Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer

by Rolf Potts

Marco Polo Didn’t Go There is a collection of rollicking travel tales from a young writer USA Today has called “Jack Kerouac for the Internet Age.” For the past ten years, Rolf Potts has taken his keen postmodern travel sensibility into the far fringes of five continents for such prestigious publications as National Geographic Traveler, Salon.com, and The New York Times Magazine. This book documents his boldest, funniest, and most revealing journeys—from getting stranded without water in the Libyan desert, to crashing the set of a Leonardo DiCaprio movie in Thailand, to learning the secrets of Tantric sex in a dubious Indian ashram.

Marco Polo Didn’t Go There is more than just an entertaining journey into fascinating corners of the world. The book is a unique window into travel writing, with each chapter containing a “commentary track”—endnotes that reveal the ragged edges behind the experience and creation of each tale. Offbeat and insightful, this book is an engrossing read for students of travel writing as well as armchair wanderers.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Writing, Memoir, Essays, Journalism, Biography

321 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

Rolf Potts has reported from more than sixty countries for the likes of National Geographic Traveler, the New York Times Magazine, Slate.com, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, The Believer, The Guardian (U.K.), National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. A veteran travel columnist for the likes of Salon.com and World Hum, his adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong, hitchhiking across Eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, and driving a Land Rover from Sunnyvale, California to Ushuaia, Argentina.

-from rolfpotts.com

Reviews

[Tom Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a book club, so here's the summary I put together in anticipation. (Items marked "o" are points that go under the bullets.)

General
• Dates of trips and dates of essays would have been a big help
o Assume chrono; writing and reporting get better as the stories go along
o Earlier pieces somewhat self-conscious, self focused, juvenile, sometimes trite
o Starts getting better with piece on Australian outback (127)
• Commentary at end of pieces is telling and entertaining:
o Observations on travel; outtakes; “travel-writing textbook” (xix)
• Jared Diamond quotation from Collapse: “the values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs over adversity” (142)
o Aborigines have to “yesterday” or “tomorrow,” so share as they receive, which means no businesses (142) and lots of garbage (143)
• Dislikes museums! (301)

Observations on fact vs. interpretation
• Epigraph: “the listener retains only the words he is expecting”—Italo Calvino (ix)
o Interpretation is everything, both for teller and hearer
• “Bound to be a bit of artifice” (23)
• Quotes Alain de Botton: we reshape the experience so it’s coherent (27)
• In his case, since he seems often to cross the line into fabrication, almost need to state: Inspired by a true story! (See below under “Conflict of interest”)

Observations on travel
• We’re all really tourists, not travelers (xv); the distinction between the two is meaningless (187)
o Supposedly the distinction is escape vs. experience (8)
o “There is no such thing as a seasoned traveler” (124)
• Ecotourism: it’s a contradiction, since by visiting unspoiled places we spoil them (42-3)
o Contradiction (277)
• Tourism improves the standard of living but destroys authenticity (47)
• An aboriginal man explains why he plays the didgeridoo for tourists, even though it’s not at all an instrument of his group: “When you run a business like mine, that’s the trick: balancing people’s expectations of aboriginal culture with the real thing.” (137)
• How travel distorts (key passage): “I realize the insipidity in traveling to a far-flung clime merely to discover the same small pleasures that can be found at home….The formula has already been set: Attract enough travelers to a place, and before long that place will figure out how to cater to the fashions and tastes that travelers bring with them. If, as a visitor, you bemoan the presence of these comforts, you may as well bemoan the presence of yourself.” (223)

Observations on travel writing
• When you travel to write about it, that shapes your experience (24)
• Finding “the proper balance between information and narrative” (55)
• Story’s engine = what’s going to happen next (68)
o “The engine creates the narrative tension that allows the storyteller to digress and give background information”
• People the writer engages with become “mere informational or dramatic pawns within a given travel tale” (153)
• “Itinerant writers can never claim true authority”—Pico Iyer (155)
• Expectations for what a travel piece should be actually shape the story (179)
• Travel writing is similar to fiction writing: uses the same techniques; orders and embellishes (186)

Conflict of interest
• “Press trips are a source of controversy within the travel-writing milieu, since they create an obvious conflict of interest between the writer’s presumed objectivity and the promotional interests of the company that financed the journey” (198)
• But in the very next piece, on Grenada, he misrepresents his motivation for travel:
o “The best answer I could give them was ‘sloth.’” (203)
o But in the notes, he explains that he was there on assignment with a fully booked trip, not as a traveler looking for sloth: “the magazine had used the local tourist board to underwrite most of its travel costs.” (212)
• And in a piece on going to Thailand to write a book (289), he is untruthful about where he stayed:
o “A cheap, quiet studio at the edge of town” (289)
o But in the notes: “In truth, my wooden-floored ‘studio’ was located in a Thai hotel, a tourist guesthouse” (298)
• “As an ethical person, you want to reflect a degree of critical insight when writing about the experience, yet as a person who travels for a living your critical insight may be of limited use to the kind of people who actually plan to take these trips” (200)

Cultural authenticity
• “True aboriginal authenticity was never mine to discover…because authenticity anywhere is an internal dialogue within a culture as it synthesizes its past with the present, hoping to better navigate a changing world.” (152)
o My feeling is that much of what many people now call “cultural appropriation” has long been the way cultures grow and adapt and become richer.

[Rhonda Wiley-Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rolf Potts writes one of the best books on travel writing. All other books of this nature that I've read are straightforwardly instructional (didactic). Potts on the other hand informs by example and reflection and insight.

He offers a travel story, then comments at the end of it on his thoughts and decisions in writing what he did, what he left out, or who he choose to focus on. Advice based on his personal experience. A fun read and a helpful one to those of us dreaming of writing literary travel stories.

[Sonja Dewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a gift for Christmas, and it was just what I needed. These stories reminded me of my own travels and reminded me how we color our travels to fit our memories. Great stories of travel, happenstance, and interesting circumstances. If you've ever traveled, this will also encourage you to get back out there.

[Märt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains 20 best travel articles (written over 10 years) by Rolf Potts, the author of the awesome "Vagabonding – An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel".

For me, these stories are a window to my potential life if I had chosen to dedicate myself to travel and adventure full-on (instead of doing the next best thing, 3-6 month backpacking trips). Complete dedication would have required simultaneously pursuing a compatible career (such as that of a travel writer) so it wasn’t really an option, but it’s fun to speculate if it had :)

The adventures Rolf gets into include a visit to a far corner of Tibet to an empty freezing village where Dalai Lama supposedly comes once a year; hanging out in a strange hostel in Cairo with a resident Canadian playwright who takes the changing international cast of travellers out to wild nights in town; trying to join a tantric yoga ashram with a hot girl in Rishikesh; befriending most colourful characters in what was supposed to be a quiet rural town in Thailand; breaking onto the set of the movie the Beach in Thailand in 1999 (yes, some articles are that old); visiting aboriginal artists with their curator in the Australian outback, etc. He concludes with a "recipe for writing a travel story", which is pretty entertaining chapter, since it outlines the tropes used in most travel writing.

A few stories of 20 I found less interesting since not much was happening, but overall I really enjoyed this book, its adventures and the philosophical thoughts sprinkled in-between.

[Zora O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I was expecting not to like this book much. I have a low tolerance for bravado in travel writing, and young guys' writing often displays a lot of this.

The first essay, about trying to pull of some random anti-stunt involving crashing the set of "The Beach" in Thailand, veered dangerously toward that territory. But from there on out, things got a lot better. Potts is thoughtful, funny and creative--I liked the second-person essay set in India, for instance.

And the "postmodern commentary" is actually quite illuminating. In the notes following each story, Potts explains the various choices he made in telling each story--what details he left out, how he tinkered with chronology, etc. It makes me look at other travel writing differently as a result.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give this travel book high marks because of the author's approach.

The book is a collection of short pieces he wrote for various travel publications over the years, with notes following that gave background material on each one.

Due to those notes, the reader gets a realistic view of how nonfiction is often altered to tell a better story. The author is a writer; he has an audience to capture and hold. He also has only so much experience to draw from and a deadline to meet. Therefore, much of what he writes has been altered in undetectable ways. Most often he omits certain details of his experience to maintain the story's pace and keep the theme clear of distractions.

I both enjoyed his writing and valued his revelations about the process behind his work.

[Jrobertus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of travel stories by an American travel writer I had not read until now. He has an engaging style and tells a good story about his off the track journeys, many of which do not go as "planned". The lead story tells of his efforts to sneak onto a Thai island where Leo DiCapprio was filming "The Beach" while another relates how he got drugged and robbed in Istanbul. Potts tries to see the locals off the tourist tracks, but this is not always rewarding, and leads to some interesting questions about travel versus tourism. He has a keen eye for human nature and a sense of humor that makes this a fun book. I intend to look for more of his stuff.

[Shyam Parekh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rolf Potts is a good writer, but it is hard to like somebody so self-centered and pompous that he is constantly willing to be disruptive to make a story interesting. He's like a more worldly, well-traveled Tom Green. Not quite the shock humor on MTV, though he makes a scene and then writes about all those poor suckers around him. He admits to making up elements of stories to make then more interesting. Maybe he should be commended for admitting that fact. Anyway, it's hard to like the book when the narrator (author) seems like a total jerk.

[Priscilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marco Polo Didn’t Go There attempts to be what Sex Lives of Cannibals is – a humorous, self-deprecating series of travel essays with smart insight and a traveler’s sense of awareness. It is not. Potts comes off as an arrogant, condescending know-it-all and I couldn’t have cared less about any one of the places he went and he goes into far too much detail in almost all of them. Really surprised that this guy is such a published travel writer. Not my thing for sure. Whole book club didn’t like it so I was not alone.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Potts' travel tales entertain while questioning the whole enterprise of travel in the shrinking twenty-first century world. Each piece finishes with lengthy endnotes that pull back the curtain and give the reader access to the mechanics of writing, the context and "off cuts" of the piece, and the business of travel writing.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marco Polo Didn’t Go There is not just a travel book — it’s a genre-breaking, irony-laced, backpack-stained confession booth where Rolf Potts drops postcards from the frontlines of wanderlust, disillusionment, and deeply weird hostels. It’s the book you read when you’ve had enough of polished Instagram wanderers and want the real stuff: the mosquito bites, the long layovers, the conversations with goat smugglers in countries without vowels.

Reading this in December 2012, with Mayan doomsday memes flying around and society half-jokingly preparing for Armageddon, added an extra layer to it. It felt oddly right — because Potts’ worldview is both existentially untethered and deeply rooted in the absurd beauty of now. His essays take us to Korea, Egypt, Cambodia, Brazil — but the coordinates are often philosophical, not just geographical.

What makes the book radical (and postmodern in the best sense) is its use of endnotes. Not footnotes for citations — but footnotes of confession. He tells you, “I made this up.” Or, “That dialogue was cleaner than it really was.” It's travel writing as transparent illusion — a nod to the artifice baked into even the most "authentic" narrative. This isn’t travel as discovery; it’s travel as self-exposure, contradiction, and occasional diarrhea.

And yet, through all the dry wit and cultural observation, there’s a real tenderness — a curiosity that refuses to become cynicism. Potts writes with the heart of a philosopher who once read Baudrillard, but decided a hammock in Laos was the better classroom. He isn’t mocking travel; he’s mourning how often we perform it rather than live it.

One essay that lingered with me was his meditation on “destination addiction” — that idea that happiness always lies in the next stop, the next temple, the next mountain filtered through nostalgia. Reading that during December 2012 — when many of us were refreshing the internet to check if the world had ended yet — felt bizarrely cathartic. If the world was going to end, Potts had the right attitude: travel anyway. Tell the truth. Add the footnote.

The book also taught me something I didn’t expect: that storytelling itself is a kind of journey. And that a story well-told doesn’t just describe a place — it transforms the reader’s inner geography. It doesn’t give you directions; it gives you disorientation — the good kind, the kind that makes you see home differently.

[Luna Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars
This was probably the hardest book I’ve ever read. I respect that Potts was willing to travel, learn about other cultures, and make a living off of it. Honestly that’s the ideal job; unfortunately it isn’t as realistic as a woman.
One thing that irked about this book was the way Potts would describe women. If she was in a relationship then he wouldn’t think much of her. However, every single woman ever that he came across that was not taken, he took R rated interest in. He just couldn’t wait to think and describe in detail his swimsuit fantasies. This made me really uncomfortable as a girl. Especially since he viewed every woman in this way. It wasn’t just that, but the way he wrote, you could tell it was written with only men in mind. Which is kind of crazy because he puts so much emphasis on “experiences” and other people, and yet he can’t respect woman. How interesting.
I did enjoy the aspect of searching for adventure and seeking stories. I found that inspiring. So I guess he had that going for him. Gosh, I could not read any more of this otherwise I was going to rip my hair out 🤗

DNF at page 221

[Juha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a very enjoyable book. I had bought it when it came out in 2008, when I was dabbling in travel writing; then read only the first story and put it aside, until I saw it in my bookshelf a couple of weeks ago and decided to pick it up again. Rolf Potts is a keen observer, with an intelligent writing style. He is well-read, sympathetic, sensitive, ethical, and someone with a great lowkey sense of humor. The book consists of 19 travel stories that he wrote from the late-1990s until the publication of the book. They take us from Central America and the Caribbean to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Australia. Some are quite serious in tone, while others are laugh out loud funny. An important bonus consists of end notes to all stories. These explain the background to each, the writing process, and what was left out. Chapter 20 is a tutorial on the art of writing a travel story.

[Tomás Andrade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stacked with great stories and even greater quotes.

Here are a couple of them:

"It's just that too much of any good thing has a way of wearing a man down"

"strolling around a town where I didn't look much different from the locals - I felt somehow more isolated than in any place I'd discovered in the hinterland of Burma"

"There is no such thing as a seasoned traveler, because travel is an ongoing experience of the unfamiliar"

"It is the expectation itself that robs a bit of authenticity from the destinations we seek out"

"had it not turned into a misadventure I might never haver written about it"

"When the date-rape drug finally wore off to the point where I could think and function, I found myself face down in a darkened park not far from Istanbul's Blue Mosque"

[Carianne Carleo-Evangelist · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light, fun read. I'd read some of Potts' stories in other collections as well as his own books and online, but I hadn't read the majority of these. I like how he chose to include the end notes to make readers aware of other sub plots, challenges, etc. I loved Mr. Beenny, and his story of navigating Central Laos. I found myself looking up the tour company that he worked with - and pleasantly surprised that accommodation is still at the Headman's.

Great, light read. Really awakened travel itch again.

[Bruce Harpham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discovered this book through a virtual travel book club organized by Nomadic Matt, a travel blogger. The unique concept of this book - providing endnotes to each travel story explaining how the background of the idea and how it was shaped - made this book stand out. I enjoyed how Potts found adventure in all kinds of ways including celebrating Eid, adventures in Thailand and even one in small town America. Note only does the book further inspire me to travel but I'm tempted to start carrying out a small notebook as I walk around!

[Tim Mathis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great combination of things although I could see how it's got a specific niche. It's a bunch of good travel stories, but made really useful for writers by end notes, commentary and suggestions about how to write a good travel story. To me (as someone working on becoming a better travel writer) probably the value as a writing guide was the best part, but if that's not what you're looking for I could see how it would be distracting.

In any case though, Potts is a great writer with a lot to teach, and this was a really helpful read.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book of travel writing, also about travel writing, Potts displays uncanny instincts for perspective, insight and humor in "Marco Polo Didn't Go There." If you have an interest in either writing, or travel, or in the fine art of combining the two, this is a must-read. Potts' work sits on a shelf all his own.

[Melita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the collection, though of course some stories were more to my liking than others. A good series to read when contemplating my own travel tendencies and interests. My takeaways: travel how you want to for yourself and not as a performative act for others & the globe is both more similar across than it ever has been and still there are new experiences to be had.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

He put a lot into this work, a lot of travel, a lot of thought. It reads very smoothly and for anyone who travels and/or writes about it, its inspiring.
"ecotourism is a response to information age yearning for uniqueness, isolation, and authenticity"
"In truth, i dont have any formal "credentials" to brandish; usually I just offer a business card, or mention my author website."
"Oh neccesity! To do waht you are supposed to do, to be always, according to the circumstances and despite the aversion of the moment, what a young man, or a tourist, or an artist is supposed to be" quoting Flaubert in his travels to Cairo
"For some reason, major media outlets see fit ot ridicule backpackers at regular intervals in the news cycle. Around the smae time my Sultan tale was published in Salon, one could find articels in Time and the new York Times bemoanign how watereddown independent travle had become. Teh template for these articles was quite predictable, foregin desk correspondent visits backpacker gehetto in Tahiland or india or guatemala and observsers information age ironeis and or party scen reporter then evokes supposed independt travel ideals of the 60s and notes how todays backpackers dont live up to said ideals repoerted procedds to quote Lonely planet found Tony Wheeler, cite tourism staicsk,summarize percieved backpacker hypocriseis and grandly declare indepnedtn travel to irreleavant or socnumerist, or stone cold dead.
This kind of story is the traevel eauivlante of those perneail op edi peices that use the lastes deomgraphic survey to condlue that young pepole are stupid or maorally lacking or edestinted to dteryo civilization. And just as kids these days op eds are metna tot convine older gernetration of their own virtue death of ttraavle articles essentaily serve to resasrue working stiffs that they arent missing anything by staying at home.;
Indepndent travlers distingusish tehmselves y btheri willinghness to travle solo, to go slowyl, to embrace the unexpected and break out form the comrort economy that isolates more well heeled vatcionaers and exptas. Sure backpackers are themselves a masnifestation of mass tourism, and they have their ow self satised cliches, but they are generally going through amore life affecting preocess than one would fin don a stander travel holdiay.
All of which is to day that backpacker culture is far more diverse tand engaged than its layabout steroytype would imply.
These american magazines donet evne tknow what eavdie3nt is, he said, they want tyou to werite about camping toays and sports vactionas. they want tyo to make poeple think adventure is smoething that costs 8000 dolalars and lasts as long as a Chrismtams holikday They want you to make rich epople feel good for geinb rich.
I began to emoal my dietor pointed qutrestion s about how mone should feine the extrems of human experience, how was kayahing a remote c hines rive i asked more notable tahn survinbin on its hosres for a lifetime
Did nayone else think it was telling that bored British aristocrats not the epoles of the himalyas were the ones who first deemed it important to climb Mount Everest
to a place where "avetntuer tralve
was not a way o fgettingh b y in life but a whimislca self indeuced actrstacion , a ways of tesing our limits so that we acan more kenly fell our comofts.
the kayak guides excude a perky enthousiasm that at times felt phohny and condescdning
unfortnaulta donny turned out to be the most indiesice secatterbrained world weary perosn imve met in anym profestional context.
how does one see the thing beter when others are absent
ive foudn that travler conversations invarily steter ther wway toward persumed dangers, guntoting slavadorans on teh beach at tnight, street grangs near the cities, leftover land mines in teh jungles, this talk is a sta ndard straveler sarfty ritual
and an otherwise languaorus afternoon of surfign nad beer drinking acn areadily be apassed off asn eday adventure in el salvador.
if as a vistor you bemona the prescend of these comforts, you may as well beoman the prescene of youtself.
at times our adventure here carries a postmodern kind of pathos. becuase we havent spooted any of the amilas we hoped to see here, the jngle seems lisghtly worng somehow.
a bsci contraciction of ecotourism, to truly immerse youself in nature you need time and poeateience, yet short term outrists raerly have much time to posrare, the proudout of ecotoursim afdter iall is experience, yet a meangiful gexpoerce of natue is not somethinging that can be sdeivloer in pqucik standerisd packages.
were you writing a book about andoraa you might begin your story form a personal of meotnal premist, you might say for expmapoel that you lover has just left you and you resvoe.d to walk acors andora in an effort to heal your pain. or you might saty that your home was lacking in good teaste of wautehnicityciy and you walked across andoraa to diescover and older and more gneuineu way of life.
i thought back to burma and the pride id felt in stryaing offf the beathen path hter, somehow the tirall of that juourned ycotnained a hitnt of naricssim, nad eogoistic desire to see ymyself vidid and unqigue in teh frelctino fo a land so unlkeik my own.

[Todd Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent travelogue from writer and reporter Rolf Potts on his travels around the world. He provided a glimpse of war torn and way off the beaten path locales from Southeast Asia to Central America and many places in-between.

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know Rolf Potts from Vagabonding, and I hadn’t actually realized that he wrote more broadly until recently: this was an excellent dive into his travel writing, and I loved reading the end notes for each story as well.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining collection of travel stories, with something for anyone’s palate. I loved the commentary at the end of each story, which gave insights into the writing process and additional details that weren’t included.

[Junior Veng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the way how he tells the stories in this book...

[June Ding · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enchanting book full of short travel stories (mostly in Asia). My favourites include road roulette, Turkish knockout, dogging Mr Benny’s dead uncle...

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were very enjoyable. Really liked learning about the writing process Potts employed, especially how he decided what material to include and what to leave out.

[andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories hilarious and intriguing, writing style and perspective pretty delightful. Have the book if you like travel essays.

[Eva Mazzocchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Racconti di viaggio abbastanza pomposi da saccopelista che schifa i turisti. La parte bella sta nelle note che spiegano quanto le storie di viaggi siano ‘artificiali’.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and relatable.

[GEOFF · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy Read. Lots of fun reading travel stories.