Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic books and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
After a seven year break, far too long, I am back in the heavenly city for a few days.
Kathmandu has grown into a little urban monster but once the shock at the congestion has worn off, the Nepali capital unfolds as a multi-layered, booming mountain town, quite happily bouncing between tradition and modernity, in almost [...]
Chris Taylor, author of Harvest Season, a dystopian backpacker novel set in China that I recently reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, recaps and comments one of our meetings in Bangkok and our discussion on the future of backpacking, guidebooks and my novel The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu, which will be republished as an e-book [...]
I will be giving a talk at the Nelson Hays Library on Surawong Road in Bangkok, as part of the first Bangkok Literary Festival on May 22nd, 2011.
From Rough Guides to Sacred Tattoos - The changing career of a travel writer in Southeast Asia will focus on how my job has changed over the past [...]
The website Tripbase offer information for would-be travel writers, on the whole very sensible and useful for prospective scribes.
The introduction -The harsh realities laid bare- is both sobering and spot-on: Travel writing is a tough and competitive business, a trade for which one needs to have plenty of persistence and low financial [...]
Every month, Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding, interviews a fellow travel writer about the nuts and bolts of our trade.
The extensive Q&As are published on his website. This month, it’s my turn.
Read the full interview here!
Can you imagine it? A crystal-clear tropical lake, surrounded by volcanic mountain, dotted with immense waterfalls? A green, lush island the size of Singapore in its center, populated by an independent, happy-go-lucky indigenous community? An extensive yet underused tourist infrastructure for almost all tastes and budgets? No crowds? No curfews? No high-rise condos? In [...]
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Vater’s observations on the human condition, as he experiences it firsthand along the less tourist-beaten paths of South and Southeast Asia, result in a no-holds-barred account of life in the region, distinctly as not described in the glossy brochures. Figuratively and at times literally far removed from the glittering urban centers and pampering resorts - [...]