Can Wiki Travel?
My latest Slate piece was born of a teenage obsession with the Lonely Planet guides. As I wrote in a part of the piece that was (thankfully) cut
While its embarrassing to admit, at a younger age I put a kind of faith in LP that most people reserve for thicker books written by prophets. I savored their advice for adapting to foreign cultures: do not touch people with your feet, try not to lose your temper when cheated, and be careful about where you skinny dip. I even considered, but never followed the LP’s famous advice: “to save weight, saw the handle off of your toothbrush.†For a lifetime LP-addict, giving up the book for this trip was not undertaken lightly.