4 July

"This is the paradox of travel writing, and it's also something every traveller faces. On one hand, you want to share with your friends, with your family, with the world, these amazing places you've discovered. On the other hand, however, you don't want to make them any more popular than they already are. An influx visitors will change what made that destination so special in the first place." Awareness is growing. Notice that he couldn't help telling everybody about these places anyway, because this is how it works. The whole point of him going there is to say to people "wow, I've been somewhere you've never heard of, and it's awesome, I'm awesome." It's like collecting exotic animals, there's a constant push to find the next thing nobody has ever seen before. It's what drives the travel industry, it consumes places, then spits them out and moves on. All to feed our need for endless distraction, and to position ourselves in status hierarchies back home.