←→Review: Vagabonding by Rolf Potts

Posted Monday, March 26th, 2007 · Permalink

I’m new to the whole Travesphere thing. There’s still a lot out there for me to explore and see, but there have been a few sites that I’ve been frequenting consistently from the start. One of those sites is Rolf Pott’s Vagabonding Blog, Vagablogging. There, he and a few others write about their travel passions and travel writing (which is, incidentally, Potts’ job). I’ve been hooked to his stuff since I finished reading the first article. After going through a large amount of his article archives, I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to read more on Potts’ travel philosophy. I went ahead and ordered his book, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel (aff).

As I said before, I’m new to this Travesphere thing, and so I’m also a little late with this review: despite his “New” claim on his site, Potts’ book has been around since 2003. But I feel I should spread the word on this one as much as possible: go read it!

This book is everything I expected it to be and still a little more. Its approach is fresh and entertaining, which is a primary reason why it is suitably called “an uncommon guide.” It deals with a range of long-term travel related topics, but talks about them from a more philosophical point of view. It’s like Rolf is talking to you directly and giving you one-to-one advice. And the advice isn’t like the crap you sometimes get on the road. His advice is worth gold.

Unfortunately, Rolf puts emphasis on this being a long-term travel related book. I, however, have enough confidence in his words that I could recommend it to any traveler who is out to experience the world for any amount of time. It’s easy, clear reading with quality advice. No recipes or a long how-to travel. Just friendly advice.

Rolf uses a lot of personal anecdotes to help illustrate situations. These little stories are there not only to help the reader understand why he gives particular advice, but are also entertaining and inspiring to read. His discussion on the tourist/traveler distinction is thoughtful and funny. His choice of topics are apt and to-the-point.

And just when you thought it is a great, fun little book about traveling, Rolf is sure to add extremely useful references that potentially leads the reader to more eye-opening resources on the web and elsewhere. It’s a book for the new guys and the hardened. It can be read in a day but it will last a lifetime.

All that said, there are a few min-points for Rolf’s book as well. For starters, it’s up for an update. The references that I just praised are a little outdated (in the sense that there are better alternatives now and a few links are broken). Also, the text is littered with side-quotes by other writers, something some readers seem to like but I find distracting. These quotes are at times fun and interesting, but I’d keep them separate and limit the use to one or two a chapter. As a last point, Rolf sometimes seems to ramble on for too long about alternative situations that a particular explanation can be applicable to. This is a little hard to explain clearly. If you have the book, read pages 92-93 to see what I mean.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in experience traveling, especially those who are a little nervous about taking those first steps out into the unknown world. I hope to see an update or sequel to it soon.

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