The Best American Travel Writing 2013 (34 page)

Bali Belly and the Zombie Apocalypse.
World Hum
, May 17.

T
ONI
M
IROSEVICH

The Deposit.
Bellevue Literary Review
, Fall.

J
ASON
M
OTLAGH

Irrawaddy.
Virginia Quarterly Review
, vol. 88, no. 3 (Summer).

C
HRIS
N
ORRIS

The Real World.
Travel + Leisure
, February.

L
AWRENCE
O
SBORNE

Tourist-Free Thailand.
Afar
, June.

S
TEPHANIE
P
EARSON

The Undisputed King of Dogsled Tourism.
Outside
, January.

B
ASHARAT
P
EER

Modern Mecca.
The New Yorker
, April 16.

J
ULIA
P
HILLIPS

Twilight on the Tundra.
The Morning News
, November 27.

W
ILLIAM
P
OWERS

Finding the Perfect Wave in Liberia,
The Atlantic
, July/August.

T
OM
P
RESTON

Where Everybody Knows Your Name.
Vanity Fair
, March.

E
MILY
R
ABOTEAU

The Throne of Zion,
The Believer
, October.

A
MY
S
ERAFIN

Oyster Safari.
The Smart Set
, December 14.

G
RETA
S
CHULER

Empty Boxes.
Chattahoochee Review
, vol. 32, no. 1.

G
ARY
S
HTEYNGART

Hungry for Madrid.
Travel + Leisure
, May.

A
ARON
L
AKE
S
MITH

Death of the American Hobo.
Vice
, vol. 19, no. 10 (October).

C
HRISTOPHER
S
OLOMON

Grand Slammed.
Outside
, July.

I
LAN
S
TAVANS AND
J
OSHUA
E
LLISON

Reclaiming Travel.
Opinionator
, July 7.

J
OHN
J
EREMIAH
S
ULLIVAN

Where Hope and History Don’t Rhyme.
The New York Times Magazine
, February 12.

P
ATRICK
S
YMMES

The Beautiful Game.
Outside
, October.

N
ATHAN
T
HORNBURGH

Something Wicked This Way Larps.
Roads & Kingdoms
, July 19.

G
UY
T
REBAY

Mysteries of Milan.
Travel + Leisure
, February.

C
ALVIN
T
RILLIN

Land of the Seven Moles.
The New Yorker
, December 3.

J
ASON
W
ILSON

Food for Thought.
The Washington Post Magazine
, September 16.

E
LLIOTT
D. W
OODS

The Last Happy Skull.
Virginia Quarterly Review
, vol. 88, no. 3 (Summer).

E
LIZABETH
G
ILBERT
, editor, is the author of four books, has been a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and has had pieces published in
Spin, GQ
, and the
New York Times Magazine
. She is best known for her memoir,
Eat, Pray, Love
, which chronicles her travels around the world. Her latest novel is
The Signature of All Things
.

1 Research shows Dan is not a reputable source. People have died as recently as 2009.

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***

2 The faith healer’s surname is sometimes spelled “Mwasipile” or “Masapila,” sometimes in the same article. “Mwasapila” is the most common spelling and conforms to the most common pronunciation, although the
w
is quite subtle.

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***

3 The common word for these payments is
chai
, which, of course, literally means “tea.” The same word can mean either a small bribe or a legitimate tip one might offer a waitress, driver, or bellhop. The use of
chai
could be a way for officials or police to have deniability (“I was just asking for something to drink!”), or it may reflect the attitude that rather than extorting the payee, the official is actually performing an extra service, helping the payee out of an administrative jam he has created by having the wrong papers or a broken taillight.

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***

4 The CD4 count is one of several metrics used to measure the progress of HIV. The metric is literally the number of a certain type of white blood cells per cubic millimeter of blood. A CD4 count of 500 or higher is considered normal. Counts under 500 indicate HIV infection. Counts under 200 indicate AIDS. The World Health Organization recommends ARV therapy for anybody with a CD4 below 350, but Tanzania does not provide ARVs to patients unless their CD4 is 200 or less, possibly due to a shortage of ARVs.

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***

5 Conventional wisdom among expatriate tour operators, researchers, and NGO workers in Tanzania holds that it’s almost impossible to find a government official in his or her office, since they travel as often as possible. The government salaries are relatively low, but the per diem rate is generous, and most officials can find food and lodging for about $15 a day, pocketing the balance, which allows them to double or triple their salary. The practice may be infuriating, but it is considered aboveboard.

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***

6 I later learn that an herbal medicine company has done exactly this over the summer, marketing a “
mugariga
extract.”

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***

7 A placebo effect has never been shown to have a long-term impact on diabetes, but Dr. Tor Wager, an expert in placebo effects, wrote this to me in a private letter: “Sensory cues can generate an insulin response, but only (as far as I know) after conditioning: i.e., when you sit down to dinner, the associated cues cause insulin release. This is probably less related to conscious belief than it is to low-level learning in your brain, but nobody really knows whether beliefs in a one-time cure could affect insulin levels.”

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