Pico Iyer interview at LonelyPlanet.com

Lonely Planet editor Don George recently interviewed Pico Iyer, who is one of my favorite travel authors. In the interview, Iyer shares how places of supposed danger and poverty often end up being the most welcoming to the traveler. “In some ways the act of travel is throwing a ball into a dark ocean,” he says, “except you’re the ball yourself. You’re committing yourself to the world, and it’s an act of surrender and trust and therefore an act of faith. And the thing that always shames one when one is traveling is that the more difficult the place is, the kinder and more supportive and more generous the people usually are. Often I would go to places that are very impoverished or supposedly embattled, and I would find myself spoiled by kindness there.”

My own interview with Iyer can be found here.