MacLean: ‘Travellers Have Poisoned Tradition and Helped to Pervert the Unique Into the Mundane’

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  06.06.06 | 12:31 PM ET

Are we that bad? Rory MacLean, author of the forthcoming book “Magic Bus: On The Hippie Trail From Istanbul To India,” believes so. He takes several shots at modern travelers in an essay in the Guardian, charging not only that they damage cultures like a “fast-mutating virus,” but that they generally seek adventure through physical challenges instead of the spiritual quests embarked upon by earlier generations of travelers. MacLean bookends his piece with some words from one of those travelers, Desmond O’Flattery, a longtime expat in Kathmandu and generally bitter man who laments that his adopted city is full of travelers with Lonely Planet guidebooks. “I mean, at their age we wanted to get into each other and society, not to live in a melt-down world,” he tells MacLean. “We didn’t have guidebooks, we didn’t even know the name of the next country.”

Two things come to mind:

Since when did traveling without a guidebook become central to responsible travel? It seems to me that learning about a place you visit is a virtue (as long you don’t become a slave to the pages in your hand).

Also, MacLean makes some valid points about the impact of modern travelers on the places they venture, but I don’t buy the characterization of modern travelers abandoning the spiritual side of travel. I’d say that, by and large, travelers still look to hitting the road as a spiritual and potentially life-changing endeavor. As evidenced by the e-mail and stories we’ve received during the last five-plus years, people like Desmond O’Flattery don’t have the only claim on searching for—and finding—transcendence through travel.

Tags: Adventure Travel, Global Village, Asia, Nepal, Life of a Travel Writer


1 Comment for MacLean: ‘Travellers Have Poisoned Tradition and Helped to Pervert the Unique Into the Mundane’

TambourineMan 06.06.06 | 10:39 PM ET

I wonder what old O’Flattery would think of Kathmandu audio walking tour podcasts?

As for the essay, I’m a bitter hippie, too. So I can relate. But I agree, Mike. Mr Maclean does go overboard.

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