When I was traveling in China (back in 2002), I met these two Aussies, Hamish and Simon, who held a contest to see who could get the most comments on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forum.
Simon pretended to be an American who wanted to go to “Tieland,” except he heard from his mother that it was unsafe because there were drugs there. He won by a landslide. The comments garnered went along the lines of, “Please, please do us all a favor and don’t leave your little hick town.”
Hamish took the high road and appealed to people’s desire to help. He pretended to be a traveler overwhelmed by the task of keeping up with his journal. How often should he write, when was the best time to do it, how long should his entries be? People’s comments went along the lines of, “Look, man, you just have to do what’s right for you.”
I've been doing what’s right for me by keeping some pretty detailed travel journals. So I’m going to take selected entries (and e-mails) and transcribe excerpts for a new series: Old Travel Journals. It’ll give you a view of what I deem worth remembering when I visit a place (as well as, hopefully, some insight into the place itself).
Enjoy!
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