The Travelling Ape by Michael MacKay Richards

Only about 400 people have ever travelled to more than 150 of the world’s 190 or so countries. The Travelling Ape, Michael MacKay Richards, is one of that select group. He has reflected on those experiences and written a book that is, by turns funny, shocking, sad, and always thought provoking.

The contents

This book is in four parts. The approach he takes throughout is to look at his experiences in a range of countries, blending anecdotes with insights as he develops his arguments. The anecdotes come from countries on every continent with the exception of Antarctica, and are never less than fascinating. He is engaging and very honest about his failings, frequently using these failings as the excuse for a very funny story. He is also quite happy to call out his fellow Westerners, not to mention the occasional local, but he does so with a lightness of touch that causes no real discomfort in the majority of cases.

Part 1 is a reflection on why we travel that covers psychology, anthropology, philosophy and history. He considers the effect of travel on our creativity, our perception of time, population growth, the majesty of big cities and the way that travel makes people better disposed to their fellow human beings. As with other parts of the book I found his arguments interesting but by no means agreed with all of them. Part 2 about the positive view he holds of humanity is definitely not one I instinctively share but I gave them due consideration and found myself wondering whether my world view was too pessimistic. The last chapter in Part 2 looks at religion and, suffice to say, he is not a fan of the central premise let alone the effect that he sees it as having had on human thought and their treatment of others. If you are religious you may find this chapter quite difficult, but I urge you to give it time and reflect on his viewpoints. I found a number of the elements of this whole section extremely eye opening and they certainly gave me cause to reconsider some ideas. This isn’t to say that I was converted, but I definitely decided to be more flexible in my attitude towards other people after reading this section.

Part 3 moves from the personal to the political with a very interesting take on capitalism, democracy and their competing models. His visit to North Korea was one the most unsettling parts of the entire book. Indeed, it was one of the most unsettling parts of any book I have read in ages. You are left in no doubt as to the appalling effect of the dictatorship, and here The Travelling Ape uses his day job as a political and economic researcher to excellent effect as he lays bare the way that partition has sent the North of the continent into permanent decline and the South into almost permanent growth. His argument that capitalism and democracy are better than any other system, despite the flaws that he lays out in detail, is pretty much case closed as far as I was concerned, and I am no great fan of the modern version of the economic model. Part 4 becomes much more personal as he looks at happiness and how people in the West are arguably less happy than we should be. It isn’t a hectoring chapter telling us that we should be happier, more a chapter examining the disconnect between our situation and our perception of that situation. He uses his travelling experiences to typically interesting effect as he develops his arguments and counter arguments. Finally, he takes the reader through seven key changes he made to his life to help him feel happier. I can see three of these perhaps working for me on the basis that the other four will be pretty much incompatible with my basic nature! That said, even those four make sense. It is the perfect end to a book that never allows the reader to disengage their brain.

Final Reflections

As someone who has lived abroad I always thought this book would be for me and it was, but not in the way I expected. It challenged what I now see as my increasing parochialism where the travel bug that I had seems to have left me behind. It asked me questions, sometimes uncomfortable questions, about my attitudes to people, countries and life in general. Finally, it told me that when energy and opportunity combine I really need to get back out there. It is truly a book that can change your outlook if you let it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Find out more at https://thetravellingape.com/