Ben Casnocha: The Blog

Urban Nomadicism: The Sources of Unhappiness for Serial Travelers

Who doesn't advocate traveling and especially living abroad? Everyone, it seems. I do. "Just go do it" is the travel advice most people need to hear.

But there are some who take the advice to an extreme. They become professional vagabonds. They backpack around for years, going from hostel to hostel, teaching English in Peru, working at a bookstore in Calcutta. Or there are the international elite who pick a career (e.g. consulting) that requires moving base camps every few years, even within their own country. Or there are the children of diplomats who grow up citizens of the world.

I envy much about how these people live their lives, but when I observe unhappiness, it can usually be traced back to one or more of these three issues:

Rootlessness

"Home" changes over the course of one's life. It starts at your place of birth. Half of Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace. For the other half, what you consider home evolves over the course of time. The most comfortable transition is when "home" goes from A to B with no interlude. You might grow up in San Francisco (home), then move to Los Angeles (SF still home for awhile), until one day you realize that "home" is LA. Boom. It switches. But if you grow up in San Francisco (home), then move to LA, then move to Chicago, then Beijing, then Sydney, at some point SF no longer feels like home, but nor do any of the other cities. Where is your hearth? Where do you go for nurturance and renewal?

Shallowness of relationships

The best way to build intimacy in a relationship is to spend quality in-the-flesh time with each other. If you're always on the go, or never in the same place for more than a few years, intimacy can be hard to come by. It's hard to involve yourself in a long-term relationship if you're nomadic. It's true even for friendships. Thanks to technology it's rare that a friendship would ever move backwards in the absence of physical interaction -- maintenance is easy these days -- but technology can not accelerate intimacy in the way physicality does. It can even be hard to motivate yourself to invest in relationships as you think to yourself, "I'm leaving in six months anyway, what's the point in trying to find a best friend?" (People who have issues with intimacy of course will embrace this aspect of the traveler's life.)

Identity confusion

Where do I belong? Does the country name on my passport still accurately reflect my deepest national ties? How do I answer the question, "Where are you from?" If I'm living in a country where I am not a native speaker, will I ever be treated as a local?

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By the way, the best way to understand a serial traveler or expat is to understand what they're escaping from back home. Oppressive parents? Unsuccessful social life? Failure? Racism? Unbearable boredom? Escapism is common to all. Then again, perhaps we're all trying to escape from something...

(tks Maria P. for helping brainstorm this)

Upcoming Travel: Latin America and Asia

(Photo of Southern Chile)

I will be in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay in July, Beijing for two weeks in August, and probably Mongolia afterward.

I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on what I should do in my free time, who I should meet with, and how I should think about what I am doing. Remember it will be winter in South America.

Also, it has been a pleasure staying with blog readers in my travels, from Dublin to Mumbai, Shanghai to Rome. I find it the best way to understand another culture. If you live in one of these places and want to host me, let me know.

As always, thanks.

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Here are various related posts:

• What I learned from my 2006 China trip
• My sense of the status of Hong Kong as of 2008
• What I learned after my first visit to Mexico
• What I learned from my first visit to Colombia
• Why freedom in China is not bi-modal
• Here's my favorite book on China. Here are detailed notes from The New Asian Hemisphere, a terrific book. Here are my notes from The Forgotten Continent, about Latin America.
• These are my main travel related posts. This is my separate travel blog with 250 posts sorted by country.

Does Travel Narrow the Mind?

Does travel narrow the mind?

First consider Emerson:

Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican, and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated. My giant goes with me wherever I go.

But the rage of travelling is a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. The intellect is vagabond, and our system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home.

Then Chesterton:

... There is something touching and even tragic about the thought of the thoughtless tourist, who might have stayed at home loving Laplanders, embracing Chinamen, and clasping Patagonians to his heart in Hampstead or Surbiton, but for his blind and suicidal impulse to go and see what they looked like. This is not meant for nonsense; still less is it meant for the silliest sort of nonsense, which is cynicism. The human bond that he feels at home is not an illusion. On the contrary, it is rather an inner reality. Man is inside all men. In a real sense any man may be inside any men. But to travel is to leave the inside and draw dangerously near the outside.

Andrew Sullivan summarizes:

The proper conservative resistance to travel is not, therefore, a blinkered resistance to the new; it is an understanding that we have never fully absorbed or understood what we already know; that the places we love are still mysterious, and understanding of them should never be mistaken for simple familiarity. Seeking new superficialities at the expense of familiar depths is a neurosis, not an adventure.

I find the above ideas fascinating but unpersuasive. As one of Sullivan's readers writes, "Inward and outward journeys are simply not opposed, and to pretend that they are in order to adhere stuffily to the superior excellence of the inward journey is just irritating."

I've found that travel can awaken the inner journey. Some of my most contemplative thoughts have come while sitting on a bench in a foreign land, looking around and recognizing nothing, and retreating inward like one runs inside from a cold day for a cup of hot chocolate.

For a final, different take on the value of travel, here's a unique David Foster Wallace footnote from his Gourmet magazine piece on lobsters:

As I see it, it probably really is good for the soul to be a tourist, even if it’s only once in a while. Not good for the soul in a refreshing or enlivening way, though, but rather in a grim, steely-eyed, let’s-look-honestly-at-the-facts-and-find-some-way-to-deal-with-them way.

My personal experience has not been that traveling around the country is broadening or relaxing, or that radical changes in place and context have a salutary effect, but rather that intranational tourism is radically constricting, and humbling in the hardest way—hostile to my fantasy of being a real individual, of living somehow outside and above it all.

To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience. It is to impose yourself on places that in all noneconomic ways would be better, realer, without you. It is, in lines and gridlock and transaction after transaction, to confront a dimension of yourself that is as inescapable as it is painful:

As a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead thing.

What I Learned from 1.5 Weeks in Colombia

President Uribe talking to us about building "confidence" in Colombia

Last week I traveled throughout Medellín and Bogota as a fellow with the New Generation Leadership Forum, an initiative of the Americas Business Council and Inter-American Development Bank. NGLF seeks to bring together 20 leaders throughout the Americas under the age of 40 "with the goal of tackling today’s pressing political, environmental, religious and economic issues."

I was honored to be invited to join the inaugural group. We had a terrific time together meeting high level political and business leaders as well as talking amongst ourselves about the issues facing the region.

We had private meetings with the following people:

• President of Colombia, President Uribe
• former prime minister of Jamaica, James Patterson
• former mayor of Medellín and current presidential candidate, Sergio Fajardo
• chairman of Intel, Craig Barrett
• editor of the Americas section of The Economist, Michael Reid
• Secretary of the Treasury of Mexico, Agustin Carstens
• Nobel-prize winning economist, Robert Merton
• former president of Colombia, Cesar Gaviria
• head of the national police force (FBI, DEA, and all local police combined)
• head of reconciliation for ex-guerrilla forces in Colombia, Frank Pearl
• Minister of Defense of Colombia, Juan Calderón

Below are assorted observations and impressions based on these meetings and a week spent talking non-stop about Colombian politics, the Latin America region, and globalization. More specific dispatches, photos, and personal notes are over at my travel blog.

1. Colombia's Unbelievable Security Turnaround. 10 years ago Colombia was one of the most dangerous countries in the world. 80% of the world's kidnappings happened there. Guerrilla and paramilitary groups controlled vast swaths of the country. Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellín drug cartel, terrorized the country: in one election year, Escobar killed 4 out of the 7 presidential candidates. In the process he consolidated control over the cocaine trade to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars of personal wealth, earning him a spot on the Forbes world's richest list. Today? Escobar is dead, Medellín's violent crime rate is lower than Washington D.C, kidnappings are not a fact of daily life. Dozens of important drug cartel leaders have turned themselves in or been captured. FARC has been pushed deep into the jungle. It's a pleasant place for tourists to visit. Most people point to President Uribe as the trigger for this turn-around. Uribe brought a hard stance against the cartels. In 2000, in conjunction with billions in aid / resources from the United States, Uribe implemented Plan Colombia which proactively sought to dismantle FARC by destroying cocoa fields, enticing (with carrots) paramilitary leaders to demobilize, and reducing corruption in the police force. Momentum has been key: with every additional bad guy you capture, you gain valuable intelligence to capture others, and reduce morale within the opposition. Hence we've seen the successes pile up in the last 12 months.

2. War on Drugs. You hear "Colombia" and you think drugs. The U.S has been fighting a War on Drugs for almost 30 years now. America's policies -- and the billions of dollars behind them -- are back in the headlines thanks to new waves of violence along the Mexican border related to in-fighting among drug cartels there. All the Colombians I met seemed hopeful that the headlines will generate real debate within the U.S. about the War on Drugs. In particular, Latin Americans hope that America will confront the demand side the equation: the marijuana and cocaine habits of millions of Americans are the reason blood is shed every day on the streets of Mexico, Colombia, and elsewhere. Hillary Clinton, in a visit to Mexico a few weeks ago, acknowledged as much. The question is whether renewed debate in the U.S. will lead to any fundamental policy changes beyond the usual talk about better border control or better education efforts. Namely: will the U.S. legalize marijuana and regulate it? Legalization seems to have broad support in theory but little support politically. How the U.S. decides to proceed on its war on drugs depends mostly on how successful Washington sees its efforts to date. Everyone agrees it's been a failure -- overall consumption has not declined precipitously in the U.S., Latin America still hosts warzones related to cartels fulfilling that consumption -- the question is how dismal a failure you think it to be. Until there's wide recognition that incarcerating potheads and adding super duper cameras along the El Paso border has not at all worked, little is likely to change in American policy. In the meantime, all eyes are on the supply side and particularly Calderon's muscular posture toward the cartels in Mexico.

3. A Third Term for Uribe? President Uribe in Colombia enjoys sky-high popularity both within his country -- Colombians feel safe and confident for the first time in years -- and from outside observers who admire not only his security work but his willingness to stand up to Hugo Chavez. (No other Latin American leader counterweights Chavez's voice; Lulu in Brazil is too obsessed with being liked by everyone.) Here's the problem: Uribe himself thinks he has done such a good job that he sees it right to amend the country's 1991 constitution, if the people vote to do so, to allow him to run for a third term. His view is that the war against the cartels is not over. They are winning the war, but press on they must, and what sane person would change generals in the middle of the war? Second, he argues that he doesn't even want to serve a third term. But he will do what the people ask him to do. (Shameless populism!) It's easy to appreciate why the Colombian people are willing to entertain the notion of more Uribe: more than anything people crave security, and security Uribe has brought. Why mess with what's working so well? All "expert" commentators we spoke with oppose a third Uribe term. First, they argue when a president amends the constitution to extend his term it weakens the long-term democratic institutions of the country. If Uribe can do it, what will stop a genuinely evil president from pursuing such a powergrab in the future? Second, they argue that the priorities of Colombia have changed. The country no longer needs a fireman to put out fires. There are other social and political issues separate and apart from battling FARC. The next step? Colombians will vote on whether to pass a referendum allowing Uribe to run for a third term; if they pass it, Uribe will almost surely win. But it's not clear they will pass it, plus there are some amusing technical issues with how the referendum has been phrased that may put the decision in the hands of a very-split congress before the people ever get a say.

4. Guns from the U.S. The assault weapons that the drug cartels use to kill one another are mostly purchased in the U.S. and smuggled across the border. There are two issues here: enforcement of existing gun laws and contemplating whether existing gun lawyers are good enough. The first is uncontroversial: there is almost surely corruption on both the U.S. and Mexico sides within border patrol ranks that are allowing vast amounts of unlicensed, automatic firearms to cross the border. The second is more interesting: what types of guns should Americans be able to purchase on their own? As one prominent Mexican businessperson told us, "Someone who buys 25 assault weapons of the same type at a gun show in San Diego isn't a fucking collector." I personally support second amendment rights in the name of self-defense, but so many of the guns being purchased go well above the needs of individual self-defense. We need tighter regulation in the U.S. over guns.

5. Importance of U.S. Policy. U.S. foreign policy ripples around the world, but nowhere as much as in Latin America. It's impossible to have a conversation about an issue in Colombia (and I suspect most countries) without questions raised about U.S. actions or intentions: Will they approve free trade agreement X? Will they give aid to Y? Will Obama support this or that initiative? While America's record in the region is mixed -- most disappointingly in the anti-communist years when Washington initiated various coups -- I feel proud about what the U.S. does overall in terms of providing economic opportunity to millions of immigrants and in providing direct foreign aid to poorer countries. I suspect the American people would pay a little more attention to international affairs if they knew, for example, that $700 million a year of their tax dollars have been directed to Plan Colombia over the past 10 years.

6. Cuba. The U.S. embargo against Cuba was supposed to dethrone Castro. Castro is in power. The U.S. embargo has not worked. It's time for it to end.

7. Justice vs. Peace. Reconciliation in the aftermath of war is a tall task that Argentina, South Africa, Germany, and others have all dealt with over the years. On the one hand, you want to bring the perpetrators of terrible deeds to justice. On the other hand, you want to promote peace going forward, and sometimes the best way to do this is to not imprison for life or execute any perpetrator you find. Take Colombia. The government has been offering packages to guerrilla leaders who demobilize and re-integrate into Colombian society. More than 10,000 ex-paramiliatry folks have taken up the offer, which includes a shorter sentencing, job training and rehabilitation, and witness protection programs. Imagine if your son got killed by Cristina, the notorious FARC operative who recently turned herself in as part of the demobilization program. How would you feel if you learned her jail sentence was going to be halved or more? You wouldn't be happy. But long term peace will come from the complete dismantling of groups like FARC. And a dismantling strategy that involves indirect approaches (enticing top leaders to desert) as well as direct (military confrontation) might be the best.

8. Environment - I was not familiar with Colombia's amazing biodiversity. Colombia is the second most biologically diverse country in the world. "More than 1,821 species of birds, 623 species of amphibians, 467 species of mammals, 518 species of reptiles, and 3,200 species of fish reside in Colombia. About 18 percent of these are endemic to the country. Colombia has a mind-boggling 51,220 species of plants, of which nearly 30 percent are endemic." The Minister of Defense showed us a compelling video titled "Ecoside" - it noted that that the drug cartels are doing enormous environmental damage in the jungle and that planetary concerns alone are reason enough to do our best to bring them down. The video at one point asked, "What is the carbon footprint of the person who snorts a line of cocaine?"

All in all, a deeply stimulating, humbling, and often hilarious time. Thank you very much to the Americas Business Council for including me in this fellowship. Guys - I can't wait for Cancun next year!

You've Just Landed in Bangkok...

You're a tourist and you have just landed in Bangkok. Yours is the first flight to land in two weeks since protesters took over the airport. The prime minister of Thailand has been sacked. There's tons of unrest, suicides, protesters, and general pandemonium. In short, you have entered a highly volatile political and social situation. Who knows whether the airport will even be open when you try to leave. What's your disposition as you deplane? Nervous? Uneasy? Careful? Um, try this:

The Wall Street Journal travel blog claims this is a photo of passengers deplaning on the first flight to land in Bangkok. They're ready for a good time. Must be from Britain.

On Dining Alone

Fuchsia Dunlop in the weekend FT nails it:

Dining alone in restaurants, like other solitary activities, is a matter of perception. If you feel guilty about it and think you shouldn’t be doing it, it’s dreadful. On the other hand, if you can enjoy it as one of the diverting side dishes to the great shared feast of life, it can be delicious. Dining in company isn’t always an unalloyed pleasure, anyway. If your companion is dull or irritating, or the chemistry of conversation absent, you might as well be alone. And if you are simply too tired to offer another person your full attention, a little solitary sustenance can be just the thing.

I'm an experienced solo diner. If the setting is right (ie, you don't feel self-conscious), then a casual meal with a magazine can be quite relaxing.

During solo portions of my travel abroad, I became well accustomed to wandering the streets of a random city and settling down to eat. One of my favorite memories is in Rome, my last night there. The heat all week had been oppressive and the lack of traffic laws raised my blood pressure significantly any time I tried to cross a street. (Here's my funny travel blog post on crossing a Roman street.) Tired but happy to be alive, I walked to a local restaurant, sat down by myself, ordered as much mozzarella cheese as I thought I could eat, and enjoyed watching the Italians at tables next me take hand gesturing to a whole new level.

Journeys Are the Midwives of Thought

From the otherwise strange book The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton, there's the below golden nugget on how traveling can facilitate thinking. I'm reminded of my post where I argued that airplane time should be spent reading (and thus, thinking), not working on a laptop.

Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships, or trains. There is almost quaint correlation between what is before our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, and new thoughts, new places. Introspective reflections that might otherwise be liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralyzing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand.

Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks -- charged with listening to music, for example, or following a line of trees. The music or the view distracts for a time that nervous, censorious, practical part of the mind which is inclined to shut down when it notices something difficult emerging in consciousness, and which runs scared of memories, longings and introspective or original ideas, preferring instead the administrative and the impersonal.

Don't Give Up, Don't Ever Give Up

That's the motto of the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research, as announced by legendary basketball coach Jimmy Valvano in his famous ESPY Awards speech in 1993 (he died of cancer soon after the speech).

I came upon that phrase -- don't give up, don't ever give up -- during my trip to Alaska last week. I spent all last week on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska where I hiked, saw some glaciers, fished for halibut, watched bears fish for salmon, and generally continued my travel trend of enjoying nature / the outdoors and avoiding cities.

Virtually everywhere in Alaska there was a sign reminding us mortal humans that we were in "bear country." The signs presented various scenarios. If you happen upon a black bear, play dead. A brown bear, act big and fierce. If you happen upon a predatory bear of either color, and it attacks, fight back. Fight back, the sign said, and don't give up.

In Homer, Alaska, at the Pratt Museum, there was an exhibit on sailors who died at sea. It showed how long the average person can live if alone at sea. For example, one who treads water quickly lives longer than one who swims slowly. In any scenario, the will to stay alive and not fall asleep / go unconscious can make the difference between life and death.

My last sighting of this phrase is from a hotel room in Topeka, Kansas, where I was the week before last. There was a placard about what to do if there is a fire. It had the evacuation route and then some instructions if the fire were right outside my door. Put a wet towel under the door, it said, call for help, and don't give up.

It might seem funny to have to remind people not to give up. But I definitely believe it. Whether in normal situations or dire ones, people can underestimate their own willpower.

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The Best Phone Conversations Happen When Both Are in a Similar Physical Environment

If you travel a lot you tend to:

• Make a lot of phone calls while on the road / in airports / on-the-go.
• Cherish any stationary time you do have at your desk as an opportunity to undergo some focused, uninterrupted work.

I've noticed a tension that arises when I'm traveling and call someone who's at their desk, or vice-versa. The person driving tends to be more chatty realizing that there's not much else he could be doing while on the road. Meanwhile, the other person, at his desk, gets anxious about spending precious desk time -- when he can be most effective on his computer or talking to office mates -- on a phone call.

To wit, my theory of the day: The best phone conversations between two people of equal status happen when both are in a similar physical environment with equal productivity potential.

Let European / Asian Airlines Fly U.S. Domestic Routes

Earlier this month, United Airlines spammed its customers and urged us to ask Congress to reign in oil speculators, whatever that means.

If Americans are going to get together to ask Congress to do something about the dismal state of domestic airlines, here's a better plan: Urge Congress to take the EU-US Open Skies Agreement one step further. Let's allow any European or Asian airline fly any U.S. domestic route.

The Open Skies Agreement, which just went into effect, allows any U.S. or European carrier to fly from any city in the U.S. to any city in Europe. This ended exclusive lockholds on lucrative routes to London Heathrow, among others. Right away Delta and US Air and Singapore Air among others started serving Heathrow, creating more competition (and thus lower prices).

Imagine what would happen if well-run European or Asian airlines with a younger fleet (such as the Lufthansa Group which includes their subsidiaries like Swiss Air) could start flying domestic U.S. flights. They would probably focus on longer haul domestic routes and could immediately attack the weak U.S. carriers and their hubs (US Air in Philly, United in Denver, and probably Delta's secondary hub in LAX which has been a disaster).

I'm not optimistic the protectionist winds in Washington would allow for an open market in U.S. domestic routes, but certainly if American citizens are going to try to do something on the lobbying front to improve airline travel here at home railing against oil speculation isn't the answer. Encouraging Congress to allow the better-run European and Asian airlines to compete probably is.

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The one bright spot among U.S. carriers remains Southwest Airlines which announced a remarkable 15% increase in profit last quarter. Here's an analysis of Southwest's new boarding policy. To me it signals a renewed commitment to business travelers who are willing to pay to get a 1-15 boarding number. Consider this plus their re-modeling of all gate seating areas (each gate equipped with big fluffy chairs and more power outlets than you know what to do with) and it's clear that Southwest will start winning over business travelers on longer routes, not just budget-conscious, short haul flyers.

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I've now flown the new airline Virgin America several times between SF - NY, LA - NY, and SF - D.C., and have had a very pleasant experience. They offer low prices with professional staff and good in-flight amenities. But it's hard for me to see how they're going to maintain the low prices in the long run (I'm assuming now they're loss leaders). I would expect Virgin America to follow the path of Jet Blue, though I'm not familiar with their oil / fuel hedge situation so maybe I'll be proven wrong. Still, adding hip window dressing like JetBlue or the failed Ted or Song experiments of United and American without fundamentally changing the business model (VA operates a hub at SFO and competes on the cutthroat coastal routes) doesn't strike me as a winning formula to an industry in need of innovation.

Does Travel Make You Happier?

Tyler Cowen via Gretchen Rubin:

Travel is an interesting issue. It makes people deeper, and makes their internal mental stream much richer, but I'm not sure it ever makes them *happier* per se. It can be a lot of hard work and also some frustration. Still it is worth doing as much as you can.

As I've said before, for me, all the cliches about travel are true. It really does broaden you.

Monster Hike in Costa Rica and Resilience

As I mentioned in my last post, your loyal blogger is on the road, and isn't sitting with his legs kicked up on a Costa Rican beach reading books under a tree (ok - well maybe a little of that). He also loves the outdoors and as such tries to be "active."

My friend Stan and I hiked up to the volcano crater of Rincon de la Vieja National Park (45 mins NE of Liberia, CR). It was one of the more challenging physical experiences I've endured. It wasn't the time -- it took seven hours round trip -- but the immense steepness and poorly constructed trails that made it utterly grueling. Think stairmaster in mud.

The three following pictures illuminate how the hike went. Here I am at the outset of our hike, smiling, happy, and ready to go. The volcano is that big mountain in the background. Fyi, my collar is only popped to protect against sun burn -- wouldn't want to be confused with an east coast prep school kid!

Then after a grueling three hours up a muddy and mind-blowingly steep mountain, the picture looks much different:

When we finally reached the crater area, we walked along trail leading to the huge pit of steam and sulfur. It must be a close sibling of the moon, because if this isn't a moonscape, I don't know what is:

Stan and I joked that we were both "deeply humbled" by Mother Nature. Our trek was worth it. I'm a big believer in the importance of resilience and believe one's "Resilience Quotient" (RQ) is transferable. That is, the experience of enduring hardship but ultimately finishing the job can help in other parts of life. Stan and I didn't turn back, we finished the hike, and now have a great story and photos.

OK - back to reading on the beach.

Impressions of Prague, Czech Republic

(photo credit)

A friend and I spent a few nights the other week in Prague, Czech Republic.

I'd heard endless good things about Prague. Truly, I don't know a person who has not liked Prague, with the most common adjective being "dreamy." It's clear why: the main old town square is a remarkable sight. Standing in the middle, to your right are enormous facades and old buildings; to your left is the Astronomical Clock. Leave the square, wind your way through cobble stone streets and you're soon at the Charles Bridge. The bridge, especially at night as pictured above, is stunning. And the views of the city from the bridge are second-to-none. Walk across the bridge and continue up the hill and you see Prague Castle, a soaring, amazing architectural construction, with stone lions jumping out the windows.

We went to the Kafka museum after the Castle -- it's very well done. By reading some of Kafka's diary entries it's clear that he was absolutely obsessed with writing. He couldn't do anything else. A sign of genius. (I read this set of Kafka stories beforehand to get oriented. A fine introduction to his work.)

Czech food is heavy (dark meat, yummy thick bread dumplings, beer) but good. Because my friend had a somewhat weak Italian stomach -- sorry Massimo, couldn't resist -- we made a couple McDonald's runs along the way, and stumbled upon the McWalk. The McWalk is like a drive-through window except it's a walk-through. Why someone would use the McWalk instead of walking in the front door is beyond me. Apparently, there are only two McDonald's McWalk windows in the world: Prague and Haifa, Israel. See my travel blog for more. Also - in McDonald's they charge for ketchup!

The Soviet influence remains. I met a business professor in Prague who told me that many officials in the current government are there because of the old communist power structure. The communist ideology still has a grip on the national psyche, he told me, and this is problematic on many fronts including efforts to stimulate entrepreneurship.

We had bad weather for our visit, and weather always makes a difference. This probably contributes to why I feel like Prague is a little overrated. Its beauty is stunning, but many parts of Western Europe have beautiful old towns, churches which inspire, cute hole-in-the-wall shops, etc etc. I'm guessing that 10 years ago, Prague was a hidden gem for Western Europe tourists willing to venture a little more east. It's changed big time. Charles Bridge teems with tourists every hour of every day. The whole old town is packed with foreigners, and the cheesy shops selling fake tourist trinkets line virtually every street. Sure, you can avoid the tourists and explore new town (which Massimo and I did and it was well worth it). But the fact remains: Prague is now a tier two tourist destination in Europe (if tier one is Rome, Paris, and London), drawing visitors from all over Europe, America, and Asia. To me, Kiev, Ukraine has more charm and is less crowded than Prague, and only slightly less beautiful.

The Bottom Line: Prague is well worth your time as something that has a bit more Eastern European vibe. But it's no longer off the beaten path and therefore contains all the annoyances of other top European tourist destinations.

Book Review: Smile When You're Lying

Chuck Thompson's book Smile When You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer is a delicious collection of travel stories and rants. In addition to recounting his own adventures, in endlessly original and engaging language, he also directs missiles at his fellow travel writers and the travel industry more generally. Anyone who's read guidebooks or travel memoirs will sympathize with Thompson's take-downs. He rails against their trite, superlative-laden descriptions; their tendency to remarkable-tize everything and anything; their collusion with the very people they're supposed to be writing about in an objective manner. His thoughts here reminded me of my visit to India a couple years ago when I was comparing what my Lonely Planet guide was telling me and what the, um, messy reality outside actually was.

His own stories are entertaining, if a bit hard-to-believe at times. One chapter it's hookers in Thailand, the next it's the "Penis Olympics" in Japan. Through and through, though, he tells the stories with striking vividness.

Some favorite excerpts below. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys international travel.

On Manila, Philippines:

Like Bangkok, Jakarta, and a handful of other festering, beggar-laden Third World megatropolises, Manila is one of the great sprawling shitholes of Asia, a reeking mess of poverty, traffic, smog, crime, corruption, and filth. Bursting with people who somehow maintain a bulletproof optimism in the face of decay, disorder, and daily tragedy, these are frentic slum-cities where anything, from blow jobs to military coups, can happen at any time. Cities that you love just slightly more than you loathe.

Rules on life and travel:

• Clean up your own mess, no matter how tough a job it is.
• Foreigners are almost never as bad as you think they'll be.
• A lot of interesting things can happen when you run out of gas.
• If the world can forgive the Germans, it can forgive anybody.
• Just when you think you've seen the best the world has to offer, there'll always be Canada.

One of many hits on travel writers:

Their bidding is done by an army of doltish travel writers whose inability to seize upon anything beyond the obvious and trite is based on either a profound inexperience abroad or by the kind of tittering acceptance that turns everything foreign, no matter how mundane or evil, into a "charming," "authentic," or "hilarious" cultural experience.

On Thailand and sex:

There are two kinds of girls you have sex with in Thailand. Those you pay and those you marry.

On why we should be more grateful for one of the "most complex, cooperative, and successful private systems ever constructed":

At DFW Airport in Dallas, a wildlife control office keeps a room filled with birds -- barn owls, doves, geese, and so on -- collected from troublesome avian populations that refuse to be driven from runway areas. Because birds can damage and potentially bring down a plane if enough of them get sucked into an engine, autopsies are performed on the salvaged birds to determine what they've been eating to eradicate their food source. That's called obsessive attention to detail, and an A-plus commitment to safety rarely seen by the public.

On why Chinatowns anywhere are overrated:

Every Chinatown distills the worst of the obligatory tourist trap: worthless trinkets, no public bathrooms, impossible parking, hit-and-miss food. Most of the guys cooking aren’t even real chefs; they’re recent immigrants dragooned into manning the grill. Chinatowns have stolen more time from weekend vacations than weather at O’Hare.

Cuckoo for Switzerland

John Fund has a piece in a recent issue of The American on how under-appreciated Switzerland has become the envy of Europe. It's good fodder for those of us who love Switzerland.

The country is consistently at the top of quality of life rankings. Its people are among the most productive in the world. Its culture is fascinating (four official languages!). And as Fund emphasizes, its smart economic policies have led to a high level of prosperity and innovation.

The summer after my junior year of high school I left America for the first time to participate in a student-exchange program in Zurich. That trip opened my eyes to international travel...and the rest is history.

I'm excited to be going back to Switzerland in less than a month. I'll be in St. Gallen for a week, as I was a winner in the St. Gallen Symposium essay contest. Then I'll be in Zurich for a few days visiting friends, and then Massimo and I will go to Prague for a few days. Drop me an email if you live in any of these three cities and want to meet up, or if you have tips on Prague.