The Naked Tourist: In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall

A vivid account of travel to the cultural end of the earth—Papua—and the trials of getting there. What Osborne wants to do is both to reach the isolated tribes of the forest, and to get away from us, from the world we've made, and from what he calls the "Wherever" quality—the franchised airport sameness—that we've accepted as background wherever we go. The book is a strange hybrid—a meditative adventure—that is both highly entertaining and thoughtful, and that works on both levels.

Excellent product, excellent product

Hmm, didn't love this as much as I was hoping. I picked it up as my reading on a recent getaway -- thankfully, Miss Booknerd here also packed a few other reading options! This had its interesting moments but overall I struggled to like Osborne's tone / style of writing. Osborne admits at the very start that his inspiration for this particular trip stemmed from a sort of disillusionment with his craft (travel writing) and the travel industry as a whole.I think part of my issue with this book is what Osborne himself deems his "disdain bordering on arrogance". There was just this whole tone of "ugh, why am I even here, I hate traveling" which had me saying Yeah, why are you there if you hate it so much?! It made for an off-putting style that left me thinking, Damn, don't think I want to travel so much now (but of course I still want to ;-) ). Also, can I just say how his descriptions of the arachnids in New Guinea -- "bright pink spiders the size of my hand" / "giant funnel spiders that can kill a parrot" -- left me shuddering at the imagery, fearful those images would work their way into my sleeptime (thankfully they didn't!).That being said, I did learn some cool tidbits:1) The word "spa" is actually an acronym for the Latin term Salus Per Aqua or "health through waters", derived from Roman warriors using natural water sources to clean & heal their wounds.2) The traveler's check was invented in 1875 (had no idea it dated back that far!)3) Modern day travel guides are the descendents of Thomas Nugent's 18th century travelogue, The Grand Tour.So yeah, got a few fun facts out of it but largely it was just meh for me.

I always enjoy a Lawrence Osborne book, somewhat similar to an A.A. Gill book, this time he wrote about travel, tourism, and being a tourist. Are tourists and tourism destroying mystery and paradises around the world, are we becoming so homogeneous that everything needs to be perfectly packaged, a Disney experience if you will. Sadly, probably so, but you can learn and certainly laugh your way through the authors experiences. The book is from 2006, and I would love for him to write a part 2 with a different final destination.

It's quite obvious that Alain de Botton, author of "The Art of Travel", and Lawrence Osborne are kindred spirits in their expert ability to discern the power of "whateverness" in experiencing locations foreign to one's sensibilities. Osborne's initial premise is to move from civilization to the bowels of the planet in order to show how the world has become less individualistic, that it seems one-size-fits-all tourism has diluted the cultural sense of locations and that the true allure of travel can only be found in the world's most remote pockets. I don't think he entirely proves his thesis, but his biting and entertaining travel tome is quite a treat, as he cuts a sharp swath through the Asian corridor from Dubai to Papua-New Guinea.He is not your typical globe trekker but a traveler who shifts his motivations as the circumstances dictate. Sometimes the author reaches a cathartic point of self-discovery, but more often, he seems to be going back to something instinctual as if his travels satisfy a need simply to roam. His sense of adventure borders on the absurdly humiliating, for example, a high-colonic he has in Bangkok, which brings out the worst nightmares of medical treatment abroad. In Dubai, where he begins his journeys in earnest, he describes in vivid detail "The World", an extravagant project to be designed to recreate the entire globe with three-hundred man-made islands in the Persian Gulf, each up for sale to highest bidders among the world's nations. Bangkok beckons him for the luxury and potential debauchery of its Vegas-like spas, and with the plethora of party-seeking foreign tourists and American-style bars, Bali brings the author a faux-sense of its culture and people seemingly brainwashed to accommodate tourist expectations. He is enamored with the works of legendary anthropologist Margaret Mead and others of her field who have perhaps inadvertently built up the mystique and idyllic state of Bali.However, the best part of the book focuses on the author's transformative moments in Papua, where the somewhat surreal existence of its native population gives him pause. He comes upon an abandoned missionary house in Wanggemalo where he is gawked at by members of the local tribe, the Kombai. A typical ritual of the Kombai is cutting potential sorcerers into four parts, then cooking their brains and viscera on hot stones and eating them. As Osborne delves deeper into the jungle, he is met with even greater peril where he eats pasty-floured grubs and meets natives who know nothing of an outside world. Osborne's cynicism wears away in this section as he develops an honest rapport with the Papuan jungle natives much to his chagrin. It is indeed a grand journey by a most English gentleman.

I like a writer who's opinionated, and Osborned is certainly that. This is not a guidebook. It's one man's opinion of where he's been, what he's seen, and what he's experienced. For me, that makes fascinating reading. And as an expat living in Bangkok, I must say that his basic take on Bangkok is spot on. It seems just off the cuff but he has a real grasp of the city he calls "Hedonopolis", Bangkok being today what Venice was during the time of young Englishmen taking the Grand Tour. Chai yo!

I'm a big Osborne fan. I count 'Bangkok Days' among my favourite books. This one strikes all the right 'travel' chords for me, and I devoured it. Think: modern-day Joseph Conrad. Excellent book!Randy

He didn't appear to want to be in the places he explored!!