Paul Theroux copied me.
November 18th, 2008
I’ve just finished reading Ghost Train to the Eastern Star by the famously grumpy Paul Theroux. In this book he retraces the trip he did for his 1975 book The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s somewhat similar to the premise of my new book – although he is following the journey he took himself. And like my trip his journey takes place 34 years after the original. I’m a big fan of Theroux and, yes he can get a bit grumpy and comes across rather misanthropic at times, but I agree with the Daily Mail when they called him: ‘The world’s most perceptive travel writer’.
It was very interesting reading this book comparing it to my journey. He too found places exactly the same and even meeting up with the same people. One of my favourite stories is when Paul Theroux travels to Maymyo in Upper Burma and went to the same guesthouse that he stayed in back in 1973. The original manager’s son (who is now the manager) recognized him straight away and said, ‘You were in room 11, let me take you there.’ He even remembered that he wore a black shirt, smoked a pipe and that the table by the window was his favourite place to sit and write. His father had passed away some time ago, but had become quite the ‘celebrity’ because of Theroux’s earlier book. And as Theroux said: ‘The portrait of Mr. Bernard in my book had done what the written word sometimes accidentally does, worked a kind of magic. It had brought visitors and it had given Mr. Bernard ‘face’, which is so important in Burma.’
Already on my trip so far I am seeing how even more so Lonely Planet has set people’s lives up and even changed the landscape of a city. Yes, sometimes it’s for the worst, but I’ve also witnessed how it also brings a place to life and a life to people in that place.
Oh, and here’s an interview with Paul Theroux that’s quite good: