An incredible article I would like to share with all of you.
In response to: Msg #150481
"it is a changing menu"...and oh so worthwhile.
Brilliant artcle by Paul Theroux...every Travelblogger will relate...aspects shown in many of our blogs...thanks Gabrielle for bringing it to our attention.
Reply to this Ive been in places during turbulent times. I didnt set out to be there at those particular times, but as Paul Theroux says, it can be quiet and uneventful for a while and then a whole bunch of stuff breaks out at once. You cant really predict it, and you cant avoid it unless you want to limit your travels to a tiny fraction of the world.
Speaking of the portion of the blog by Paul Theroux about northern Ireland, I lived in Ireland most of my life. I never considered avoiding northern Ireland, because of turbulence, and neither did any other Irish person I know of. Besides, to avoid the political turbulence concerning n Ireland, one would also have had to avoid Dublin, London and a number of other places. It made life easier to not think about it too much, and leave it up to bomb squads etc to find out which streets should be cordoned off because of bomb threats, otherwise you would have lived an existance that many in Ireland would have labled as paranoid. 😊
Reply to this I went into photography to be a war photographer (My hero when I was young was James Nachtwey and Dan Eldon. Read the books, they are amazing..) and was rejected by the Navy after I lost eyesight in my right eye. So no one really needs to convince me to go into the belly of the beast..(<---Adrenaline junkie..lol)
Every country has their problems; oppressed people, war/malicious dictatorship/ genocide/etc. However, you depending on how much money you have, you never have to know any of these problems.. but what good is that?
Reply to this Paul Theroux always writes great articles and this one is no exception. Compare this though to the amateurish bleatings of Matt Kepnes of the Huffington Post who just recently wrote the following damning indictment of Vietnam which more or less insinuates that most people are bent and everyone is on the fiddle.
Why I'll Never Return To Vietnam
Anywhere you go in the world, you are always going to get people trying to rip you off when you frequent the highly touristed areas. I've just had my fill of people trying to constantly get one over on me in Bali. Having lived in Vietnam, I have never once been overcharged for anything. Ok, I may live in a smallish town by Vietnamese standards where I am still treated as somewhat something of a curiosity, but I am always treated fairly and with respect by the locals and of course, respect has to work both ways!
Knowledge is king and if you scour the Internet for information about your prospective destination and prepare well for a trip, the less likelihood there is of you falling for scams or con artists shenanigans. This Kepnes chappy could do well to remember this the next time he travels.
Whoops, I seem to have gone slightly off topic here.....err...I was in Israel when the Gulf War broke out in 1990...does that count??? 😉
[Edited: 2012 Feb 02 10:26 - Cockle:46288 ]
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