OTP Interview: Thomas Kohnstamm, author of “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?”

Lifestyles, Culture & Inspiration, Travel Blogging | admin | August 13, 2009 at 4:21 pm

After the backpacking trip of a lifetime last fall, I went through major post-travel withdrawal anxiety. The experience had changed my perspective of the world and re-positioned my values so much that I knew I could never return to the same old routine. With so much on my mind, I went for a long walk one sunny Los Angeles day from my house in the San Fernando Valley, over the Hollywood Hills, and into Century City (totaling 15 miles). The walk was an adventure in itself that made me realize I wasn’t willing to stay home for much longer.

I ended up at a Borders Bookstore that evening, where I rushed towards the travel section. I picked up a book with the curious title, “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?”…A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism, by Thomas Kohnstamm. The book described a turning point in his life that paralleled my own. It inspired me to follow my passion for traveling ever since. After moving to New York to work on travel projects later that year, I kept in touch with Thomas via Facebook (very official). At one point he suggested I become a travel writer as vehicle for my ideas. I took it a step further and started Off Track Planet – The Backpackers’ Ultimate Travel Guide; someone owed me an interview:

OTP: At the age of 27, you had a well-paid job, a flat in a New York, and a beautiful girlfriend to match…You owned the “American Dream” at a young age. What pushed you over the edge, practically overnight, to leave it all and become a low-budget travel writer?

TK: I guess that I had all of the markers of post-college, middle-class achievement, but “when you really looked at it“ I was spending eight to twelve hours of every day under fluorescent tube lighting trying to help rich assholes to make more money. I was walking around like a pre-programmed automaton with no depth or spontaneity in my life and spending all of my money buying bullshit or partying just to try to feel something that shocked me out of my worker bee trance. I received the travel writing offer pretty much out-of-the-blue and the temptation to get out on the road and not know what to expect out of each day immediately dominated my thoughts.

Q: How many countries have you traveled to at this point, which stand out the most for you?

A: I’m at well over 50 at this point. I’ve never been to a country that I didn’t like on some level. Brazil is still one of my favorites because it is very welcoming to foreigners and allows you to participate in their culture rather than being relegated to being an observer. I really like Cuba too.

Q: You visit places with contrary political views, economic status, constantly meeting people with varying values and perhaps morals. First, what is the attitude you must carry to digest it all, and how does your perception of the world and humans change as you travel?

A: I think that the most important thing that you can do as a traveler is enter every situation with an open mind. I am not saying that you should be relativistic to the point of disregarding basics of right and wrong, but if you are always trying to compare everything to home, you will never enjoy yourself and will end up going nuts. I love the feeling of being between two worlds where you can let go of who you think that you are supposed to be.

It is hard to say how any one person changes when they travel. It depends on who they are, where they’re from and where they’re traveling. I will say that traveling in India made me think about how greatly different life experience and worldview can be between different cultures. What I am trying to say is that it really made me examine myself in contrast to where I was and consider: what about me is the core human being and what about me is simply learned cultural traits that I can choose to take or leave?

Q: One of your craziest travel experiences:

A: I got ruffied in Quito (made it home unscathed “I think“ except for a kicking 2-day hangover and empty pockets), got pistolwhipped in Caracas and escaped an attempted robbery by cobra in Varanasi. A crazy transportation story was getting stuck in the Himalayan foothills with my brother at night. A bus slowed down, but refused to pick us up. So we jumped on the back bumper as it departed along the twisty, cliff-lined mountain roads. We climbed up to the roof platform, which can be standard operating procedure in India. But, this bus had no roof platform, so suddenly we were lying face down (with our packs on) and holding onto two tiny cleats for dear life as the bus whipped around the curves and cold winds channeled over us. A few minutes into the terrifying voyage, my brother shouted to me, ‘This is the bus to Darjeeling right?’ It dawn upon us that neither of us had any idea where the bus was going and we had no way of getting off.

Q: You compare being a professional traveler to being a porn star…there are aspects of it the public wouldn’t want to know about. You expressed those aspects from your personal experiences in your book, ‘Do Travel Writers Go to Hell’. After its release, Lonely Planet was outraged, you received hate mail, and death threats…Why? Did you expect the reaction to the extent it was received?

A: My comparison to porn was that being a professional travel writer can detract from the actual enjoyment of travel, much as I assume that professional fucking takes away from the enjoyment of sex. OK, both are probably still fun, but it definitely skews your concept of things. As for Lonely Planet I was surprised by the depth of their faux self-righteousness. I mean, I knew that they wouldn’t be pleased that I was talking about the realities of being a guidebook writer as the profession and guidebooks were rather shrouded behind mystique and a general reverence. That said, there was a ton of histrionics before my book even came out that made it sound like I had written terrible things about Lonely Planet which weren’t actually in the text at all. LP and a number of travel writers are obviously insecure about what they’re doing otherwise, they would have just blown off all of the hyperbole.

Q: Do you think you will ever settle into a cozy home somewhere and simply take a vacation now and then? if you had to call one place home right now, where would it be?

A: I live in Seattle now. I still travel as much as possible, but the more that I work on longer writing, the more that it forces me to stay put for longer periods of time.

Q: You have $5, a one way ticket to anywhere in the world and 3 pieces of gum…where do you go, what do you do?

A: Right now? It go to Las Llenas, Argentina and ski for the rest of the summer. I’m assuming I could take my skis with me. That or Berlin, but I don’t think that $5 would get me far in Germany. Although, $5 wouldn’t help much with lift tickets in Argentina either. Maybe I’d go surf in Panama for a couple of months. I’m pretty sure I could find a way to make that work.

Q: What’s your advice to a youngster considering a backpacking trip or about to embark on their first trip outside the United States?

A: Don’t think it through too much. Don’t overplan because nothing even goes like you plan except for low expectation trips on cruise ships and to resorts. Embrace the unknown and just go. Humans are amazingly adaptable and you will surprise yourself every day. Consider going somewhere other than Europe. Europe’s great, but unless you’re rich, you’re gonna end up taking a lot shorter trip than you would elsewhere.

Q: Where and what is next for you?

A: I am working on a new book and some screenwriting. Am off to Hawaii next week, Italy this fall and Brazil for the end of the year, hopefully. The great plus and minus of my life is that you never really know for sure what’s gonna happen next.

By: Freddie Pikovsky