Statto Wrote:I could make a quite impressive list of my own of all the places I could have gone, things I could have seen, experiences I could have had... but I couldn't be arsed. So Can't Be Arsed sounds like my kind of book.
I really like it so far, despite 1 on the list being Machu Picchu, where older Mick and Mum-Raa trekked (by foot, not travel provided) to raise money for Motor Neuron disease. And it's thrown up an interesting fact too:
"Maybe this (nuisance tourists, not them) is why Machu Picchu has such an attraction for some people. It's a spectacular, awe-inspiring guilt-trip. These people are like Charlton Heston in Planet Of The Apes. His horse rounds the cliff and he sees the Statue Of Liberty buried up to the waist in sand and he cries: 'You maniacs! You blew it up!! Damn you! God damn you all to hell!!!'
OK, they don't say that exactly, but I've no doubt many a wistful backpacker has moaned that 'We've like totally destroyed this civilisation. We could have learned so much from them!'
Well, we did learn something from them. We learned about cocaine - the drug of choice for wankers everywhere. The Spanish brought the Incas' favourite leaf back to Europe and laid the foundation for an industry which damages countryside, brings misery and fear to local farmers, and litters the fields that children play in with land mines; merely trafficking the drug kills untold thousands every year, not to mention the millions of individuals who have been bored senseless at parties by coked-up jerks and their plans for world domination. So you can see all the trouble a little taste for travel and adventure can bring. Best stay at home, eh?"