(Drivebycuriosity) - Lawrence Osborne belongs to the rising stars of the British literature scene ("The Guardian" sees him as a successor to Graham Greene theguardian). At the begin of his career he earned his living as a travel journalist and shortly after the year 2005 he traveled to Papua New Guinea. The book "The Naked Tourist: In Search of Adventure and Beauty in the Age of the Airport Mall " is his chronicle (amazon ).
He starts with an essay about history & nature of tourism and reports the very different stages of his journey into the wilderness. Coming from New York, going to the east, his first stop was Dubai, "the ultimate tourist city", where he witnessed the huge constructions of today´s architectural wonders, like the world’s tallest tower, the Burj; the world’s largest shopping mall, the Emirates Mall; and the world’s largest theme park, Dubailand. After months of "claustrophobic confinement in New York, a moralistic and corporate city", he experienced "a whiff of the Mad Hatter".
The second stop on Osborne`s journey to the east was Calcutta. “Early in the morning, the city looks like an equatorial Saint Louis of the last century”. Then followed a side trip to the Andaman Islands, Indian territories close to Myanmar (Burma), where he suffered a stay in an unpleasant accommodation, that lead to this funny dialogue:
“Ah, towel we are not having, sir.” “Sheets?” The heads jiggled. “Sheets we are not having, sir.” “Where are the sheets?” “Sheets locked up in kitchen, sir.” “Well, unlock the kitchen.” Heads jiggling. “Not having key, sir.” “Well, get the bloody key, then.” “Cook is having key, sir.” “And where is the cook?” “Cook in Rangat, sir.”
His resume:"Government hotels in India are not really hotels; they are casual employment outlets for young men on permanent vacation". But it seemed he got compensated by the exotic environment: "A blood moon emerged through tamarinds; the gurjuns creaked like a ship’s rigging".
Medical Stopover
The next stop was Bangkok, planned "as a medical stopover as much as anything, a place to avail myself of cheap malaria medications, some dental work, and perhaps some other more esoteric preparations for mind and soul before the far more radical leap into Papua". He stayed at the Mandarin Oriental, Thailand’s most august hotel, "the apex of the nation’s tourist sector, the nub of it all".
The Oriental cultivates a very deliberate literary air, with all the trappings and decors of literariness: cane chairs, potted palms, high tea, a library of snoozy clocks and glass book cabinets. The library walls are crammed with portraits of the usual suspects. Evelyn Waugh, Pierre Loti, Somerset.The stay inspired him to an essay on the global history of grand hotels.
Osborne calls Thailand an astonishingly successful “country brand” that sells itself as such and remarks that there is no society on earth more tolerant of the sexual drive than Thailand, but his focus was on the country`s medical industry. He came across an incredible hospital called Bumrungrad. It’s the biggest private hospital in Southeast Asia, servicing nearly a million patients a year from 140 countries, 300,000 of them foreigners. The Bumrungrad is a medical supermarket. Hundreds of treatments are gathered under one roof, along with restaurants, shops, galleries, and fringe clinics offering variations on the hospital’s scientific treatments, a large part of which are cosmetic. The Cosmetic Surgery unit is one of the busiest in the world, famous for its sex-change operations and discount liposuctions. The hospital offers accommodation just like a hotel, including a Royal Suite and room service. It would probably be a wonderful place to die.
Osborne`s next step was Hua Hin, around 4 car hours south of Bangkok, where he stayed in an ambitious spa, that inspired him to an essay on the global spa industry. His documentation about his spa experience reads like a farce. There was Chelation Therapy, an herbal sauna and ozone bath called G2B Steam, Lymphatic Activating, Ultrasound-Herbal Oil Massage, colon cleansing, acupressure, and a “foot spa.” There was a one-day cleansing spa with colonic irrigation, which might well be the best option for the following day.
Osborne´s journey leads him further east to Bali, an Hindu island as part of Muslim Indonesia, where he prepared for his final destiny of this trip, using the occasion to some musings about the political history of the island and her endangered culture.
Ultimate destination
Finally he reached Papua, also belonging to Indonesia. The island has become the ultimate destination for a new breed of traveler, what could be called the “anthropological tourist.” Anthropological tourists are a sophisticated variant of the ecotourist. They are not anthropologists by any means, but they share the anthropologist’s ethos: subtle, invisible contact with fragile and remote peoples, extreme sensitivity, a light touch.
Osborne`s Papua diary is of course the highlight of the book - exotic and sometimes surreal and hilarious. His portrayal of the landscapes invites to go there: "This forest was dense: quick-stick thickets with gray-green bark, yemane trees, and wet leech limes. Gum trees soared up to its canopy, merging into eaglewoods—an exotic tree that in recent years has become a source of income to tribes in the interior of Papua".
His account of the forest people who have been stagating in a kind of stone age not so much. Apparently the folks in the jungle, black Africans, who had migrated across Asia seventy thousand years ago, missed the evolution of humankind, even more than those that stayed home in Africa.
The under-development is not surprising. The surrounding jungle gives them anything they need food, building materials, cloths. And here are no huge predators who would challenge them. No need to advance and to develop.
The people Osborne met deep in the rain forest still believe in witches and some claim that they had killed and eaten witches. Otherwise they live from tree fruits and mice hinds - and living maggots are supposed to be delicacies. Some of them live in hard to reach tree houses, not happy to see strangers.
Osborn took a lot afford to reach and to befriend these folks, who have the reputation to be violent and despise foreigners. But he could socialize with those rough people - kind of -, and share their very organic diet (even though he claims not having eaten witches). When he came home he had lost 20 pound.
"A journey is never a simple thing. The hitches and the boredom, the missed connections and the empty hours are the price that must be paid for leaving one’s real life and entering an unreal one".
The naked tourist" is not just a travel report, it is a piece of literature, apparently inspired by Margaret Mead, who had traveled Papua in the 1930, Graham Green and other authors. The book is very entertaining and amusing and reads almost like fiction - which it might party be. Highly recommended - not just for connoisseurs of the exotic wilderness.
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