Friends and vagabonders,
January finds me back in India, headed northeast out of Bombay en route to the epic Kumbh Mela pilgrimage on the banks of the Ganges River, near Allahabad. This colossal Hindu sin-cleansing festival takes place every 12 years, and some sources are predicting a turnout of 70 million people (I didn’t tell anyone I was coming, but hopefully they’ll have room for one more).
The months previous to my arrival in India were, for lack of a better word, weird. Given my travel history, I should have seen the weirdness coming.
Nearly a year ago, while hanging out in Egypt, my Cairo expat pal Wendy Wrangham pointed out that each major segment of my journey through The Orient has been book-ended by some kind of misfortune. At the tail end of my Southeast Asia loop, she observed, I came down with cholera; at the completion of my westward trek into Europe, I was drugged and robbed. This in mind, Wendy cheerfully predicted that my jaunt through the Middle East would end with imprisonment, a shipwreck, or an Islamic fatwah calling for my execution. When, months later, I disembarked unscathed from a 15-day Suez-Bombay freighter trip, I sent Wendy a glib e-mail, declaring that the curse was broken.
As it turns out, I spoke too soon.
After briefly returning to the United States late last summer, I headed to Thailand and Laos in the fall to tackle a story assignment for Conde Nast Traveler. At the time, my plan was to enjoy my Southeast Asian expedition, write the accompanying article as skillfully and efficiently as possible, and return to India straightaway for more vagabonding.
As it turned out, things were a lot more complicated than that. To summarize: in late November, I walked out of the Laotian jungles with a fantastic story on my hands (read below for more details); in early December, I landed in the Bangkok Adventist Hospital with a wicked case of cerebral malaria; in mid-December, I found myself sprinting through Dhaka International Airport in a desperate attempt to avoid spending Christmas in Bangladesh; and when the 2001 New Year rolled over, I was in Amsterdam (of all places) dancing to rockabilly music in clothes more suited for the equator than a Dutch winter. And — as exotic as this all sounds — it really proved to be one of the dumbest, most tedious, least coherent months of my adult life: a true comedy of horrors.
So, Wendy, it looks like the curse still stands.
On the bright side, I’m sure that my December 2000 misadventures will one day make for an entertaining Salon Vagabonding story. This said, however, I must confess that — despite my previous promises and predictions — I still have no idea when my travel column will re-debut inSalon. To be sure, I am still having great Asian adventures, but right now my writing energies are mostly consumed with organizing my book and preparing projects for a few well-paying (compared to Salon, at least) print magazines. Though I won’t make any more time-frame predictions, I will be sure to sound off enthusiastically once my column returns to cyberspace.
One of my most exciting print magazine projects of late was the above-mentioned Laos expedition for Conde Nast Traveler. By the terms of my writing contract, I can’t spill any story secrets just yet. For the full story, as well as Knut Bry’s stunning professional photos of the expedition, you’ll have to check your local newsstand this spring (I’ll post here when Conde Nast gives me a specific scheduling date).
In other recent news, be sure to check out my books page for information on Adrenaline 2000: The Year’s Best Stories of Adventure and Survival, which features my desert tale “Be Your Own Donkey,” as well as travel survival tales from the likes of Reinhold Messner, Alex Lowe, and Philip Caputo. Of the anthology, Kirkus Reviews reports that it is “an eclectic, at times gripping anthology of adventure writing, featuring mostly Americans and Western Europeans in search of danger and excitement. … Armchair explorers will revel in accounts such as that of Rolf Potts’s trek by foot into the Libyan Desert or the heroic rescue efforts undertaken in the 1996-97 Vende Globe sailing race, chronicled by Derek Lundy. … In this sturdy collection, men and women removed from society face nature at its most primordial.” I look forward to reading it myself.
Finally, travel writing enthusiasts should be sure to check out my writers page, which features monthly interviews and insights from an intriguing lineup of professional travel writers. After debuting with Lonely Planet’s Joe Cummings in November, we have since featured The Size of the World author Jeff Greenwald, and Kite Strings of the Southern Cross author Laurie Gough . In February, keep an eye out for our interview with emerging freelance talent Frank Bures.
Now that I’m back into a travel rhythm, I hope to update this page more frequently. Though I can’t promise weekly news-briefs just yet, be sure to check back every so often for new travel reports, story releases, and website information.
Until the next update, cheers — and happy vagabonding!
Rolf
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