Continued from [10700 Part 1]

PP: There's that funny scene in that Ethan Hawke movie, "Before Sunrise" I think, where he's in Vienna or somewhere and he needs help so he asks locals--in English--and they ride him about whether he can speak their native tongue...German or French or whatever. That's the sort of the smug, anti-American attitude from locals I might expect...and maybe it's justified. How do you think being an American affects our travel experience?

CT: Twenty years ago, an American passport made you the most popular guy in any room. When people found out you were an American, they came over and talked and told you about their sister in Phoenix and were very friendly. I have experienced very little blatant anti-Americanis  m in recent years-people are still largely decent everywhere-but I've noticed that the overt friendship thing has pretty much disappeared. Being pals with an American is no longer something for most foreigners to be proud of. A real shame.

I haven't seen the movie you mention, but the scene sounds a little forced to me. Maybe within a longer conversation you might hear that complaint about Americans not speaking foreign languages, but I've never encountered it in the way described above. And, anyway, unless you work for the U.N., not speaking a foreign language is nothing to be made to feel guilty about. I'm sick of Americans being browbeaten about not speaking foreign languages. One, because it's not true. And, two, Europeans pretty much have to learn English. Go to Mexico or Japan or China or Iran and you can count the Europeans on one hand who are speaking the local language. Because of the way Europe is set up, it makes more sense for them to learn a second language (English). Because of that you hear this criticism of Americans ineptitude with foreign languages, the clear implication being that compared with Europeans, Americans are stupid, lazy, and arrogant, none of which are true.

PP: You're a journalism and history major as well as polyglot. Have you found that knowing the language and being versed on history of a country is important to travel success? What kind of prep work do you do before visiting a country?

CT: Everything I said above still holding true, without question, being able to speak the local language benefits the travel experience incalculably.

My prep work varies, depending on how much time I have to deal with things before a trip. For my WWII trips through Europe and Pacific, I literally prepped for six months, nailing down everything I could before hand so as to maximize time on the ground. On the other hand, I once went to Brazil for a two-week magazine assignment so unprepared that I didn't even know I needed to secure a visa beforehand. I got stopped at the airport in Chicago and turned back. Only by a miracle was I able to actually find the home number of a Brazilian embassy worker in Chicago on a Sunday afternoon and talk her into coming into the office and opening the embassy and issuing me a visa. (She had to have been the kindest, most compassionate human being on the planet.) So, I only missed a day of travel there, and saved the assignment.

PP: How does the length of stay shape your experience? It must be an almost different trip to visit a place for a day compared to a month-long sojourn. Have you found an ideal immersion time for the optimal travel experience?

CT: I was in Japan for two years and was getting pretty good with the language, but certainly nowhere near fluent. There was a white guy named Maurice from Florida who'd been in country for about fifteen years and his Japanese was impeccable. I once asked him how long it took him to get comfortable with the language and the culture. He said to me, “Chuck, you never get entirely comfortable being a foreigner in this country. You never really know what's going on.”

PP: In a similar way, it must be different to visit a place by yourself or with others. Like in your book, you talked about the time when you were waiting for a bus in the dark while standing on a road in the middle of a guerrilla-fille  d jungle night...that must be unnerving alone...maybe less scary as a group? Any thoughts about individual vs. group travel experiences?

CT: Going it alone is much more boring and lonely and certainly not as much fun. But it forces you into a lot more situations than you would never get into with a group. As an individual, particularly in a country where you don't speak the language, you become reliant on a whole boatload of strangers for everything from directions to just basic conversation. Also, alone, you can cover a lot more ground, do a lot more work, and this is important for the writer on assignment.

But it also sucks to travel alone because it's lonely and you get to these great places or have amazing experiences and yet have no one to share them with. You constantly find yourself saying, “Man, I wish Joyce were here to enjoy this view.” Or, “It'd be great if Brian or Bob or Kevin were here to have a beer with.”

PP: What generally makes the most indelible impression: the geography, architecture, food, or people?

CT: People.

PP: It seems like the ultimate destination of any trip might be friendship...li  ke in your book it sounds like travel itself, serendipity perhaps, helped you meet strangers that became good friends. Is that an upside to travel? Do you think that might be a subliminal allure of travel...or are most people you meet total miscreants...li  ke you don't want to hang with them and it's just too risky to leave strangers with a personal invitation to "come visit me if you're ever in my hometown"?

CT: I just did a safari in Africa on which I met twelve or thirteen new people. It actually was kind of a dull group. The people were all nice, but it just wasn't a good mix. I'll never see any of them again, though I have exchanged email photos with several. On the other hand, I did a boat cruise of the Solomon Islands years ago with fourteen people and I'm still in regular contact with four of them, and met up years later with two of them in their towns for nice dinners. For a lot of people, meeting fellow travelers is definitely the point of the trip. For me, if it happens organically, great. But I'm not one to hangout at backpacker hostels or post notes on message boards in Costa Rica looking for ride shares. I value my privacy too much.

PP: Somebody who works for FAA told me you can see the service history of an airplane by entering the tail number (like the license plate) into a website. I do this now just before boarding my flights because I'm sort of paranoid...I wanna know if there's been problems with the landing gear on this plane I'm about to get on...I wanna know what airlines have the best service record and the fewest FAA violations. How do you think this information transparency will affect the travel industry?

CT: Most people don't have time for this type of research and they don't care. They don't have time to care. They trust that if the carrier is in business they must have passed some sort of FAA or other governing body's protocol. Human beings have an amazing capacity for trust in strangers and I suppose this instinct endures because most of the time everything turns out all right. I think your paranoia about flying is interesting, but it's the exception, not the rule. If it were the rule, the society would be paralyzed.

PP: Where are you traveling next?

CT: I'm doing book promo in coming weeks in a number of places: Sacramento, San Francisco, Oxford, Mississippi, Toronto, Syracuse University, New York City. I'm going to Juneau in February. India in April or May.

PP: I heard you on am 620 radio talking about "Smile While You're Lying"...is the promotion of this book different than the WWII historical sites books you've written?

CT: The nuts and bolts are the same. Radio interviews, some with hosts who have read the book, some who have no f'ing clue what the interview is even supposed to be about. Some TV. Newspaper reviews, online interviews. The topic is obviously different. The WWII circuit is it's own thing. This book is more mainstream so the national attention is greater.

PP: Might be funny to get two curmudgeons together...any interest on teaming up with food writer Anthony Bourdain?

CT: That's like asking if I want to team up with Michael Jordan or partner on a round with Tiger Woods. Who wouldn't? But Bourdain seems like the type who prefers to work alone and so am I, actually. But I think he's great.

PP: For families travel, what destinations and tips do you have?

CT: If I had kids I'd probably take them to Mexico and then New York City, London if I could afford it. If I were a parent, I think the thing that'd get under my skin more than anything else is people without kids doling out parenting advice, so I'll skip the second part of your question.

PP: Agreed. What are your plans for another book?

CT: I'm working on a book for Henry Holt (my publisher) about traveling to places that intimidate me: sub-Saharan Africa, India, Mexico City, Disney World. It's scheduled to come out in 2009.

PP: Cool. Thanks Chuck!

CT: Thanks

http://www.chuc  kthompsonbooks.  com