Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts

Travel Writer, Essayist, Adventurer, Teacher

Rolf Potts

  • About
    • Bio
    • Interviews
    • Newsletter signup
  • Contact
  • Writing
    • Essays & Travel Stories
    • Dispatches
    • Travel Writer Profiles
    • No Baggage Challenge
    • Vagablogging
  • Books
    • Vagabonding
    • The Vagabond’s Way
    • Souvenir
    • Marco Polo Didn’t Go There
    • The Geto Boys (33 1/3)
    • Audiobooks
    • Anthologies
    • Introductions & Forewords
    • The Misadventures of Wenamun (comic)
    • The Henry Ford of Literature (French)
  • Videos
    • Kansas Never Plays Itself
    • TV / Film
    • Travel dispatches
    • Lectures
    • Video Interviews
  • Events
  • Classes
  • Blog
    • Updates
    • Books
    • Poetry
    • Film, TV, Theater
    • Music
    • Sports
    • Writing Craft
  • Podcast
Essays & Stories, Travel Russia

On the Trans-Siberian Express

November 9, 1999

Amid an epic Beijing-to-St. Petersburg train trip, Rolf parties with librarians, tracks down the fate of Genghis Khan’s testicles, and (among other things) embarks on a madcap race to catch up with the train after getting stranded on the Mongolian-Siberian border.

Read More
Essays & Stories Mongolia

Horse races, open spaces and the fate of Genghis Khan’s balls

November 9, 1999

In his first dispatch from an epic Beijing-St. Petersburg train trip, Rolf explores the mysteries of Mongolia.

Essays & Stories Thailand

Goodbye, Khao San Road

October 12, 1999

As he leaves Southeast Asia, Rolf reflects on the evolution of the middle-class travel revolution.

Read More
Dispatches Laos

Retch-22: Laos in the time of cholera

August 24, 1999

The official analysis was “diarrhea, with vomiting.” Right.

Read More
Dispatches Vietnam

Searching for Binh Hoa

August 10, 1999

Hoping to find an obscure Vietnam War killing field, Rolf discovers that some lessons of history teach themselves.

Read More
Essays & Stories Vietnam

The Barbecue Jesus and other epiphanies

July 27, 1999

Wandering off the Vietnamese budget travel trail in search of authenticity, Rolf finds that authenticity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Read More
Essays & Stories Laos

Apocalypse Not: One Month on the Mekong

July 6, 1999

In a quixotic attempt to re-create Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” in Southeast Asia, Rolf invests in a Laotian riverboat and attempts to drive it 800 miles to the Cambodian border.

Read More
Essays & Stories Cambodia

Up Cambodia without a phrasebook

June 1, 1999

On the pleasures and paranoia of being a mostly clueless white guy in the company of Third World hosts.

Read More
Dispatches Cambodia

Song of the broken road

May 18, 1999

For adventurers headed overland to Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s Route 6 is Disneyland gone bad.

Read More
Film, TV, Theater, Essays & Stories

A spy on “The Beach”

May 4, 1999

Our correspondent reports from behind the scenes of Leonardo DiCaprio’s new movie.

Read More
Dispatches Thailand

Getting stoned with Mr. X

April 20, 1999

Rolf wanders in search of an Indiana Jones adventure in Thailand’s gem country.

Read More
  • « Previous Page
  • Next Page »

Sign up for news

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Books by Rolf

  • Souvenir (Object Lessons) book cover
  • The Geto Boys cover

Podcast: Deviate with Rolf

  • How the experience of long-term travel changes (in good ways) as you get older November 3, 2026
  • Sense of place in cinema: Las Vegas Never Plays Itself, with Tod Goldberg October 6, 2026
  • Travel memoir lab: How your journeys can inspire fictional adventure stories September 7, 2026
  • Best of Travel: Paul Theroux on the necessary obstacles of meaningful journeys August 4, 2026
  • The geography of sports movies (with Chuck Klosterman and Michael Weinreb) July 3, 2026

Recent Blog Posts

  • One joy of visiting Paris is watching movies in cinemas that feel like places November 12, 2026
  • Travel touches all other aspects of life (because travel is about paying attention) November 5, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Tom Lutz November 1, 2026
  • We could do better at telling stories about how we might live the second half of life October 22, 2026
  • 3 strategies for travel to places that have no iconic tourist attractions October 15, 2026
  • The blessing of fellow travelers who become lifelong friends October 8, 2026

Travel Writer Interviews

  • Travel Writer: Tom Lutz November 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Cassandra Overby October 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Daniel Scheffler September 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Brendan Shanahan August 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Angie Chuang July 1, 2026
  • Travel Writer: Perry Garfinkel June 1, 2026

Books

Vagabonding

Vagabonding

The Vagabond’s Way

The Vagabond’s Way

Souvenir

Tools of Titans

Kansas Matters

The 33 1/3 B-sides

Souvenir

50 Ways of Looking at Nostalgia

Recent Podcasts

How the experience of long-term travel changes (in good ways) as you get older

Sense of place in cinema: Las Vegas Never Plays Itself, with Tod Goldberg

Travel memoir lab: How your journeys can inspire fictional adventure stories

Best of Travel: Paul Theroux on the necessary obstacles of meaningful journeys

The geography of sports movies (with Chuck Klosterman and Michael Weinreb)

Designing a creative life on your own terms (with Cedar Van Tassel)

What movies (do and don’t) show us about places before we travel there

Exploring the idiosyncrasies of male friendship, with Andrew McCarthy

Debunking the mythology of BEFORE SUNRISE, with co-writer Kim Krizan (in Paris)

Super Bowl special: Why football kind of matters, with Chuck Klosterman (kind of)

Travel Writers

Travel Writer: Tom Lutz

Travel Writer: Cassandra Overby

Travel Writer: Daniel Scheffler

Travel Writer: Brendan Shanahan

Travel Writer: Angie Chuang

Travel Writer: Perry Garfinkel

Travel Writer: Caroline Van Hemert

Travel Writer: Rachel Rudwall

Travel Writer: Erin Levi

Travel Writer: Jen Rose Smith