World

I was a third of the way through my trek around the edgeof Mongolia, filming the expedition myself. WithKhurmet, an expert herdsman, I’d reached Ulgii in theAltai Mountains just in time for a festival.... But in onlyfour days, all three of my original horses and TC thestrongest camel, had been bitten to death by bloodsuckingflies. I needed a break. I’d been travelling since the middleof June. It was now mid-July.Allen and Khurmet decided to rest at a village calledDayan Nuur and stay with a herder Allen had met duringthe Winter. What was initially striking about this film,compared to any of the other destinations covered wasthe isolated setting among the Altai Mountains. For thefirst time, the presenter was the only tourist, surroundedby local villagers. He lived in the herder’s family tent. Theherder introduced his teenage niece, who’s learningEnglish at school. She explained that they are celebratingan annual festival of horses, and that the various adultspresent are related to her. Allen commented here on thewarmth of the welcome he received from the villagers:What a tonic this is -suddenly to be included as a strangeramongst such a tight community.At the point of moving on from Dayan Nuur, he againexpressed his gratitude to the local people:The stay with the family gave me the strength to lookforward, not back.With a new team of horses and camels, Allen andKhurmit approached the edge of the Gobi desert. Thepresenter maintains his original plan of crossing theGobi Desert alone. The two men share a bottle of vodkain what Allen describes as the ‘last supper’:Life’s not going to be the same without Khurmet. We’vebeen virtually married for the last three months, sleepingside by side.As he says goodbye to his companion, he asked thetranslator to thank him for he has ‘done so much forhim.’ The Edge of Blue Heaven stood in marked contrast tothe holiday shows in the sample, which rarely coveredactivities, exchanges or relationships which were outsidetourist zones. The most striking difference with BenedictAllen’s experience was the level of intimacy he enjoyedwith Mongolian villagers. He felt privileged to beincluded as the only outsider in a festival and a weddingin Dayan Nuur. The Edge of Blue Heaven provided a furthercontrast with mainstream holiday programmes. It was ina way the opposite of programmes which emphasiseconsumption. By following his own personal odyssey,Allen gave an idiosyncratic portrait of travelling acrossMongolia. There was little in the way of backgroundinformation on Mongolian society, culture or politics.On BBC2, The Rough Guide series fits somewherebetween mainstream holiday programmes and the kindof personal odyssey encountered in the The Edge of BlueHeaven. Unlike the latter programme, The Rough Guide isa series which aims to provide information to potentialvisitors to the country covered. However, in terms offormat, the focus on one destination with two regularpresenters during a half hour programme allows forgreater depth of discussion than with most holidayshows. The presenters, Edith Bowman and DimitriDoganis also talk to ordinary people on their travels,unlike most holiday shows.The Rough Guide to Bolivia was the relevantdestination in the sample period. Interestingly, it coversa country in the continent which was not visited by theholiday shows, South America. Early in the programme,Doganis stops at a stall selling magic charms, and asksthe vendor in Spanish about them. This was the onlyoccasion, apart from the occasional ‘buenos dias’ in themainstream programmes, when a presenter attemptedthe local language. It also deals with areas which werelargely ignored by holiday programmes: colonialism,history, industry, economics and contemporary politics.This contrasts with the glossy, more superficialmagazine format of the majority of holiday programmes,where the agenda is dominated by maximising the gainsthe tourist can obtain from their trip.The presenters explained that Bolivia has experiencedmany coups and wars since it declared its independencefrom Spain. They comment on the legacy of colonialism:The skyline may be modern but Bolivia is regarded as oneof the most traditional Indian of South Americancountries. Pure Amerindians make up more than half ofthe population. Despite this, indigenous people weretreated as property by the land-owning elite until 1952.Yet there are very few Bolivian families that don’t havesome Indian blood.And later in the programme:La Paz is the administrative capital: Sucre the legalcapital – that’s where independence was first declared.(They cross the bridge to Potosi). Potosi was once thebiggest city in the world. it was also so rich that theSpanish would describe something valuable as beingworth a potosi.Visiting a mine at Potosi, the presenters commentthat by the middle of the nineteenth century, the silverfrom the mine was exhausted. Currently, the miners digfor less valuable minerals – zinc, tin, copper and leadDFID – July 2000 103