Writer Chris Taylor on Global Travel and Tom Vater’s The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu

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 […]

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Tom Vater at the first Bangkok Literary Festival – May 22nd, 2011, 6pm!

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 […]

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Are You Mad Enough To Be A Travel Writer?

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 expectations – […]

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From the Archives: The Water at the Center of the Universe – Lake Toba, Indonesia

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 South […]

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Die Eimerleute – Vollmondparty auf Ko PhanganTom Vater on Thailand’s Full Moon Parties

Übersetzt von Walther Schütz „Ich bin eine Katze“, maunzt das Mädchen. Wie eine Katze sieht sie nicht aus. Sie trägt über einem Bikini ein hautenges, durchsichtiges Oberteil, das, als sie die Nacht begann, recht gut mit ihren hohen Absätzen harmonierte. Ihre zwei besten Feundinnen geben ihr physischen Halt und Beistand, während sie – am Hat […]

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