The anticipation of travel revisited

Today I woke up and realised that in exactly eight weeks I'll be taking off on my next big trip for work to South Africa and Ethiopia. So I thought it was the perfect time to revisit a post I wrote in 2008 about the anticipation of travel and update it taking into account my new trip.

Alain de Botton might argue otherwise, but I really believe that half the fun of travel is the anticipation. Here’s how I’m try to savour the excitement in the build up to a big trip.

Buy a calendar
The first thing to do is to get a calendar and circle your departure date. I’m not advocating that you start wishing your life away in a great countdown to take-off, but it is fun to day dream and of course very useful to be aware of how many days or weeks you have until you leave – especially if you are like me and have a million projects you need to finish before you leave!

Make a list
I love lists. There is nothing more self-satisfying than crossing something off a “to do” list. At the moment I’m working with one long running list (though for every item I cross off, I seem to be adding another two or three “to dos”!). A more practical solution might be to have several lists – the all important “must do” list (organise passport, visas, tickets), a “things to buy” list (new camera, backpack), a “packing” list (T-shirts, underwear), a “things to organise at home before you leave” list (redirect mail, cancel subscriptions) … Just think; I could make a list of “to do” lists!

Buy a guidebook
OK, so the guidebook author is suggesting that you buy a guidebook! Now I’d never recommend that you consider your guidebook 'the Bible', but they do offer heaps of good practical information such as when to go and how to get around which helps make travelling easy as well as providing you with a handy and easily digestible snapshot of the country’s culture, history and politics. I’ve started with the Bradt guide I am updating and plan to buy others from competing guidebook companies (it always pays to know what the opposition is up to!). And for something completely different, I’ve also order the Royal Geographic Society’s updated 1889 guide Handy Hints to Lady Travellersby Lillias Campbell Davidson which I thought might provide me with some insights (and entertainment) on how my Victorian counterparts travelled around Africa.

Learn the lingo
If you are travelling to a country where you don’t know the language, it always pays to know some basic greetings before you arrive. You never know, you might even be able to put a smile on the face of a surly immigration official with a simple “hello” greeting in the local language. Although there are some 70 ethnic languages spoken in Ethiopia, fortunately for me English is the most widely spoken European language. That said, I am still trying to wrap my tongue around Amharigna (also written as Amarigna), which is the official language of Ethiopia.

Get cultural
A great way to absorb yourself in the culture of the country you are about to visit is to rent a video about your destination or read a book set where you are visiting. Not only will you get a better feel for the country, but if you try to locate and visit the places mentioned in the book or movie once you’ve arrived also makes for a more unusual and unique way to experience the country. I’ve ordered Beneath the Lion’s Gaze a novel by Ethiopian born-New York-based writer Maaza Mengiste. A friend also just droped off a copy of The Mountains of Rasselas: An Ethiopian Adventure by Thomas Pakenham.

Read the local papers
The best way to get acquainted with local politics and events is to start reading the local newspaper. Fortunately, with the rise of the Internet this is very easy to. A quick look on line and you’ll discover that almost every newspaper around the world has their own website – even those in Ethiopia such as Ethiopian News and the Ethiopia Daily.

Do you agree that half the fun of travel is the anticipation of travel? If so, how do you savour the excitement in the lead up to an overseas trip or holiday?

Ethiopia guidebook update take two

After much deliberation, I've decided to move my research dates for the 6th edition of the Bradt Travel Guide to Ethiopia back by a few months. I'll now be criss-crossing my way around this mammoth country throughout the months of September, October and November 2011. I'm still looking for a travel buddy, so give me a shout if you want to join me on what is set to be my most epic wild wandering to date.

Adventures with a guidebook author

Ever wonder what it's like to be a guidebook author? Want to know how to get your start in travel writing? During a brief break in between having just completed the update of Bradt Travel Guides’ Ghana and organizing my next trip to Ethiopia, I briefly sat down with Sherri from AdventureTravelGuidebooks.com to answer the tough questions about my most recent guidebook update on Ghana and what it’s like to be a travel writer. You can see the full interview, Adventures with Kim Wildman, here.

Ghana guidebook giveaway

The new Bradt Travel Guide to Ghana which I updated late last year has finally hit the shelves of bookstores around the world. The most comprehensive English language guide to the country, I'm not totally biased in saying it is a must for first time travellers to this bewildering and bewitching West African destination. To celebrate I thought I'd give away a copy.

To win all you need to do is answer this simple question:

Who was the Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations for ten years?

The first person to provide the correct answer in the comments section of this post wins the guide (just make sure you include your email so I can contact you for an address to send the guide to).

Wild Wednesday: Win a travel guide to Tanzania

In celebration of my wish for a wild, wild New Year for everyone this year I've decided to start a new regular segment for my blog titled Wild Wednesday. If any of you have seen my website, you'd know I have an affinity for the word 'wild'. It is more than part of my name. Wild is also symbolic of who I am. It describes my life and my experiences and it informs how I work and how I write. So in embracing my wild side, I've decided that each Wednesday I'll highlight something I consider wild whether it be a wild experience or wild photograph from my travels, a wild person or a wild place or even a wild posting from another blogger. To kick Wild Wednesday off, I'm giving away a copy of the new Bradt Travel Guide to Tanzania which I helped Philip Briggs update last year. All you need to do is answer this simple question:

What is the name of the wonderfully wild national game park stretching from northern Tanzania into southern Kenya which is famous for the annual migration of millions wildebeest and zebras?

The first person to provide the correct answer in the comments section of this post wins the guide (just make sure you include your email so I can contact you for an address to send the guide to).

Good luck!

Is it goodbye to guidebooks, getting lost and grotty youth hostels?

As the decade draws to a close, I asked whether the Internet and mobile phones are robbing travellers of adventure for a new article for MSN Travel.

Thanks to a new generation of sophisticated technologies, some of travel's greatest traditions are under threat. When was the last time you kept a hand-written journal on your travels, received a dog-eared postcard with someone's excited scrawl on the back or arranged your holiday snaps neatly in a photo album? Before they disappear from the scene forever, here are a few travelling traditions that I'll sadly miss:

1. The photo album
The digital revolution has certainly made holiday photography much cheaper and simpler, but it's also leading to the decline of one of travel's greatest traditions - the photo album. With sites such as Flickr and Picasa fast becoming the most popular way of sharing our happy snaps, fewer and fewer people take the time to print their holiday photographs and transfer them into albums. Yet it's still hard to think of a better way to reminisce about your travels than flipping through the pages of a time-worn photo album.

2. The postcard
They were once as much as part of the holiday experience as sunbathing or tasting the local cuisine. But thanks to the mobile phone, email, Facebook and Twitter, the humble postcard is facing extinction. Research quoted in Coast magazine shows that postcard mail has dropped by 75% in the past decade alone. While they are not instantaneous, like a text message - there's no guarantee they'll even arrive home before you do - nothing says "wish you were here" quite like the postcard.

3. The unplanned road trip
Remember when half the point of a road trip was to get lost down some interesting byway? Thanks to GPS, however directionless meandering down hidden roads has lost much of the thrill it once had. If it looks as though you've stumbled into a dangerous Hicksville somewhere or conveniently ended up in a city's most crime-ridden neighbourhood, you need merely fiddle with your GPS and that familiar tinned voice will tell you, more or less reliably, how to get out. GPS might be invaluable when you're truly lost, but it also takes the adventure out of travel and shortchanges you of stories to tell when you get home.

4. The total disconnect
Before mobile phones and Skype, many travellers were faced with making an expensive long distance trunk call from a roadside phone booth if they wanted to speak to friends and families back home. These days, staying in touch has never been cheaper and easier. On the plus side, travel has become safer: you face less chance of getting stranded somewhere if you can get out your mobile and call for help. On the downside, one of the greatest lures of travel has always been how out of touch you can be. But between instant messaging and texting home, to updating Facebook and tweeting, many of today's travellers don't know how to untie the apron strings and take in the new environment they find themselves in.

5. The travel journal
With more 200 million travel-related blogs out there, the once personal travel journal appears to be moving overwhelmingly online. Internet diaries are a great way to keep your friends and family up-to-date with how your holiday is going. They can track your movements and see photographs and videos of where you have been. Sophisticated as e-journals - to coin a term - might be, they are pretty clinical compared with a hand-written diary, whose very scuffs, stains and faint smells bear witness to where you've been. Hand-written journals are also less self-conscious and more personal than any travel blog will ever be. Moreover, they probably encourage more intrepid travel: as long as you remember your trusty pen, you can update your journal anywhere. No need to hunt down an internet cafe or restrict yourself to places where such technology can be found.

6. The guidebook
Long before the internet and web-connected phones, the travel guidebook was the way we navigated our way around the world. If you wanted to know when the train to Bucharest departed or where to find a bed in Berlin at 2am - you'd reach for your Lonely Planet. With up-to-date information now just a click away, however, the once-beloved traveller's bible is slowly waning in popularity. In the past year the guidebook giant Lonely Planet reported a sharp drop in sales, from £142m in 2008 to £128m in 2009. While it and other guidebook companies are now offering sections of their guides as PDFs and iPhone applications, the tactile heft of the guidebook - its very bulk suggesting endless exciting possibilities - is decidedly lacking. Besides, you can't swat a fly or prop up a table leg with a mobile phone or netbook!

7. The foreign language phrasebook
You've just arrived in Rio and jumped into a taxi but you don't speak a word of Portuguese and your driver doesn't speak English. No need to flip through a phrasebook these days and fumble with impossible pronunciations: simply whip out your portable electronic translator and let it do the work for you. Many of these pocket-size translators, available in hundreds of languages, provide both verbal and written translation. And no doubt they're very handy - but they might encourage you to become even more linguistically lazy. If you really want to learn the language, you have to immerse yourself in the culture.

8. The unencumbered backpacker
Once upon a time, backpacking was about exploring the world with as few possessions as possible. But today's techno-savvy generation of independent travellers, with their trolley bags, laptops, web-phones and MP3 players, are more encumbered than ever. According to AA Travel Insurance, all the backpackers trotting the globe at any one time are lugging around flashy gadgets worth more than £1 billion. Weighed down with all those gizmos, think how much time you'll spend worrying about losing them.

9. The old school hostel
Keeping pace with the new, web-connected traveller, the backpacker hostel has undergone an extreme makeover of its own. Sporting espresso cafes, tour desks and free Wi-Fi, many of today's hostels resemble bland international airport lounges. Don't be surprised to find your fellow travellers are too busy tapping away on their laptops to play a round of pool. While it's certainly good riddance to bedbugs, the old school hostels with their laidback attitude and great social vibe had much more personality.

Ghana: The adventure begins again

I've been home now just on a week and, having finally found my feet, I've begun the gruelling task of updating the Bradt Travel Guide to Ghana. While many people assume a guidebook author's work is done when they return home, this is in fact when the real work begins. From visa regulations and bus schedules to the descriptions of new hotels and restaurants, every little detail of a trip needs to be revisited as you transcribe your notes on everything and then add them to the current text (not to mention, marking up and redrawing maps). Just to keep myself on my toes, I've set myself the ambitious deadline of 20 December for my initial hand in date hoping I might be able to make it to shops just before Christmas to buy a few presents. I'll still have months of edits and queries to wade through, but this means I now have 42 days to update 420 pages (actually 41 if you don't count today). Impossible?... I'm thinking POSSIBLE. Mind you, considering I'll probably only emerge from my study to refill my tea cup, I may not have much of a social life over the coming weeks! Luckily my friend Margi, who accompanied me for the first three weeks of the trip, has decided to chronicle our adventures in her new blog Ghana road trip. In her first two posts, Margi recounts our journey from Jo’burg to Accra and our first day trying to come to grips with Accra's hectic public transportation.... Hmmm...I wonder if she has time to update a chapter or two? ;-)

New Bradt Travel Guide to Tanzania released

While I was off galavanting around Ghana, the new Bradt Travel Guide to Tanzania which I helped Philip Briggs update last year was finally released. It's so nice to see the final product after months of blood, sweat and tears. The new 608 page guide is jam-packed with practcal information for both independent and upmarket travellers on everything from how to oragnise a safari and tips on photographing wildlife to how to avoid trouble with hippos, crocodiles and snakes, and interacting with the local people. It also provides detailed coverage on Tanzania's world-famous national parks, including the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, the lusciously laid-back islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia, and the country’s rich history and culture. Click here to find out more.

Just another day in paradise?

I swear I must be walking around Ghana with "I'm updating a guidebook" stamped on my forehead. Yesterday I was set upon by a group of curio sellers as I was jotting down a phone number outside Cape Coast Castle who angrily claimed that they didn't hassle tourists as most guidebooks stated. One even declared that he was going to kidnap me so that I wouldn't write any more 'lies' about them. I didn't even have a guidebook on me – just a pen and paper – and I certainly didn't tell them that I was updating a guide. Needless to say I made a very hasty retreat! Oddly enough I also had a similar experience outside Vic Baboo's Cafe in Kumasi a few days ago where I was harangued by a group of touts who gave me no end of grief for the unkind words that had been written about them by previous guidebook authors. I must admit it has certainly been very surprising just how clued-up everyone here seems to be about travel guidebooks and the impact they can have on business.
Picture: Sunset, Biriwa Beach, Ghana

Africa calling

By now you all should be aware of my affection for Africa. So it should come as little surprise to learn that I am about to pack my backpack and return to the continent in August. After my mammoth world-wind adventure last year which took in three continents and seven countries including Tanzania, Cuba, and the United States, this time I’ll be devoting my entire three month trip to Africa taking in Ghana and South Africa with a possible side trip to Namibia.

While much of time in southern Africa will be spent catching up with old friends, in Ghana I will be updating the 5th edition of Ghana: The Bradt Travel Guide for author Philip Briggs. So for eight weeks over August and September I'll be driving, bussing and bush taxiing my way around the entire country covering everything from the busy streets of Accra and the string of forts and castles that line the former Gold Coast to the lush mountains of the Eastern Highlands and game-rich savannah of Mole National Park in the north. It's been a few years since I was last in Ghana – I stopped by briefly on my way to cover Togo and Benin for the 5th edition of Lonely Planet's West Africa - so I'm really looking forward to reacquainting myself with the country. If anyone wants to join me for my latest wild adventure, drop me a line!

Guidebook vs Tour guide

This morning I received a press release which criticised guidebook giant Lonely Planet claiming that they'd "lost touch with the zeitgeist" and were being forced out of the market by e-travel websites like OurExplorer. (Interestingly the press release was written and supplied by OurExplorer, so there's no bias there of course!)

The basis for their claim was an article written by British-born travel writer Tristan Rutherford, Battle of the Orient-Guidebook vs Tour Guide, in which he compares the enjoyment of using a Lonely Planet guidebook versus a local tour guide booked through OurExplorer. The city in question was Istanbul in Turkey and when summarising his experience of having a tour guide, Tristan argued that "A thousand guidebook words couldn't convey her emotion." Because of this one report, the writer of the press release (again, an employee from OurExplorer) proudly announced that Lonely Planet had been "slain" and that the death of the guidebook was nigh.

Really, what a load of rubbish! In my opinion comparing a guidebook with a local tour guide is like comparing apples and oranges. There is no comparison! A local tour who lives in and grew up in a city will naturally convey more emotion about a place than a guidebook. As a guidebook author I've used local tour guides on numerous occasions while researching and updating the books I have worked on. Not only do they help with collecting the most up-to-date and accurate information, but they also give you a more personal experience of a place – something a guidebook can never do. As I've said before on this forum, a guidebook is not a bible. It is merely a tool used to enhance your travel experience. To use it alone and base your whole trip on it is very foolish indeed.

So, do I believe e-travel websites will "push guidebook companies like Lonely Planet into the history books"? Well, there is certainly scope for e-travel websites to give guidebooks a run for their money. The problem however is that you can't trust the information that is posted on these websites – you have no idea who wrote it, when it was written, and where the information came from. At least if you buy a guidebook written by a respected author, you can feel safe knowing that they have some authority on the subject. If you're in any doubt read Lara Dunston's recent postings on Cool Travel Guide where she critiques the information suppied on Dubai by the new travel website Offbeat Guides - her findings are truly scary!

Just for fun I thought I'd quickly test out the Ourexplorer website. I put in the city of my birth, Brisbane in Australia, and said I was interested in "shopping". Would you believe that the first local "expert" who popped up was a 53 year-old male who hails from the US and uses a photograph taken in Sydney to highlight his expertise in Brisbane! I can't say that I'm confident he'd make a very good shopping partner.. And I'm cerrtainly not willing to hand over 200euro a day to find out!!

WorldNomads.com Travel Writing Scholarship

Calling all aspiring travel writers! WorldNomads.com is offering the opportunity for you to launch your career with their 2009 Travel Writing Scholarship. The recipient of the scholarship will go on assignment to Kerala, India, with professional travel writer and photographer David Stott, spending 10 days on tour with The Blue Yonder exploring the River Nila civilization and 10 days writing and reviewing for the upcoming Frootprint India Handbook.

The scholarship is open to all non professional travel writers 18 years and over who are available for travel between 16 February and 7 March, 2009. It also includes the submission of a 500 word travel focused essay based on a personal experience of one of the following themes: A Journey that Changed Lives, Responsible Travel, or, Adventure in an Unknown Culture. But you better get in quick as applications close on 9 January, 2009. See WorldNomads.com for more details.

Be warned though, working as a guidebook is a tough gig. If you're in doubt, read what my friend Dan had to say about accompanying me while I was updating the Bradt Travel Guide to Tanzania earlier this year here.

Ten alternative uses for your travel guidebook

Dan and I are now in Dar es Salaam. As we wilt under the weight of Dar's oppressive heat, I find myself longing for the cooler plains of Tanzania’s open veld. The few days we spent game driving around the national parks certainly made for a refreshing break from the hectic pace of researching Tanzania's cities and towns. The only downside however was the Tsetse fly. After suffering from their relentless bites while we drove through parts of Mikumi National Park, Dan and I discovered that our best defence against the nasty little blighters was my Bradt travel guidebook to Tanzania. Having found a new use for the guide, Dan and I decided to come with our top ten list for alternative uses for travel guidebooks:

1. A [Tsete] fly swat: Thick and sturdy guidebooks make perfect swats for flies and all sorts of nasty bugs.

2. A self-defence weapon: If you find yourself in a sticky situation throw your guidebook at your assailant. It should hopefully stun them enough for you to make a fast getaway.

3. Emergency personal insulation: Stuck sleeping outside in the cold for the night without a sleeping bag? Don't worry! Simply tear out the pages of your guidebook (preferably pages you no longer need), scrunch them up and stuff them down your top.

4. A pillow (of sorts!): I've used my guidebook as a pillow plenty of times while on long-haul bus and train journeys – it might not make for the most comfortable pillow, but at least your head will have some support.

5. Fuel for starting a fire: The used pages of your guidebook can come in very handy if you are having problems getting your camp fire started. Just be sure not to burn any important pages you might want to refer back to in the future.

6. A conversation starter: (Or as Dan calls this one, a great pick-up tool!) Dying for a little conversation or an introduction to that cute local in the corner of the coffee shop? Then play the lost tourist and use your guidebook to ask for directions. Even if you don't know the local language, hopefully they'll find your bumbling use of the language guide at the back endearing.

7. A conversation blocker: We’ve all been in this situation before with the annoying stranger on the train, plane or bus determined to natter on to you incessantly about the minute details of their last holiday, their family back home or in some cases (and my pet peeve) their latest medical procedure. Simply burry your nose in your book and hopefully they'll eventually get the hint. If not, see suggestion 2.

8. Door jam/stop: If the door to your room refuses to stay open or bathroom door just won't quite close, your guidebook makes the perfect doorstop – especially if it's one of those hefty multi-country guides.

9. Toilet paper: Why is it that there never seems to be enough toilet paper when you really need it? In Romania I once paid for the privilege of being given one tiny square piece of toilet paper when using a public bathroom. It wouldn't have been a problem apart from the fact that I was suffering from a nasty case of traveller's diarrhea at the time. Again, just be sure not to use any important pages otherwise referring to them in the future might be a little...um...sticky?!

10. A sun hat: If you're like me and forgot to pack your hat (in spite of your trusty packing list!), then open the guidebook in the centre and place it Teepee style on your head. Don’t worry about looking foolish. As a khaki-clad foreigner walking around with a rucksack on your back you already stand out!

Have you used your guidebook for a purpose that was not recommended by the publisher? If you have any suggestions to add to our list, we'd love to hear them.

The question on everyone's lips: do travel writers go to hell?

This is the question posed by Thomas Kohnstamm in his soon-to-be-released book Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics & Professional Hedonism published by Random House. The book hasn't even hit the shelves and it is already causing a furore; most notably in the hallways of his ex-employer Lonely Planet.

A Stanford graduate with an MA in Latin American Studies, Thomas was offered an assignment updating Lonely Planet's guidebook to Brazil. With little forethought, he quickly traded in the drudgery of his corporate Wall Street job and set off on a sex, drug and alcohol fuelled journey around the country. The resulting book, which Thomas himself describes as a "chronicle [of] events that took [him] from bourgeoisie working stiff with a repressed travel habit to a full-time mercenary travel hack, with all the good, bad, and surreal shit that it entails", is a virtual kiss-and-tell expose that has rocked the guidebook industry.

Thomas' story has only just broken in the news here in Australia today with the headlines of Adelaide's Sunday Mail claiming Lonely Planet hit by author fraud. You can read an excerpt of Thomas' book here and for other editorials see Sydney's The Daily Telegraph and The New York Observer. While I am yet to read the book so can't comment on it, I learned a very similar lesson myself on my first assignment for Lonely Planet. No, there was no sex and drugs involved and I certainly did all my research on the ground myself, but I too discovered the hard way that being a guidebook author is not as easy, fun or as glamorous as it sounds; especially when you are a green author thrown in the deep end.

In early 2000 I was contracted by Lonely Planet to update the second edition of their Romania & Moldova guide. Straight out of university and eager to prove my worth as a writer I accepted the assignment despite the fact that I had never been to either country and didn't speak the language (mind you, I quickly learned enough of the language to get the information I needed). Looking back now it was probably a very foolish decision, but this was my big break, and, after all, this was Lonely Planet. Who wouldn't have accepted the job?! So with little more than a quick wave good-bye, I set off on what I was told should have been a seven week research trip that would take every corner of both countries (the only part I didn't cover was Bucharest which the original author updated herself). But in actual fact, it took me nine weeks and what little research money I was given quickly ran out.

Being green and wanting to make sure that I did a good job, including following Lonely Planet's strict policy of no freebies to the 'T', I made numerous mistakes that cost me both time and money. For example, I caught a ski lift all the way up to the top of the Carpathian Mountains to check out a chalet that was listed in the guide, only to discover that the lift didn't even stop at the chalet so I had to trudge halfway back down the mountain in knee deep snow to reach it, twisting my ankle in the process, and that the chalet was in fact empty and I should have gotten the information from the central reservations office in the town at the base of the mountain. I also foolishly thought that being a guidebook author meant that I should only take public transport (Lonely Planet had a rep to protect after all), so I wasted huge amounts of time bussing and training my way around a country where you often felt it would've been quicker to have gotten out and walked! On one particular occasion a bus trip I did took six hours to cover a distance of less than 200 kilometres, a distance which at home would have taken around two hours, and thus ate up almost an entire day of my research.

By the time I stumbled into the town of Cluj Napoca on the eastern edge of Transylvania, I was both physically and emotionally spent. I was already into the seventh week of research and still had a significant chunk of the country to cover. Making matters worse I'd completely run out of money. In desperation I called my family back home in Australia to beg for a loan, but it was the Easter weekend and everyone was away. I then tried my bank to see if I could raise my credit limit, but they turned me down flat despite having offered to raise the limit a couple of months earlier! Not knowing what to do, I did the only thing I could and blindly continued on with my research wandering around the city in a complete daze collecting information in my well-worn notebook.

Unlike Thomas who claims he dealt Ecstasy to keep afloat after he ran out of money, I fortunately happened upon a local English-speaking travel agent who took pity on me. Mind you, I looked completely disheveled and my clothes stunk from weeks of hand washing in hotel bathrooms, so I'm surprised he even took me seriously. Yet after I broke down and told him about my situation, he offered to help me out and hired me a car on the understanding that (fingers-crossed) I would pay him back once the money had come through from my family. So instead of spending the weekend begging for food and money as I had presumed I would be doing, in what became the highlight of my research trip I ended up having a wonderful time driving up through the Maramures region of Romania. Thankfully, by the time I returned three days later, my family had indeed come through for me, transferring money into my account after receiving my frantic phone and email messages and I immediately paid back the travel agent. To this day I remain indebted to him. If it wasn't for his kindness and understanding perhaps I might have resorted to some of the more dubious methods of research Thomas employed.

To be honest, after I returned home I never thought I'd ever work on another guidebook. In fact, I swore off them. That was, until Lonely Planet came knocking again. Though, this time I was offered the chance to co-author the first edition of their city guide to Athens with long time LP author David Willett. Four weeks researching the shops, hotels, restaurants and nightlife in the soon-to-be Olympic city with the opportunity to do a little island hopping proved way too tempting and so within a matter of months I was off again. From Greece, I then moved on to several sub-Saharan African guides (my area of speciality) before being offered the opportunity to return to Romania. Oddly enough, this time Lonely Planet budgeted the same amount of time and money for me to cover one small chapter out of the Eastern Europe guide as they had for me to research the entire country guide! So there was definitely no running out of money and time. In fact, I was able to slow down and enjoy the country and the experience. What's more, I was able to return to Cluj and personally thank the travel agent.

I've certainly learnt much since my first foray as a guidebook author such as don't accept impossible jobs, always allow for more time and money than you anticipate, and, most importantly, it pays to become a country or regional specialist.

For anyone who is interested you can meet Thomas and hear more about his [mis]adventures at the Auckland Writers' & Readers' Festival in New Zealand from 15-18 May, and at the Sydney Writers' Festival in Australia which runs from 19-25 May.

One on one with guidebook author Philip Briggs

When it comes to guidebooks on Africa, without a doubt one of the most prolific and respected authors is Philip Briggs. Since the early 1990s he has travelled the length and breadth of the continent researching and writing some 25 guidebooks, including the first editions of Bradt's guides to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Ghana, and penned more than 100 features and columns for a variety of publications such as Africa Geographic, Travel Africa, BBC Wildlife and Wanderlust.

I first heard about Philip when I was researching the impact of tourist imagery on the small seaside resort of Coffee Bay in South Africa for my masters dissertation in 2004. While I had previously travelled through the region updating the 5th edition of Lonely Planet's South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland in 2001, Philip had trail blazed the way in 1991 with his South Africa: The Bradt Travel Guide produced while other international guidebook companies sat back and nervously awaited the fall of apartheid. Everyone I interviewed for my study mentioned Philip and his guide and suggested that I contact him. And so I did; even quoting him in my final thesis!

Now some four years later as I'm preparing to work with Philip on the up-coming 6th edition of his Bradt travel guide to Tanzania, I thought it was about time I got to know a little more about the man behind the myth.

What made you become a guidebook author? How did you get started?
When I started travelling in Africa, in the mid 1980s, guidebooks were pretty thin on the ground – Lonely Planet and Bradt published extremely patchy guidebooks to the whole continent, and that was about it. A couple of years later, Rough Guides brought out a fantastic one-country guide to Kenya, and it opened up so many exciting new travel possibilities that I was inspired to try to do the same for another country. In 1990, I wrote to Hilary Bradt from South Africa suggesting a few possibilities – Tanzania and Uganda as I recall. To my utter astonishment Hilary got back saying that she felt the time - months after Nelson Mandela was released - was right for a guidebook to South Africa, and since I was there, would I be interested? So, pretty much a case of being in the right place at the right time... and from there, I went on to produce several other pioneering guides for Bradt, including the first dedicated guidebooks to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana and Rwanda.

What are the best and worst things about life as a guidebook author?
Best thing is the travel. Worst thing is the writing, or at least the isolation that it enforces.

What is a typical day like for you on the road?
No such thing. I'm married to a photographer and we usually travel together, so every day is a fresh juggling act of priorities. The closest thing we have to a generic blueprint is: get up at dawn for the best photographic light, dedicate the middle of the day to getting from A to B and/or research and updating, then photograph again late afternoon, and relax over a meal and a few drinks after dark.

What is your favourite place and why?
That's an impossible question. Serengeti-Mara for wildlife, Cape Town for its combination of scenery and urban buzz, Virunga Mountains for its mountain gorillas, rock-hewn churches of Tigrai (Ethiopia) for their utter weirdness, Namibia generally for its sense of space... But for me, guidebook writing/updating involves more revisiting old haunts than I’d ideally choose to do, and a lot less time seeing new places, so I'm generally most enthusiastic about places I first visited recently. Last year, my coups included Alexandria, which has to be one of the most engaging cities in Africa, and Madagascar, with its revelatory cast of oddball creatures, and this year it looks like I might finally make it to the Okavango – probably top of my Africa wish list!

How do you feel about the plethora of online travel e-zines and free travel information sites like Wikitravel and their impact on print media such as guidebooks? Do you think this signals the end of the traditional guidebook?
I don't have strong feelings. I find that online travel information for Africa has to be filtered with greater scepticism than a good guidebook. The net does have the potential advantage of being more up to date, but often it isn't, or at least it's difficult to tell. Guidebooks are more focused and portable, you have more of a sense of who wrote and researched them, and for the time being a book seems like a less clumsy option than carrying a ream of computer printouts, or booting up a laptop every time you need information or a map. So no I don't think the traditional guidebook is in any immediate danger, but publishers may have to take a more innovative approach to online updates etc.

It's the age-old question, but can you make a living as a guidebook author?
Yes, especially if you supplement the guidebook work with magazine and other writing. But it's not easy, and it will probably take several years of hard work and scraping by to reach an acceptable income level. It’s not a job I’d recommend to anybody who places earning big money high on their list of priorities.

Finally, what advice would you give to someone who wants to become a guidebook author?
I'm not sure. Its probably a tougher field to break into today than it was 15 years ago. But I think its vital to make the most of any opening that comes your way, to take on board editorial priorities (a list that’s almost always topped by 'meet the deadline', followed by 'read the spec properly', 'don’t overwrite' etc) and to take a long view of things – you need that repeat business, and that means building up good working relationships and mutual trust with editors and publishers. More mundanely, have enough money saved to see you through the first couple of years, when your income is unlikely to vastly exceed your expenses.

Time out in Tanzania

For the last couple of months, I've been busying myself with preparations for an up-coming round-world trip that will take in South Africa, Kenya, the United Kingdom, Jamaica, Cuba and the U.S. I can now announce that my mammoth world adventure has just gotten a whole lot bigger with the addition of Tanzania to my already hectic itinerary.

After a short hiatus, I'm re-entering the world of guidebook authoring, helping renowned author Philip Briggs update the 6th edition of the Bradt travel guide to Tanzania. So for six weeks over May and June I'll be training, busing and bush taxiing my way around some of the least visited parts of the country including the South Coast, Lake Nyasa and the Southern Safari Circuit. Needless to say, I'm very excited about returning to Tanzania.

I guess the saying is true - a leopard really never does change its spots!