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Walkabout: Open Your Eyes
Next time you travel, leave that guidebook at home
By DAFFYD RODERICK
October
6, 2000
Web posted at 2:40 p.m. Hong Kong time, 2:40 a.m. EDT
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I've given up on guidebooks. Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, Fodor's et al are not
welcome on my next trip. When I took off for Shanghai last week, I forgot to
pack my copy of the new Rough Guide to China. I'd visited Shanghai before, but I
figured I'd pack the book as a security blanket. I was more than a little
irritated when I got to my hotel and realized that it wasn't in my bag, but
according to my girlfriend, sitting on top of the toaster. (I have a terrible
habit of leaving things in strange places: I once lost my wallet for a week,
only to find it in the pocket of my bathrobe.)
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So there I was in Shanghai with no tome of travel wisdom to see me through. I
had a map, some connections and Pan Ling's book In Search of Old Shanghai. Other
than that I was on my own. And it was bliss. With no book bullying me into going
here, visiting there, instead I found myself wandering through China's city of
the future with only my senses to guide me to what I wanted and needed -- I was
there to research a story -- to see.
It was at that point that I realized how modern guidebooks, as useful and as
educational as they are, had gotten out of control. From backpackers toking
their way along the Lonely Planet's hemp highway through Southeast Asia, to
aristocrats in search of Michelin stars, guidebooks have gotten between
travelers and the travel experience. But the books aren't to blame; It's the way
travelers use them, clinging to a book as if it holds the secret formula for a
good trip, the keys to the city. Instead of just taking useful information,
people rely on guides to direct and focus their experience, and then find
themselves disappointed that they haven't really had one. Of course they
haven't.
A city is about its people, not just its buildings and historical sites. If you
ask most people in Hong Kong when they last went to the Big Buddha on Lantau
Island, they would look at you as if you were a bit mad. "It's for tourists,"
would be the inevitable reply. And they'd be right. Sure, it's big, yes it's
Buddha, but beyond that? Yet most travelers wander around with their head so far
up their guidebook that they miss the actual pulse and feel of the city. The
restaurants, the parks, simply shambling through old residential areas...
Language can be a huge barrier, but in most countries in Asia, hiring a guide/
translator costs less than a guidebook. And it opens up a whole new world that
you won't find in any book.
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