Celebrity Travel: Go Away With John Preston
Author John Preston resides in London, England. Having traveled the world, he says that trips become more meaningful when you don't set unrealistic expectations. "People often have this strange idea that if you go on holiday, you'll leave all your problems behind," says the 62-year-old author of "The Dig" (Other Press, $16.95). "You won't, of course, and you may well find yourself with more time than usual to brood on them. It's best not to set your sights too high, and simply bask in the unfamiliarity of it all."
Q. What is your favorite vacation destination?
A. Although I haven't been there as much as I'd like, it's got to be Goa in India. It's got a combination of beauty, exoticism, cheap booze and fantastic food that I have never found elsewhere.
Q. To someone who was going there for the first time, what would you recommend that they do during their visit?
A. Bicycle. Goa is fantastic for cycling. Best of all, you can go for miles along the coast riding on the hard sand by the water's edge, then stopping off every so often at one of the many cafes and restaurants along the way. There are few more exhilarating ways of spending a day.
Q. What untapped destination should people know about?
A. I'm a big fan of the Mountains of the Moon, which straddle the border between Uganda and Rwanda. It's where for centuries the source of the Nile was reputed to be and where Mohammed thought the Garden of Paradise was. It's also one of the few places in the world where something called the phenomenon of gigantism occurs. Essentially, this means that plants that normally grow to about a height of six inches grow much, much higher -- often to several feet -- so you get this extremely strange, unearthly looking landscape.
Q. What was the first trip you took as a child? And did you love it ... or not so much?
A. My parents weren't that big on holidays, but when I was a child they lived in Northern Cyprus. I loved being there and I've been back several times since. It's still an almost-forgotten corner of the Mediterranean -- much less touristy than the Greek half and with far fewer visitors. But there are some amazing crusader castles and beautiful deserted beaches. For many years it had the strange distinction of being one of the few places in the world that British criminals couldn't be extradited from. As a result, you still stand a good chance of running into some very unusual residents.
Q. What is your guilty pleasure when you're on the road?
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