THREE FOR THE ROAD: Twenty years ago, even those of us who pride ourselves on traveling light might schlep along a pound or more of paper in the form of volumes from popular guide book series including, Let’s Go, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guide.
But guide books, along with postcards, travel agencies, Fotomats, and AAA TripTiks, are among the many travel related products and services left dead or gasping in the internet’s wake. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The digital counterparts of these pre-millennial relics often provide enhanced convenience, lower cost, less environmental damage, and more up-to-date information. Few tears have been shed over the demise of infernally unrefoldable paper maps. And few queers miss the days when a quickly-dated gay guide book could lead them to establishments that had shut down or been taken over by unwelcoming owners. So, what sort of printed guide book still makes a worthy purchase or gift for LGBTQ+ travelers today? It should be as much about inspiration as information. It should have utility beyond a single trip. It shouldn’t feature long lists of addresses and opening hours for hotels, restaurants, and attractions, but it should provide plenty of queer-centric insight on recommended destinations without stereotyping our travel goals as clubbing, cruising, and shopping. Two newly published volumes not only share success in addressing these prerequisites, they also (awkwardly) share a title.
Out in the World: An LGBTQIA+ (and Friends!) Travel Guide to More than 100 Destinations Around the World by Amy B. Scher and Mark Jason Williams
Out In The World: The Gay Guide to Travelling with Pride by Stefan Arestis and Sebastien Chaneac
Out in the World:
Gay and Lesbian Life from Buenos Aires to Bangkok by Neil Miller
The invigorating double-shot of these identically titled books sparked a happy flashback to a third much older Out in the World: Gay and Lesbian Life from Buenos Aires to Bangkok (penguinrandomhouse.com. $18), historian Neil Miller’s wonderful, still-inprint 1992 journalistic profile of queer communities in countries including Argentina, Denmark, Thailand, South Africa, and Japan. While much has evolved over the intervening years, Miller’s well-researched, elegantly written takes on the origins, fundamental differences, and shared experiences of these international enclaves is still a model of excellence in gay travel writing.
Hot Springs by Greta Rybus
WET DREAMS: If hot tub-hopping strikes you as a great way to soak up the world’s cultures, spring for a copy of photojournalist Greta Rybus’ Hot Springs (Ten Speed Press. $30. gretarybus.com) to get your brain bubbling with future trip ideas. “Some look like palaces, others like a hole in the ground,” she writes. “Some feel like a party, others like a prayer…These gathering places form odd communities, giving us a sense of belonging to each other and the earth.” With richly textured images and keen descriptions of local traditions, Rybus wades into the bathing cathedrals of Budapest, the travertine terraces of rural Turkey, a remote canyon grotto in Mexico, and many more wet spots you’ll want to spend time in.
AIRPLANE READ OF THE MONTH
Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang
Eye-opening, emotionally absorbing, and distinctly different from most contemporary queer fiction, Brooklyn-based Jiaming Tang’s Cinema Love ($28. Dutton. ajiamingtang.com) centers on the relationship of an elderly married immigrant couple in Manhattan’s Chinatown, rewinding their years together to the rural village in China where they first met. Bao Mei, the wife, was once a ticket-seller at a small art cinema that served as the undercover trysting place for closeted gay men. Old Second, her husband, was among the theater’s clientele. A sense of devotion and loyalty that transcends sexuality ties these two together over decades of turmoil and transition. It also leaves them haunted by the past and astonished by the world’s rapid change. This is an important and utterly engrossing story that we haven’t read before.
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