Introduction:

As much as I love foreign travel, especially in the tropics, I have always been conflicted about it.  

I have certainly not been the first to wonder what tangible benefits accrue to the 95% of humanity from voyeuristic intrusions of the 5% privileged to treat the world as their amusement park.     

Of course, there is mass tourism and there is independent travel–– a distinction I latched onto when first backpacking in the tropics, nearly five decades ago. Like many young backpackers of the era, I disdained camera-toting sun-seekers.  We were more likely to carry a copy of ‘Journey to the East’  than a guidebook or a camera.  Wandering over months on shoestring budgets, we supposed ourselves to be seekers of cultural enlightenment. Yet the irony was usually lost that our stashes of Yanqui dollars were equivalent to several years of income of the market venders we became adept at beating down a few centavos…

Yet to be fair–– backpackers of the era tended to be curious and respectful. We tried to get by in the regional languages (at least enough for simple transactions) and were interested in local politics and history. At best, perhaps we were heirs to the 19^th century adventurers on the ‘Grand Tour’ of  southern Europe.   

It is noteworthy that in the same era, Lonely Planet was in its infancy. Its guides would soon come to embody the style of ‘ethical’ independent travel, practiced by backpackers on their best behaviour. In the last half century, the aficionados of those first shoe-string guidebooks have come a long way from ‘Asia on the Cheap’ to ‘Antarctica on $5000 a Day’…

While my consumer options have certainly not gone so far upmarket, my back is no longer able (or willing) to endure 14-hour bounces  on chicken buses. The plush cushions of 1st class buses I have ridden during independent travel over the past few years, might have made the young backpacker sneer. I have gradually submitted to guidebooks (once regarded as pablum for the timid) and the Internet. For note-taking, I now carry a laptop along with a Moleskine… 

The following are vignettes drawn from travel notes of trips taken between 1999 and 2018. Some travels were taken solo (Thailand, Cambodia) and others in accompaniment of  daughter (Bali), wife (Bolivia) and son (India, USA). 

Of course, we are now in an era of travel blogging. Innumerable whiz-bang blogs chronicling adventure travel to every imaginable destination are but a click away.  In this brave new world–– who could possibly be interested in some old man’s dated journal notes?   

I can only submit that the following texts are reflective pieces, worked out with attention to honesty and accuracy.  As an admirer of travel writing,  perhaps my approach is at best somewhat influenced by masters of that genre.  Of course, I would never claim that any of these pieces come close to the literary realm inhabited by a Chatwin or a Theroux.

As for the accompanying photos: I have come a long way from a Polaroid Swinger to a Canon G10 but never have I wildly imagined auditioning for a National Geographic assignment. Still, the hope is that some of these pics may add a little context (or a pinch of spice) to the pieces that follow…

–FWT (lefthook51)

March 2020

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