THE NAKED TOURIST: IN SEARCH OF ADVENTURE AND BEAUTY IN THE AGE OF THE AIRPORT MALL by L. Osborne
The Naked Tourist: In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall
I picked up The Naked Tourist: In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall
because I had read his other book Bangkok Days
and had enjoyed how it was written. I was also itching for another travel memoir/book. I was not disappointed.
The first chapter is a little slow as it talks about the origins of traveling and the Grand Tour among other things. It does not talk about his own travel. It really shouldn't be a chapter, per se. It should have been the prologue.
Chapter two is where the actual memoir part starts. Osborne, feeling wanderlust and currently sick of his hometown and every else he's ever been really, decides to go on a Grand Tour of his own, with his ultimate goal being of that of Papua New Guinea. In chapter two he is at his first destination, Dubai. He doesn't spend a lot of time there, but enough so that he can show the reader what it's like, talk about its history and its future. At the writing of this book, the tallest building in the world hadn't been built yet, so it gives it a kind of neat perspective.
Chapter three Osborne is in Calcutta. He spends a little more time there and goes more into depth about the city and its surroundings. Definitely makes me want to visit.
Chapter four I found fascinating. He goes to the Adaman Islands which I had never even heard of before. If the book had ended here, I would have been perfectly content. Adaman is truly a different world and its relations with India are very interesting and complex.
Chapter five finds Osborne in Bangkok. Since I had read his book on Bangkok, I didn't learn a whole lot of new things. Out of the entire book it is probably the most amusing chapter. Failed coffee enema and all.
Chapter six and he's at a health resort/spa outside of Bangkok to physically prepare himself for traveling into Papua.
Chapter seven he spends some time in Bali, as Bali is very close to Papua. In Bali he meets the tour guide who will take him deep into the jungles of Papua. Th etour guides nickname is even Mr. Papua.
The rest of the book is spent in Papua. I can not begin to explain how intersting and absorbing this chpater was. I knew so little about Papua, like the fact that half of it is owned by Indonesia. Osborne does indeed get to travel into the jungle. It is very well written and exciting. I honestly would have bought this book for this chapter alone.
I've already explained too much and really don't want to give any more away. The chapters on the Adaman Islands and Papua, again, make this a book worth paying for. Osborne has also introduced me to some new travel writers, like Margaret Mead who I am definitely going to check out.
This is what Amazon has to say about the book:
"From Booklist
Today's tourist, in Osborne's estimation, has too much money, undergoes too little education, possesses even less knowledge, and lacks completely the intellectual curiosity that makes travel compelling and rewarding. Osborne sets out across the globe, working his way east from Dubai through India and Thailand into remote areas of Papua New Guinea. In Dubai he surveys a money-obsessed society determined to remake a desert seafront into a sort of Islamic Disneyworld with manufactured sandy beaches on artificial islands. He finds Calcutta a ruined, failed city, still beset with Marxist idols. Bangkok caters boldly to carnal pleasures, and a trip to the hospital for some vaccinations uncovers a haven for sex-reassignment surgery. Less-radical changes may be had at Thai spas. The exotic culture of Bali attracts Osborne, but his objective remains Papua New Guinea, where too much cleanliness can be dangerous since the locals confuse soap perfumes with evil spirits. Nevertheless, in this South Pacific remoteness, Osborne finally attains his travel goal of reaching a place where no one has yet seen tourists. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association."
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