Craig Martin Interview
Interview Time: Rob Savage chats to travel expert Craig Martin
Craig Martin is something of an on‐line travel phenomenon, blazing his way across the planet since 2006 and keeping you guys informed of all the fun things you should be getting up to ‐ via Twitter, blogs, podcasts and now a rather superb book. I managed to transcend the international time lines and pin Craig down for long enough to glean some top travel tips ‐ just for you guys.
You’re a Kiwi born and bred, but you’ve been through forty countries since 2006. Where did your travel itch come from?
I think it’s something common to all New Zealanders. The Great OE (overseas experience) is a part of our myth ‐ part of Kiwi culture. I just extended mine a bit! My wife Linda and I always wanted to travel and we’d been taken overseas as children so that stuck. We always wanted to explore and now that we’ve seen extensive swathes of Europe and Australia, we’re eyeing up South America in 2010!
You’re stuck on a desert island with the personality bereft Paris Hilton, the intellectual deficit that is Sarah Palin and a gun with one bullet. What do you do?
I could live a happy, monastic life on a deserted island so I would club them one by one and save the shot for a seabird. In the short term, Palin’s hunting skills could come in handy but I don’t think one can eat Botox or Silicon. Hard times bring hard choices.
I’m a big fan of what I’ve seen in your debut book ‐ Travelling Europe. In this you stress the importance of checking out travel advice from your friends first. Why are your buddies always your first port of call?
Travel is such a personal thing. For example, budget travel means a US$ 80 a night motel for some people and sleeping in the airport for others. Although you can find guidebooks that somewhat fit with your travel style, there’s nothing like a friend saying: “Nobody goes here, but I know you’ll love it” or the opposite, where they help you avoid popular places that you won’t enjoy.
Friends not only personalise a destination, they give you a truer account of it. They approach it from a similar cultural background, they don’t need to sell books and they don’t need to tread lightly on people’s feelings. Of course they haven’t done professional research and might be completely wrong, but that’s part of the fun.
I ask this of all my interviewees so ‐ what are your top five books?
I’m finding myself listening to more and more audio books, especially free classics from librivox.org which are public domain texts read by volunteers. It saves plenty of weight and means I can ‘read’ late into the night while others sleep around me! My top five would be:
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien.
- Any Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett ‐ probably Mort or Small Gods would be my favourites.
- The collected plays of Anton Chekhov.
- I’m currently reading and enjoying Baudrillino by Umberto Eco. I like most of his novels.
Do you think the current economic screw up is going to contract the budget travel scene or boost it as more travellers scale back on luxuries, but not necessarily travel?
I’ve spent the last six months in Perth and I can tell you the budget scene there is still packed to the brim. Not only were many hostels booked out over spring and summer, but budget tours were also doing well. I wonder what the scene will look like in another 12 months but at the moment people are travelling on money earned during last year’s easier times.
All in all, I think budget travellers are also very well set up to manage in these times. We’re flexible and resourceful, we’re already living lightly and we’re good at living on shoestring budgets ‐ in order to get what we want.
If you could have dinner with any travel writing hero, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
That’s really tough. I’m not big on celebrity writers, especially in the travel genre and most of them communicate best through their text anyway! Stephen Fry however is a living writer and broadcaster who I’d like to meet. He’s one of the most well read and playfully spoken people in the English speaking world. That’s something I’d like to emulate.
Twitter or Facebook?
Twitter for travel writing chat, Facebook for real life friends. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles. You can find me at twitter.com/craig_martin
What’s your most unique travel anecdote ‐ the special one you keep back for rainy days?
I’m a poor story teller. I’m much better at deconstructing someone else’s narratives than forming my own. When it’s called for however, I’d pull out my night at the youth hostel in Zug, Switzerland. It comprises an unlocked door, a six foot five Swiss bloke, a five foot three teenager and far too much urine for one dorm room.
What’s the next big project for you?
It’s all over the place really. We’re spending most of this year at home in Auckland, New Zealand reconnecting with friends after more than three years of homelessness. Linda and I are then heading up to China in June on a two week tour to talk about travel and new media, before spending a week relaxing in Tonga. In 2010 we’ll be heading to South America for several months, so we need to start thinking about that too!
The main website I run ‐ Indie Travel Podcast, has just been awarded Lonely Planet’s Best Podcast Award and we’re sending someone to Guatemala for two weeks, as part of the WorldNomads.com Travel Podcast Scholarship which is going to be very exciting.
Also we’re looking for sponsors to help support our travels, and further grow the site so it’s all go.
Finally ‐ would you rather eat Weetabix coated in Vegemite and cocoa powder or anchovies laced with Chilli, caviar and strawberry yoghurt?
What happened to the traditional chicken foetus? Interviewers these days …
‐ Rob Savage
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