The Lonely Planet Guide revisited....
It has been months since I have visited my blogger...so sorry! Tonight I was returned to it, by an evening with the man Tony Wheeler, who started the LONELY PLANET guide(which he has now sold) ....the name came about because Wheeler heard a song sung by Joe Crocker, in which he thought he heard him say," I found such a lonely planet....but what he actually said, was, "I found such a lovely planet.."
Some of his revelations: he finds China the most interesting place, as it was closed when he started his travels in the 70's when he did his "hippie" tour through Iran and Afghanistan...in 1972. Now he has the Wheeler Foundation work on more than 50 projects in the developing world and in the establishment of the Wheeler Center for Books, Writing & Ideas in Melbourne, Australia, to, in part, create one of UNESCO's literary heritage cities, like Dublin!
The most fearful moment in 50 years of travel was in Guatamala when his daughter, who is now director of his foundation, had food poisoning, and through the kindness of strangers, a doctor who lived next door, on whose door he banged, at midnight, and because the physician applied drip(going to his hospital) his daughter survived....and now flourishes. He told the story to MOTH STORY(NYC) and now it is published...
Wheeler also mentions his daughter in the context of her driving and said, on this last trip, she drove him through Iran, which he finds a very friendly country... He drove from Bangkok to London in a BMW mini (40 years old)this past year.
On this recent tour, he went to all of the stans(where I had my Fulbright and which I had always wanted to visit, but as Tony noted, each country has its period where it is good and not so good to visit) Ashgabat Turkmenistan was the oddest visit he has experienced: gold and white government buildings and noone present on the streets in cars or walking... he might have known that...given the rulers there...
Tony Wheeler is also the director of the San Francisco based Global Heritage Fund, which works to protect archaeological sites.
"Astonishment" in travel is what Wheeler values and cites Buddhist caves in mountains, in China, as such " wonderland " places. As he does not have Chinese, it was a little difficult to understand his pronunciation.... I agree; they are among the most memorable, but so are land formations. He cites Pingyao and Hongko, walled cities as especially good tourist sites in China.
In advice to young people, "have a passion", "do what you love"; he trained as an engineer and got a MBA and then was hooked on travel...and did not know he would start a publishing company, but he did...bit by bit, and you can hear the details on the podcast on the World Affairs Council site in SF.
He does not particularily distinguish between the traveller and tourist, as his books were for tourism!
As for authors, he cites Paul Theroux, as his model, and Eric Newby's "In the Hindu Kish" as his all time favorite...he got to meet him and his wife, and he loves all his books, and recommends his autobiographical one, which relates how he met his wife as a POW in the war, in Italy, as he was given shelter with her family....
If he could live in one country, or pick one country, it would be Nepal, because of the people and because of the quality of the hiking in the HImalayas.
Now he and his wife think what will they do : live in a different country each year for ten years..? He thinks NYC is a possibility.
He details the network development through GNN Global Network navigator and Palm Pilots and that he sent blogs before there were "blogs"...
As for books, one should read before and after, he says)my question to him) and do not forget fiction, which can lend some real insights into the culture!
The question of Myanmar came up, and he relates that he has just come from a literary conference there this past week...and turns the topic to the newly opened house of UTHANT; he met his grandson and visited the house and was thoroughly impressed! I share that I went there and that it was an arduous path to find the place, since the street was closed, due to the Military generals and commanders having all their villas on that street...he concurred! I mentioned Emma Larkin, who in her Epilogue to Secret Histories Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Tea Shop( in spite of what we were taught about 1984 etc, the writings were inspired by Burma) -- This is what she says: "On 30 May 2003, not long after I left Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi disappeared. Just after dusk on that day, she and some 200 members of the NLD were travelling in cars and on motor bikes down a quiet one-lane road in northern Burma. Four of five trucks followed close behind them. In the darkness, the headlights of one of the vehicles picked out the robed figure of a monk standing in the road. The monk approached Aung San Suu Kyi's car and asked her to stop and address some villagers who had gathered to meet her. As one of the bodyguards stepped out of the car to talk to the monk, men brandishing sharpened bamboo stakes and iron bars poured out of the trucks that had been following the cavalcade. They began smashing the car windows and ragging people off motocycles and beating them. The NLD members were unarmed and unable to defned themselves. The air was filled with cries for help, and blood splahsed on to the road. Aung Suu Kyi was last seen sittng in her car. The rear window had been shattered, and there was blood on her face and shirt. To make a long story short the opposing Military regime, the USDA was trying to frame her. She was "disappeared" for a couple of months and then placed under house arrest. 'Two months later, after promotion of the general who had masterminded the attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's cavalcade...anti Mulsim riots resulted in the deaths of an estimated twelve Musleims. The riots are believed to have been instigated by the government to detract attention from the events of 30 May...at the end of the year nine members of staff of a Burmese sports magazine called First Eleven were sentenced to death for suspected treason. ...writers, editors and publishers in Burma have interpreted the move as a strong warming to them to keep silent. That was my response: this evening. The truth cannot be spoken. The people do not want the truth. They want a lie, with which they are comfortable or from which they profit. Witness the situation in the USA, now...
Not to end on a bad note...but why do not people pay attention to history; why have not journalists considered Aung San Suu Kyi's sacrifice and courage for which she earned the Nobel Prize....she stayed so her own people would not be killed, and her first act was to release those unlawfully imprisoned, when she was appointed the honorary title of head of her country, but it is a token gesture to reassure the people and to assure the continuance of the military generals who own everything in the country, while their people remain improverished. The world owes this woman an apology; we have no idea what is happening in Myanmar. It is some sanctimonious place that people can feel good by defending the Rohingya who are being driven out...yes, it is an act of inhumanity, but reconsider the situation. What right do we have to judge Aung San Suu Kyi?
Some of his revelations: he finds China the most interesting place, as it was closed when he started his travels in the 70's when he did his "hippie" tour through Iran and Afghanistan...in 1972. Now he has the Wheeler Foundation work on more than 50 projects in the developing world and in the establishment of the Wheeler Center for Books, Writing & Ideas in Melbourne, Australia, to, in part, create one of UNESCO's literary heritage cities, like Dublin!
The most fearful moment in 50 years of travel was in Guatamala when his daughter, who is now director of his foundation, had food poisoning, and through the kindness of strangers, a doctor who lived next door, on whose door he banged, at midnight, and because the physician applied drip(going to his hospital) his daughter survived....and now flourishes. He told the story to MOTH STORY(NYC) and now it is published...
Wheeler also mentions his daughter in the context of her driving and said, on this last trip, she drove him through Iran, which he finds a very friendly country... He drove from Bangkok to London in a BMW mini (40 years old)this past year.
On this recent tour, he went to all of the stans(where I had my Fulbright and which I had always wanted to visit, but as Tony noted, each country has its period where it is good and not so good to visit) Ashgabat Turkmenistan was the oddest visit he has experienced: gold and white government buildings and noone present on the streets in cars or walking... he might have known that...given the rulers there...
Tony Wheeler is also the director of the San Francisco based Global Heritage Fund, which works to protect archaeological sites.
"Astonishment" in travel is what Wheeler values and cites Buddhist caves in mountains, in China, as such " wonderland " places. As he does not have Chinese, it was a little difficult to understand his pronunciation.... I agree; they are among the most memorable, but so are land formations. He cites Pingyao and Hongko, walled cities as especially good tourist sites in China.
In advice to young people, "have a passion", "do what you love"; he trained as an engineer and got a MBA and then was hooked on travel...and did not know he would start a publishing company, but he did...bit by bit, and you can hear the details on the podcast on the World Affairs Council site in SF.
He does not particularily distinguish between the traveller and tourist, as his books were for tourism!
As for authors, he cites Paul Theroux, as his model, and Eric Newby's "In the Hindu Kish" as his all time favorite...he got to meet him and his wife, and he loves all his books, and recommends his autobiographical one, which relates how he met his wife as a POW in the war, in Italy, as he was given shelter with her family....
If he could live in one country, or pick one country, it would be Nepal, because of the people and because of the quality of the hiking in the HImalayas.
Now he and his wife think what will they do : live in a different country each year for ten years..? He thinks NYC is a possibility.
He details the network development through GNN Global Network navigator and Palm Pilots and that he sent blogs before there were "blogs"...
As for books, one should read before and after, he says)my question to him) and do not forget fiction, which can lend some real insights into the culture!
The question of Myanmar came up, and he relates that he has just come from a literary conference there this past week...and turns the topic to the newly opened house of UTHANT; he met his grandson and visited the house and was thoroughly impressed! I share that I went there and that it was an arduous path to find the place, since the street was closed, due to the Military generals and commanders having all their villas on that street...he concurred! I mentioned Emma Larkin, who in her Epilogue to Secret Histories Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Tea Shop( in spite of what we were taught about 1984 etc, the writings were inspired by Burma) -- This is what she says: "On 30 May 2003, not long after I left Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi disappeared. Just after dusk on that day, she and some 200 members of the NLD were travelling in cars and on motor bikes down a quiet one-lane road in northern Burma. Four of five trucks followed close behind them. In the darkness, the headlights of one of the vehicles picked out the robed figure of a monk standing in the road. The monk approached Aung San Suu Kyi's car and asked her to stop and address some villagers who had gathered to meet her. As one of the bodyguards stepped out of the car to talk to the monk, men brandishing sharpened bamboo stakes and iron bars poured out of the trucks that had been following the cavalcade. They began smashing the car windows and ragging people off motocycles and beating them. The NLD members were unarmed and unable to defned themselves. The air was filled with cries for help, and blood splahsed on to the road. Aung Suu Kyi was last seen sittng in her car. The rear window had been shattered, and there was blood on her face and shirt. To make a long story short the opposing Military regime, the USDA was trying to frame her. She was "disappeared" for a couple of months and then placed under house arrest. 'Two months later, after promotion of the general who had masterminded the attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's cavalcade...anti Mulsim riots resulted in the deaths of an estimated twelve Musleims. The riots are believed to have been instigated by the government to detract attention from the events of 30 May...at the end of the year nine members of staff of a Burmese sports magazine called First Eleven were sentenced to death for suspected treason. ...writers, editors and publishers in Burma have interpreted the move as a strong warming to them to keep silent. That was my response: this evening. The truth cannot be spoken. The people do not want the truth. They want a lie, with which they are comfortable or from which they profit. Witness the situation in the USA, now...
Not to end on a bad note...but why do not people pay attention to history; why have not journalists considered Aung San Suu Kyi's sacrifice and courage for which she earned the Nobel Prize....she stayed so her own people would not be killed, and her first act was to release those unlawfully imprisoned, when she was appointed the honorary title of head of her country, but it is a token gesture to reassure the people and to assure the continuance of the military generals who own everything in the country, while their people remain improverished. The world owes this woman an apology; we have no idea what is happening in Myanmar. It is some sanctimonious place that people can feel good by defending the Rohingya who are being driven out...yes, it is an act of inhumanity, but reconsider the situation. What right do we have to judge Aung San Suu Kyi?
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