In 2008, I had the privilege of interviewing Chuck Thompson . Chuck is a very well known travel writer and one of the first interviews I ever did. I had just finished his book, “Smile When You’re Lying, and sent an off chance interview request to him. Surprisingly”, he agreed. Smile When You’re lying is a look at his adventures through the travel industry and its white washed picture perfect world. It’s a funny, witty, cynical book that is an amazing piece of writing. I laughed, I cried, I wished I could be a third of the writer he was. Over the holidays, he sent me his new book, “To Hellholes and Back”. The book is about the four places he has always been too afraid to visit (Uganda, India, Mexico City, and Disney World) and how he overcomes his fears by visiting them. Here’s what Chuck said about the book: Nomadic Matt: What made you decide to write this book? Chuck : Aside from money, which is always the most honest answer to this question, it occurred to me that in all my years of writing and reading about travel, I’d never seen a thoughtful treatment of the role fear and paranoia plays in travel. In significant ways, these things factor into all of our decisions about where or where not to book a trip. Then there was the issue of reputations. How do some places get bad ones

Read the original here Traveling to Hell with Chuck Thompson