Lonely Planet guidebook writer Carolyn McCarthy (pictured left) is guest posting for Perceptive Travel today from her home in Puerto Montt, Chile. Carolyn has written travel essays for National Geographic, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and Lonely Planet’s Middle of Nowhere anthology, among other publications, and she maintains Carolyn’s Wild Blue Yonder, a blog following her peregrinations through Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, and Yellowstone National Park … among other places. She’s one of my favorite travel writers anywhere, and today she rethinks travelers’ use of guidebook-as-guru after a Chilean hostel owner accused Lonely Planet-toters of being unadventurous.

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As the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, Puerto Natales receives serious Gore-Tex clad foot traffic. Some 180,000 people per year make it into the park and most hoof it through this small town first. There last week to research a guidebook, I was gathering listings when I found a couple of hostels who preferred to remain off the record.

By the way, this never happens. The literary equivalent is Jonathan Franzen’s refusal to be featured in Oprah’s book club. So, what was up?

They decried outdated information (guides are updated every 2-3 years) and rallied around the general woes of tourism: unsustainable numbers, bad manners and the like. But what disturbed me most was that they deemed Lonely Planet toters unadventurous.

Omar, the owner of XX hostel, used to approach travelers in the bus station. No hard sell, but what he calls “buena onda” (good vibes). “They’d shoo me away saying they had their ‘book,’” he said. Now, he rents out rooms only by word-of-mouth. Omar declared it, “The human chain.”

According to him, guidebook-free folk are open people who want to meet people.

I assessed the situation. Hadn’t he just spent the past ten minutes touring his lodgings only to heap criticism? Maybe I was defensive but he was arrogant. After all, I was there live-in-person, not updating from some distant desk. It isn’t ever as glamorous as it sounds. Research days mean seeing fifteen hostels a day, snuffing out lice, prostitution and basic inferior service. The wrecks I edit out hopefully make shortcuts for the traveler who essentially wants affordable/clean/friendly or will sacrifice one of those aspects for the other. Mostly, I hope to tell it straight.

So, am I doing travelers a disservice? Are they doing themselves one by their reliance on a guidebook?

Many times I’ve heard locals comment on the guidebook as traveler bible. And when I see people scanning it religiously, reading as they walk instead of looking up at the scenery, I sometimes wince.

Maybe it’s not guidebooks but the way they’re sometimes used. Think of the book as a friend, not a guru. Ok, on the first leg of a trip, some guidebook coaching is likely necessary. But as travelers grow more comfortable with new surroundings, I urge them to sometimes put the thing away. Let’s face it. It’s just a book. A subjective account written under the pressure of a deadline, updated every two-to-three years.

Let’s talk expectation. When I traveled Costa Rica with a good friend, I was pretty surprised how much our tastes varied and it wasn’t only in the food. Fresh off the plane, she went gaga over hammocks and fresh fruit and bristled to see a bare bulb in a room. In my experience, the bare bulb was synonymous with budget lodgings and well, if you wanted fresh fruit, you could buy two kilos for a dollar at the corner mart and skip the pricey hotel with the fruit plate breakfast. Regardless, we could have both written two totally different guidebooks from that trip. In all, listings are just ideas.

As someone with an MFA who spends WAY too much time checking the cleanliness of shower rings, I stand by my assessments. And traveling the nooks and crannies of countries that don’t make it to the evening news opens my eyes to bigger patterns. But in case you thought the guidebook knew all the ins and outs—think again.

How do you avoid the traps of a guidebook? It’s easy. Use it when it’s essential, then don’t. Don’t be sucked in by Greatest Hits Lists: what are the chances that your best travel memories will take place within yards of a Natual Wonder? You might want to spend a week in a town that got a two-sentence write up (a sure sign few travelers are there). Stick around one place long enough to make a friend. Let locals tell you their favorite outings and places to eat. Most importantly, find the time to put the guide away and trust your gut.

If that means sleeping at Omar’s in Puerto Natales, tell him hi for me.

–Carolyn McCarthy

On the face of it lounging on the ground surrounded by stark naked men, sharing a chillum pipe of dubious origin might not sound like a particularly spiritual pastime, but in India, anything is possible. India is renowned for its massive festivals. Forget the Hajj, the Kumbh Mela festival attracts sometimes tens of millions of people, yet seems to often pass without raising more than a flutter in the international media. This immense festival happens on a twelve year schedule, in one of four different locations in India. Every twelve years or so it comes back to the same location. The most auspicious is known to Hindus as Prayag (Allahabad) and every twelve Prayags is the most auspicious of all – happening every 144 years and being known as a Maha Kumbh. India being India there are also Ardh Kumbhs (every six years), but for us Kumbh aficionados, these don’t really count.

These festivals are attended by thousands of sadhus, of holy men, who have renounced all material possessions and walk around naked, covered only in ash from fires and sporting long matted dreadlocks. These are the extreme end of Hinduism. Many of them are trained in martial arts, and perform astonishing acts of self-mortification. Some perform standing penances where they are on their feet for years at a time. Others will hold their hands in the air for many years until they shrivel. They are a fascinating, if unpredictable and unfathomable group of people, and a living link with the great religious and spiritual history of India.

I have been to three Kumbh Melas, including the last Maha Kumbh in 2001, where the numbers peaked at nearly 35 million on the most auspicious day. Although it is probably considered bad blog-etiquette, this story of mine says more about the experience and about spending time with than I can fit in here.

Many writers get hooked on India – especially British writers. India and Britain are still endlessly fascinated with each other – a bit like a relationship that has ended, but where each partner just can’t quite move on. We have each influenced the other in so many ways. British influences on India are well-known: language, cricket, railways, bureaucracy and the legal system. Yet India still has a great influence on the UK. Many words have crossed back into English – bungalow, jodhpurs, pyjamas, loot, thug and even juggernaut all have their roots in the sub-continent. Indian food is supremely popular in the UK. There are apparently more Indian restaurants in London than in Delhi, and statistically our post popular dish is not Roast Beef any more, but Chicken Tikka Masala. The greatest influence though has been in the immigration of so many people from the sub-continent into the UK who have brought excelled in many fields from medicine to commerce and from culture to cuisine and have made this country richer in so many ways.

One great writer, who often writes about India is William Dalrymple. Dalrymple has written a number of books that feature India, including The Age of Kali and City of Djins, but you can read some of his work on the Travel Intelligence website. Travel Intelligence website, amongst them Among the Sadhus, The Gangesand Primate Suspect: The Terrorist Apes of Jaipur.

Dalrymples work is phenomenally researched and characterised by well observed dialogue - an example of proper writing in a field so often swamped with waffled first impressions, clichés and hyperbole.

Words and images of sadhus © Steve Davey/stevedavey.com

In his most recent South Florida Sun-Sentinel column, and extended add-on, the inestimable Tom Swick has gathered not only some of the quirkiest advice for travelers, but also some of the most useful. Tasty tidbits: Don’t blow your nose in Japan, and in Brazil, don’t ask, “What’s this sawdust doing on my food?”

He’s also gathered tips from various acquaintances worldwide (including yours truly on Russia) for 6 pages of “Toward a more worldly American.” My favorite is right at the top, with a whole lot of info about the intricacies of the tango floor in Argentina. But also heed the etiquette of ice in South Africa, and try not to blow your top on Malaysia.

I’m sure our Perceptive Readers have something to add!

Last year I found myself on Rapa Nui – the island formally known as Easter Island. Not that you really find yourself on Rapa Nui – as the most isolated inhabited island on the planet, it does take some concerted effort to get to.

Rapa Nui is one of the most stunning places I have ever been to. Even without the giant stone Moai statues it would be an amazing place to visit. A rugged volcanic island, fringed with black rocks and dashed by waves that get to take a run-up of thousands of kilometres. The countryside is peppered with volcanic cones and there are two complete craters: one massive and virtually complete and the other where the Moai were quarried.

Whilst I was on the island, I got talking to a retired US military man, who was on a brief holiday with his wife. Retired, but apparently still with lots of contacts in the military, when he heard I was photographing a book for the BBC he took me to task over Iraq. The BBC it seems were biased and left wing. They were helping to cause trouble in Iraq by only showing bad news. Things weren’t so bad on the ground, it was all exaggerated, or so his military contacts had told him. Yeah – right!

Not just because they were in effect paying for me to be on Easter Island, I have to say that the BBC is probably the most studiously impartial news organisation in the world. It is even a part of their very remit – the charter under which the organisation was formed.

The BBC even (albeit at my suggestion) recently forced the publishers of the Chinese translation of my first book Unforgettable Place To See Before You Die to recall and pulp the entire print run, as they printed the Tibet chapter without permission, moving it back into China and taking all mention of the invasion by the People’s Army in the 1950s.

The news coverage on the BBC website is exemplary: extensive, impartial and intelligent. Take some recent links from the Tibet section. You can find pictures of the controversial new Tibet railway, and enlightening articles about Fathoming Tibet’s Political Future and even the life of the Han Chinese migrants to Tibet. Some pages are just harrowing, such as Surviving a Tibetan Gulag and Fleeing a Tibetan Monastery.

I defy anyone to read all of these links and not learn something about Tibet – or to look forward to the Beijing Olympics. But if you want unbiased – maybe try Fox News, or ask the Military.

Images and words © Steve Davey 2007

There aren’t that many places on the internet where you can find good quality travel writing, and one of the best is Travel Intelligence. This sprawling site is part travel resource, part booking site and part features agency. A number of excellent travel writers have work on here, including William Dalrymple, Amar Grover and AA Gill.

One of the best writers on the site, and a close friend of mine is Mark Eveleigh. A modern day adventurer, he has trekked across the badlands of Madagascar and through the jungles of Borneo, where he lost a great deal of weight and picked up a local tattoo.

Mark lives in the Spanish town of Pamplona – made famous by Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises. Consequently as a local, he has run the encirro or bull-run, dozens of times, most recently getting somewhat stomped! I have done the Pamplona fiesta with Mark and can safely (safely?) say that it is one of the best parties of my life!

Mark writes about Pamplona in Part of the Stampede. He continues the Hemingway theme in Overlanding Uncovered. There is also an excerpt from his book Maverick in Madagascar (published by Lonely Planet Journeys) called Journey Into The Red Zone. His tale about trekking through the jungle is called Fever Trees of Borneo. Both are available through Amazon.

Over the next few weeks I will highlight the work of some of the other great writers on Travel Intelligence – watch this space!

Words and Pamplona images © Steve Davey 2007