Q: So you plan ahead?
A: Oh, yes, absolutely.
Q: And you make reservations?
A: Yes. The only time I didn’t was when I went to Thailand where I had a big network of people. I was going up to Chang Mai in the slow season, and it was a breeze. I stayed in a four-star hotel for $30 a night. Their whole industry is based on tourism so they’re very very careful.
Q: So out of all of these experiences that you’ve had, that have inspired you to compile them for your book and your Web site, which one would you like to share?
A: There’s so many! Ok I’ll give you three. The first one is, I was up at the Arctic Circle in a town outside of Actuary which is in Iceland, and I spent the day in the hot springs there, and stayed in a little hotel and went down to the bar and ordered myself a $15 gin and tonic. The alcohol is really expensive there. I meandered into a pub-ish room, it was a room that was a part of the pub but not really the bar area, and there were thirty Icelandics singing folk songs. I ended up spending a few hours with them, and it was during the summer so the sun just kisses the horizon and rises back up, and it was so cute they were saying, “We sing American songs for you!” and they were singing all these songs. At the end it was two o’clock in the morning and I had to leave and they said, “Let us sing you a Viking lullaby,” so I had a room-full of Vikings sing me a lullaby. That was a pretty incredible feeling.
Another one was when I ended up meeting a Diva in Stockholm and through a serendipitous set of events we got invited onto the King’s Torpedo Boat through the Swedish Archipelagos and we spent the day with a team of retired ambassadors, consulate members and the King’s friends. We went out to a deserted island and they set up a beautiful picnic for us, and drank Absolut Vodka and ate cheese, and it was just beautiful and amazing.
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