What’s money worth? In Myanmar, Rolf discovers that travel has a way of putting “cash value” into a new perspective.
India’s isle of ghosts
On a journey through western India, Rolf explores the former Portuguese outpost of Diu, which brims with history’s phantoms.
In New Orleans: The Allure of Disaster Tourism
Is it weird to want to visit the flood-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward during Mardi Gras season?
Update: Fall/Winter 2005-2006
Friends and vagabonders, 2005 proved to be a busy year for me, with travels and sojourns in New Orleans, England, northern Kansas, France, Greece, California, and Mexico. A Korean translation of Vagabonding debuted in Asian bookstores early in the year, and I had an all-new story, “Something Approaching Enlightenment” in Lonely Planet’s By the Seat…
The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra
He traversed an entire nation in a long weekend. Now, Rolf shows how you can impress members of the opposite sex and write a textbook-perfect travel article in eight easy steps.
An Open Letter to Lewis Lapham
Commentary: Though the outgoing Harper’s editor’s opinions invariably carry a left-wing slant, Lapham would seem to be a profoundly conservative thinker — someone who has never questioned the insipidity of his elite, east-coast patrician-intellectual assumptions.
The tourist is always the other guy
Travel-culture essay: The rhetoric of tourists and travelers is not just trapped in the rituals of human vanity: it has become hopelessly mixed up in the postmodern wash.
Some Tips On Getting an Agent For Your Travel Book
Why you need an agent These days, book editors want to deal initially with agents, not authors. An agent is your best intermediary to the book world. A committed agent will work to help you through the legal aspect of contracts, and help manage your career. Your agent will be your initial editor, as you…
Update: Spring/Summer 2005
Friends and vagabonders, After my return from Brazil in 2004, I’ve spent a good portion of the past year splitting time between Baja and USA locations such as San Diego, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Wichita, and New Orleans. This July I will travel to France, where I’ll teach a travel memoir class in Paris. After that,…
Signs of Confusion
Travel-culture essay: As alarming as it can be to find “Fried Rice With Crap” on a menu in Asia, bad translations can go both ways. Indeed, it’s only a matter of time before someone travels to China and discovers that the “Crouching Tiger” Chinese ideogram on his butt cheek (purchased in good faith in Seattle) is provincial slang for “Adult Diapers.”
The Other Patagonia
During his stint as writer-in-residence for a global Land Rover expedition, Rolf explores the recently completed Carretera Austral (Southern Highway) through Chile’s Aisen province.