I wonder if it was more effective in his era, late 19th century? Leisure travel wasn’t as much of a thing then, especially to other countries/continents, and the tourism industry didn’t exist nearly as much

[–] dessalines@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 days ago

Definitely, when the traveling time alone is anywhere from a week to a month or more, with lots of required stops, then it makes sense to spend a long time in a place.

Looks like it took Bertrand Russell 6 weeks to get from England to Shanghai in 1920.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It was around this time that a white guy adopted the clothing of an Arab country and passed himself off as an Arab to learn more about a country (Syria, I think?). I learned about him in the intro to an episode of the Fall of Civilizations podcast. Travel was definitely different then.

I think it was ep 15, about the Nabataeans.

Edit: the Nabataeans were in modern Jordan.

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I read it was some guy.