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There is a certain irony in maintaining a travel weblog: to regularly update it means, well, that you aren’t really traveling very far from your computer. A look at my last three months of vagablogging entries would imply that this has recently been the case for me. Indeed, here in Ranong, my main task has been writing my second book (as well as a few magazine articles), and — this being a computer-based activity — it’s been easy for me to keep current with my blog.
In a matter of days, however, I will leave Thailand for France, where (in addition to teaching a travel-writing class at the Paris American Academy) I hope to wander that beautiful corner of Europe with random abandon. I intend to have plenty of interesting new experiences, but I don’t plan on sequestering myself into French Internet cafes to report those experiences as they happen. Hence, this weblog will probably be silent for a few weeks. I’ll resume my entries in August, with after-the-fact news from France, new vagabonding advice, and more news and quotations about travel.
In the meantime feel free to browse through my old online stories and photos, ponder various bits of travel advice, catch up on travel quotations, read musings from my life in Asia and beyond, follow my recent American book tour, surf my interviews with a variety of travel writers, chat about travel with other vagabonders, and check out (and interact with) my new book.
I’ll be back and blogging with new news come August. Until then, happy vagabonding!
July 4th, 2003 at 4:18 pm
“Paris — that wonderful city in which even your hairdresser may surprise you with a discourse on art, the sciences, or literature. Paris — where taxi drivers consider lunch more important than a fare, believe firmly in good manners yet grossly insult other drivers, and profess and practice equality of man. Paris — where important businessmen insist on promptness … and take two hours for lunch …”
– Alice & Paul Langellier, “Ces Gens Qui Passent”
July 14th, 2003 at 8:28 am
Damn! I arrived at just the wrong time.
Hey Rolf. After a year or more, I finally checked out your blog in a serious way. I kept meaning too. Been busy.
I think it took taking up blogging myself to really hook me on the form, made me appreciate finding what else was out there. So I looked you up on Google (easier than searching through my old emails which serve as my aging To Do list that I never get to) and . . .
Wow. VERY impressive. I was envious before I even started reading. Makes me kinda want to redo mine all in black. Very classic, simple, but cool feel. Mine is kind of a mess. Like I took a big plate of muligan stew and hurled it at the monitor. But I guess it looks like my apartment, so it’s a fair representation of my life. No elegance here. (There. At my site. Lots of elegance here at yours.)
Hennyway, just reading through your site and wish I had been here months ago. Very nice stuff. Loved the Paris quote. Envious again, wish I were there. You get to go EVERYwhere.
Looking forward to your posts from France.
July 14th, 2003 at 10:04 am
Cheers, Dave (and thanks to Julie Ann for sharing the great Paris quote above). Actually, credit for the slick, simple site-design goes to Mike Marlett, who recently became the latest indie newspaper publisher in the mighty Midwest. Thanks also to Bootsnall for sponsoring the blog and Movable Type for making it so damn easy.
Congrats, Dave, on the new Slate story, and best of luck breaking into the NY Times Mag, Harper’s, and points beyond!
Paris report to come when I get back early next month.
July 24th, 2003 at 7:22 am
Thanks Rolf. And thanks for the link. I still haven’t responded to most of the hate mail. I don’t think I want to.
I just woke up thinking about my next pitch for Vanity Fair, but I need to finish the piece I’m already late on.
I checked out Mike’s site and it’s not bad, but I think he did better here. He probably did his first, learned a lot and brought the new ideas to you. Lucky you. You did inspire me to add a second sidebar, sort of like your left one, except on the right, which I labelled “anal version,” because it’s a very rigid version of my really messy sidebar.
Meanwhile, I seem to have arrived just in time for the lull. Hope Paris is everything it ever was.
August 1st, 2003 at 10:38 am
I had a dream the other night about you and Halle Berry. You were doing a magazine piece about her, or so you said. Can’t quite place the country you were in, but it seemed natural to just run into you and Halle on the road. Looking forward to your blogging return.