The Turk Who Loved Apples: And Other Tales of Losing My Way Around the World

291 Pages·2006·1.18 MB·English

by  Gross Matt

“ Matt Gross is the perfect travel companion: smart, funny, and game for (almost) ““““““AAAAbbboooooookkk wwwiiitttthhhhh laaassssttttiiiinnnnggrreeeellleevvvaannccceeeffoorraallllllllttrrraaaavvvveeellleeeerrrrrrrssssss————————aaaaaaaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbooooooooouuuuuuuuuttttttttttttttt hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww tttttttoooooooooooaaaaaaaaacccccccccccccceeeeeeeessssssssssssssss ttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhheeeeeee mmmmmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyssssssssssttttttttteeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddd aaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwweeeeeee
anything. Plus he knows all the best places to eat. As in all great travel books, the M ooofffffooouuuuuurrrfififififirrsssttttttrrrraavvvvveelllsss......aanndd pppeerrrrhhhaaaappppsssmmmmmmooooosssssstttbbbbrrrriiiillllllllllllliiiiiiiaaaaaaannnnnnnntttllyyaabbbboooouuuuuutttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooowwwwwwooooooonnnnnnnneeeeeeeecccccccoooooooommmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeesssssssshhhhhhhhhhhooooooooommmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeee.......””””””””””
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real terrain covered in The Turk Who Loved Apples can’t be found on any map.” ——AAAAAnnnnddddrrreewwwwZZZZZiimmmmmmeeeerrrnn, JJaammeess BeeaarrddAAwarrdd––wwiiinnnnniiinnnngggghhhooossstt of BBizzaaarrrrrreee FFFFFFFFooooooooooooooddddddddddsssssssssss wwwwiiiitttthhhhhhAAAAAAAnnnnnnnnddddddddrrrrrrreeeeeeeewwwwwwww ZZZZZZZZZiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeerrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnn
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—Eric Weiner, author of the New York Times bestseller The Geography of Bliss t

G t h e T U R K
W HO
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Join former New York Times “Frugal Traveler” Matt Gross as s
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he makes his way . . . L OV E D
• f rom the moped-mad streets of Vietnam to the frigid winter alleys of
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Montreal
A P P L E S
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• f rom an organic apple farm in Turkey to his family’s ancestral village in
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Lithuania

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• from a fl yspeck island in the Caribbean to a sprawling Chinese megacity
AND
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• f rom India’s third-class trains to a ramble along the Mexican border in a
Volvo named Vivian R OTHER
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As Tolkien once put it: “Not all those who wander are lost.” The never-before- TALES
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published material in The Turk Who Loved Apples is about breaking free of the
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constraints of modern travel and letting the place itself guide you. It’s a spirited, witty, H
and always unexpected journey you’ll relish experiencing vicariously—and maybe
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something you’ll even be inspired to try for yourself.

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“ Matt Gross seems to have been everywhere. Any man with the audacity to be bored O
by the Taj Mahal is the kind of independent-thinking traveler I want to spend time
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with. This book made me want to get out and go—to just about anywhere!” E
—Andrew McCarthy, actor and author of the New York Times bestseller D

The Longest Way Home

A
LOSING
Matt Gross has visited at least 60 countries and written nearly 200 stories for the P
New York Times Travel section and magazines such as Saveur, Afar, and New York. P
MY WAY
He is the editor of BonAppetit.com, and a cofounder of DadWagon.com. He lives in L
Brooklyn with his wife, Jean, and daughters, Sasha and Sandy. E AROUND THE WORLD
S
Matt Gross
$15.99 / £10.99 / $18.50 CAN TRAVEL
Da Capo Press Former “Frugal Traveler” for the New York Times
A Member of the Perseus Books Group Cover photograph © Mark Manning/
www.dacapopress.com Iconica/GettyImages
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G t h e T U R K
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Matt Gross
9780306821158-text_Da Capo 5.5 x 8.25 1/29/13 10:11 AM Page i
The Turk
Who Loved Apples
(cid:2)
And Other Tales of
Losing My Way Around the World
Matt Gross
DA CAPO PRESS
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
9780306821158-text_Da Capo 5.5 x 8.25 2/11/13 10:13 AM Page ii
Copyright © 2013 by Matt Gross
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher. Printed in the United States of America. For information, address Da Capo
Press, 44 Farnsworth Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02210.
Designed by Cynthia Young
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gross, Matt.
The Turk who loved apples : and other tales of losing my way
around the world / Matt Gross.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-306-82115-8 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-0-306-82202-5 (e-book)
1. Travel writing. 2. Voyages and travels. I. Title.
G151.G77 2013
910.4—dc23
2012047129
Published by Da Capo Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
www.dacapopress.com
Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by
corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact
the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street,
Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call [phone], ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected].
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
9780306821158-text_Da Capo 5.5 x 8.25 1/29/13 10:11 AM Page iii
For Jean,
who has been patient
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(cid:2)
Contents
Acknowledgments, vii
Introduction, 1
1 Schrödinger’s Boarding Pass:Perpetually
Unprepared—and Totally Comfortable with That—
I Set Off for Vietnam, Tunisia, and Beyond, 11
2 A Model Organism:In Which, Craving Culinary
Adventure, I Eat My Way Across the World and
Figure Out How to Handle the Consequences, 39
3 Wandering Stars:In Which I Deal with the
Inevitability of Loneliness and the Complicated Joys
of Making Friends, 63
4 Poor Me: How I Learned to Travel Frugally and
Got the Best Job in the World—and Why I Gave
It Up, 93
v
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(cid:3)
vi Contents
5 The Best Policy:In Which I Try to Come Up with an
Ethical Response to Developing-World Tragedies
and My Own Role in Perpetuating Them, 137
6 The Orient:On Learning, and Unlearning, How to
Navigate a Messy World, 163
7 Happy Families:How I Faced the Ultimate Horror—
Traveling with My Family—and Survived to Tell
the Tale, 187
8 The Touron’s Lament:On the Differences Between
Tourists and Travelers, and Never Quite Knowing
Whether You’re One or the Other, 221
9 Jiggety-Jog:On Leaving Home, Coming Home,
and Seeking My Proper Place in the World, 247
Index, 273
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Acknowledgments
This book took a while to come together, and it wouldn’t have hap-
pened without the efforts of a number of people whose support and
enthusiasm continue to surprise me. My editors at the New York
Times—Stuart, Mary, Denny, Danielle, Suzanne, Laura, and Dan,
among many others—gave me unimaginable freedom to travel the
world and write about what I discovered. Other editors—Jim and
Dana at Saveur, Jen and Julia at Afar—likewise listened to my ideas
and, astoundingly, allowed me to pursue my obsessions wherever
they took me. Together, the assignments they gave me produced
most of the raw material of this narrative.
Shaping that material into an actual book was a process that
began with my agent, Nat Jacks at Inkwell Management, and evolved
over many discussions (and drinks) with my friends and fellow trav-
elers Mary Ellen Hitt, Justin Barrera, and Peter Jon Lindberg. When
the proposal reached Da Capo Press, Jonathan Crowe and John
Radziewicz were not only excited about its prospects but, after they’d
acquired it, both encouraging and demanding throughout the editing
process. Insightful notes from my friends Mai Hoang and Jeff Booth
also helped the manuscript evolve into its final form.
Throughout the years, I’ve also been able to rely on many friends,
both at home and abroad: Duj, Andrew, Nader, Jaipal, Ian, Park,
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viii Acknowledgments
Wah-Ming, Christine, Seth, Other Seth, Farley, Ted, Nathan, Bo-
nanos, Vincent, Andy, Todd, Tessa, Justin, Yotam, Horia, Lauren,
Ben, Greg, Bradley, Julia, Egil, Erik, Hanh, Tuyen, Chris and Kenny,
Kirk, Robert, Vince, Bonnie, Niki, Regis, Patricia, Miss Thanh,
Dylan, Howard, and X-Quang, to name just a few. Thanks for put-
ting up with me when I was around and not resenting me when I
vanished into overseas silence for months (or years) at a stretch.
My family, obviously, gets a lot of credit for molding me as a
traveler and for giving me a reason—several reasons, in fact—to keep
coming home. And I must also paraphrase my father: my daughters,
Sasha and Sandy, did nothing to aid the writing of this book; in fact,
they delayed its completion. But it was for them that I wrote it in
the first place.
Finally, I need to thank all of the strangers who, despite not
knowing me from Adam, offered help and the hand of friendship
when I needed them most. You give me, and everyone, a reason to
keep exploring.