World Travel: An Irreverent Guide is full of savvy pieces of advice (and, as The Guardian puts it, "the flayed raw humour of a morgue attendant").
But there is one quote from the late chef, storyteller and writer Anthony Bourdain that really stuck with us. One that inspired us to doubt our travel experiences should be bandied about quite so much as gospel.
The quote appears in the introduction of the book.
"It was never my intention to be a reporter, a critic, an advocate. It was also never my intention to provide audiences with 'everything' they needed to know about a place – or even a balanced or comprehensive overview. I am a storyteller. I go places, I come back. I tell you how the places made me feel."
"Through the use of some powerful tools like great photography, skilful editing, sound mixing, colour correction, music (which is often composed specifically for the purpose) and brilliant producers, I can – in the very best cases – make you feel a bit like I did at the time. At least I hope so. It's a manipulative process. It's also a deeply satisfying one."
Our realisation? If the best in the business were that critical of their own Finished Product, maybe us small-time travel writers shouldn't be quite so grand and sweeping in the observations we glean from a two-day trip...
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The quote, included by co-author of World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, Laurie Woolever, is something Bourdain said in 2012.
Woolever also shares the following Bourdain quote with readers, which is from the Kenya episode of Parts Unknown.
"Who gets to tell the stories? This is a question asked often. The answer, in this case, for better or worse, is, 'I do.' At least this time out. I do my best. I look. I listen. But in the end, I know: it's my story, not Kamau's, not Kenya's, or Kenyans'. Those stories are yet to be heard."
Though Bourdain is being self-reflective here, not giving advice to anyone, we reckon we can all learn from it.
Why? It captures something we all often forget – destination guides are just stories. Well written ones maybe, but stories. Glimpses through a lens.
This is evident in the 'naive' myths Australians believe about Europe's drinking culture, as well as the 'classy' myths we believe about its beaches.
It's evident when Americans come to Australia expecting to be eaten alive the second they step off the plane. It's evident when tourists think the best way to experience Paris is to see as many attractions as possible. It's evident when we think the wineries we visit in the Barossa Valley are more important to our enjoyment than the people we visit them with.
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Another Bourdain insight that stuck with us from reading World Travel: An Irreverent Guide are the perils of crap airport food (on page 8, Bourdain is quoted on "the depressive spiral a bad airport hamburger can bring on").
"I feel like Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame – if he stayed in nice hotel suites with high thread count sheets. I feel like of like a freak, and... very isolated."
It was also interesting to know that, though Bourdain preferred Melbourne, he was not immune from Sydney's corrupting forces, noting in the Australia section of the guide, "For the first time, actually, I'm starting to experience real estate lust" and "Nobody bitches about Sydney...Daytime drinking is really underrated. A good time to be eating in Australia, and it's only getting better."
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Bourdain has also said about Australia: "A new world at the other end of the world, a rapidly deepening and expanding culture of food and chefs, extraordinary wines, a few important melting pots with a whole lotta space in between."
"The Crocodile Dundee image – the whole 'shrimp on the barbie' beer-swilling 'matey' nonsense was an unfortunate misstep."
"I've been here many times, and the Australia I love is a very different one than the folksy outdoorsy wild kingdom, with the Foster's silliness of films and commercials."
It's also worth noting, we think, as faux-fans who loved the idea of Bourdain and his work, but who had, until recently, never actually read any of it, that Kitchen Confidential, we think, gives a much deeper insight into Bourdain's psyche than World Travel: An Irreverent Guide (though perhaps that is to be expected, as the two are intended to serve very different purposes).
That's not to say World Travel: An Irreverent Guide is bad. It's a great read. But there was a heavier ratio of straightforward information to savage quips, if that's what you're into.
Finally, we'll leave you with a Kitchen Confidential quote, to prepare you for the days when we are all allowed to travel freely again, and maybe motivate you to be a bit more adventurous.
"They say that Rasputin used to eat a little arsenic with breakfast every day, building up resistance for the day that an enemy might poison him, and that sounds like good sense to me."
"Judging from accounts of his death, the Mad Monk wasn't fazed at all by the stuff; it took repeated beatings, a couple of bullets and a long fall off a bridge into a frozen river to finish the job."
"Perhaps we, as serious diners, should emulate his example. We are, after all, citizens of the world – a world filled with bacteria, some friendly, some not so friendly."
"Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock cafes and McDonalds?"
"Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once."
Read Next
- I Went To Australia’s Andalucia. It Ruined Me For Life
- I Went To NSW’s Most Instagram Famous Waterfall. It Was A Complete Disaster
- The Secret To Good Dining, According To Anthony Bourdain
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The post The Most Important Travel Advice From Anthony Bourdain’s New Book appeared first on DMARGE.
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