175 is the page count now. I've been planning a trip to Malaysia, so if you've been (Madeleine?) give me some advice. Actually, today's venom is reserved for those pedantic people whose plaintiff whining and pithering prose populates the post boards of Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree. While it can be a forum for decent travel advice, it often devolves into the backpacker one upsmanship that I so detest. Basically you write a post asking for advice about a place and seventy percent of the responses ring with "don't go there, it's overrun by tourists", and even obscure, off the track places. I'm going to jokingly post for advice on travel in the Sahara desert just to see if some soft-skull doesn't write back to tell me to avoid the place because it's gone touristy. What is it with these wankers? Why can't they just hand out some decent advice without making everything into a high-minded diatribe on how the best places are gone, or better yet - "that was good when I was there, but now..." I'd like to find one of these unshowered, unshaven heathens, grab him by the dreadlocks and say, "At least tourists don't stink" before popping him in his overpriced Oakley sunglasses sending him sprawling across his vegan dinner. Whoops, sorry about that, got a little carried away.
Later.