Lees, “Dried frog is for medicinal purposes and occasionally, a rice wine additive. Complaining about the way it tastes is a little like eating a few spoonfuls of straight cloves, then writing them off as useless as a foodstuff.” One has to wonder if this is just an isolated incident or if more of the “I’m eating strange food” shticks are also ill-informed.