Lonely Planet writer? Yes, that’s me
When I was in Cambodia I met the fellow who writes the Lonely Planet for Cambodia. Nice bloke. We chatted about work and had a few beers, and I decided I quite liked his life. He updates Lonely Planet once every few years, scouts film locations, does consultancy for tourism people and takes tours, if my memory serves me correctly. We then ended up in the Angkor What bar where he told a pretty Dutch girl that I was actually the Lonely Planet author, after which I ended up bullshitting quite convincingly for about two hours about how much I knew about Cambodia. I think I fooled her but then I was the worse for a few drinks and I also thought she found me attractive.
So the opportunity to work for Lonely Planet may be there for real now – they’re running the Blue List competition, where entries take the form of a list of travel–related recommendations, very much in keeping with the current preoccupation with listing everything. The winner gets to work for Lonely Planet, so I’m trying to get my entry written if only I can fit it in between all the procrastinating I’m so busy with.
To warm up, I’ve started a new section on the Guardian Been there web site of travel recommendations - mine is on Da Lat in Vietnam, a green and pleasant place that did amazing coffee and fresh salads – I’ve recommended the Easy Riders of Da Lat, because my Easy Rider Binh was the best tour guide I had on my trip, followed very closely by Lucio, a nutty Bob Marley dancing Bolivian (see video 4.2MB).
Quite Random is the blog of Nathan Nelson, a human male who lives in the UK and is not entirely sure what he's going to do when he grows up but is interested in international development, photography, secularism, technology, music and movies and other things anyone of his age would be.
