Travel Without Judgment

Returning from my second solo trip abroad I was standing in the customs line when the woman behind me suddenly began to recite a rather amazing litany of complaints about the city we had just come from, Rome.  It was hot, dirty, chaotic, and so on and so on...she was so glad to be home.  I turned around and stared at her in astonishment.  Was it all of those things?  Yes, but it was Rome!  Learning to navigate the chaos, running through the torrential downpours, getting a heat rash, watching the hustlers...these were all amazing memories for me and part of the experience of a place.  I absolutely loved Rome and I felt sorry for anyone who returned from that city having decided to focus only on the bad.  That is no way to travel the world.

Rome has nothing to do with Russia, but I mention that experience because of a phrase that Frazier uses in the brilliant Travels in Siberia.  Early in his explorations, he wonders how a Russia can be so horrible and so great at the same time.  More than 15 years of travel in the country do little to answer that question.  He relates his travel experiences honestly--the bugs, the trash, the bribes and bureaucracy, the sanitary conditions, the ecologic devastation, and the brutal past is all front and center.  Yet he never loses his wonder at the grandeur of the landscape, the painful history of many a city and the people, his attempts to master the language.  Quite simply he is in love with Russia and all of Siberia and accepts it warts and all.  His experiences and observations from his multiple trips combined with the history of the country make for an absolutely beautiful travel experience--no matter how horrible it seems at time--and a fantastic read.