© I R I N A E F R E M O VA / D R E A M S T I M E . C O M ; E R I N N K E N N E D Y / P A U LT H E R O U X . C O M ; © K E N S O R N I E / I S T O C K P H O T O . C O M ; © P E E T E R V I I S I M A A / I S T O C K P H O T O . C O M ; © U R O S B A R B A R / D R E A M S T I M E . C O M ( 2 ) ; © TA M M Y P E L U S O / I S T O C K P H O T O . C O M
CAIRO TO CAPETOWN
maps. I look at the Lonely Planet guide if there is one. I don’t read travel books for information about the destination, but what I need to know is if I get to a certain place is there a way out of that place overland. Bus, train, taxi, walk. Whatever it is. I’m not interested in air travel. So I look at maps a lot. The last time I was in Bangkok I took the train to Aranyaprathet. I took the bus to Poipet, walked across the border to where there are gambling casinos. I saw a guy, said I wanna go to Siem Reap. Got on a bus. Didn’t know where I was going to stay. There a million places, but I made no plan. When I arrived in Siem Reap, a local guy said he knew a good place it’s US$10 per night. I’m a wealthy man. I could stay anywhere. But I thought okay; give me your best shot. It was a place called Green Town Guesthouse. Perfect. Good noodles, clean room. I thought I could be here for three months. I had a good time. I was just among a lot of people with a lot happening. I wasn’t in a remote place with a wall around it. So I thought this was really good. ii I still get the same thrill from travel, but it really depends on the place. There’s a certain stage in your life—this may be news to people—when you really like to be home. You spend half your life raising a family and getting your children educated. You find a great place to live. You get a house, you fix the house and you then you realize this is what I want. ii I live in Hawaii. Hawaii is a wonderful place. We have great weather, the people are wonderful, the waves are breaking out. I have a little farm there. I don’t live in Honolulu, I live in the forest on a bluff where I keep bees. I often question why I bother going anywhere else. Sometimes I say to my wife, why am I going? Is this trip really necessary? So, the thrill of travel? I see new places. I like revisiting old places. But it keeps coming back to this thing. You get that feeling that after seeing a lot of the world you also know you’re in a nice place, where you can spend a lot of your time. A lot of travel is about looking for a nice place, a place to live. I feel like Robert Louis Stevenson. I’ve found my Vallima. Vallima is the house in Samoa where Stevenson lived. After traveling all the time he got there and he said: I’m not going anywhere else. I’m here, I’ve found it.
Travel Thrills Far left: Sailing down the Nile. Left: Theroux’s book on Africa. Above: Cape Town with Table Mountain backdrop. Right: In Sudan, a boy astride his camel. Below: Colorful tribal Ethiopians; the dawn of a new day in Oahu.
SUDAN AND ETHIOPIA
HAWAII
T R A V E L A N D L E I S U R E S E A
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C O M | D E C E M B E R
2008
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