Death not only attracts numerous travelers; it also unites like-minded people all over the world. The logo of the most popular meeting place for these »dark« tourists¹ is a skull wearing a baseball cap; the locale itself is named after a US underground band of the 1980s: »Black Flag Café.« Unlike what you might expect, this is not a sinister dive in Mogadishu or in the slums of São Paulo, but a homepage on the Internet.² On mailing lists and forums there, people share the latest news on impassable terrain, politically unstable zones, and tips on how to travel to a crisis region.³ In this virtual contact zone, a veritable global network of travelers has come together that has long since matured into a movement to be taken seriously, with all that implies. There are t-shirts that, like merchandise sold for rock bands, can be printed on the back with all the key data for the wearer’s personal crisis zone itinerary, and there are books as well.

Robert Young Pelton is something like a god as well as a father figure in this realm. Founder of the Black Flag Café, he has done a great deal of writing and is regarded as a paragon of the sub-culture associated with this place – a culture that straddles a very thin line between the quest for an adrenaline rush and the desire to educate and inform. Who, if not risk-taking adventurers like Pelton, could ensure with their travels that the world has access to alternative, perhaps even more authentic, information on the thinking and current state of regions that are generally marked as taboo zones? The daring pioneer work has its price: kidnappings, accidents, imprisonment, gunshot wounds, airplane crashes, attacks, poisonings, etc. Pelton has experienced and survived it all.

When his release from being held captive by a guerilla group in Colombia or his return from Chechnya make the news, postings to the café’s digital forum come thick and fast. Even before he himself pops up in the virtual community again, the other members start jumping with joy: »Whatever RYP may be, he’s a survivor!« wrote one visitor to the Black Flag Café, pinpointing in his posting Pelton’s occupation, or, better, his vocation – it’s not without good reason that his slogan is »Come back alive!« – which is also the common denominator among Pelton’s devotees as well as the leitmotif of his best-known book »The World’s Most Dangerous Places«.⁴
Dangerous regions are presented here in detail from an insider’s vantage point. The pragmatic focus of the book is how to prepare for and go on a trip, along with instructions on the art of coming back alive. The British »Times Magazine« describes »Dangerous Places« – as the publication is known succinctly in the community – as an incomparable travel guide that combines background reports with practical tips.⁵ A US military officer instead characterized the book as a mixture of »Soldier of Fortune Magazine« and »National Geographic«: the only really good source of »unclassified Secret Service intelligence.«⁶ Even Green Berets supposedly reach for the guide as the only place to find unfiltered background information about a country such as Afghanistan.

And women over fifty are allegedly likewise avid readers of »Dangerous Places.« According to Pelton, they represent a large share of his customers. »Women over fifty are smart enough to buy a book with security tips before they travel to a remote region,« »Times Magazine« quotes him as saying. »But they are also not uninvolved in what’s happening there: they want to know what’s going on. In principle, everyone who is interested in world politics should buy ›Dangerous Places‹.«⁷

The idea of compiling his travel experiences in guide form came to Pelton as he was about to quit his marketing job. In 1993 he decided to buy the »Fielding’s« travel publishing house and then immediately overhauled it. He not only added further titles to the existing product line, he also renewed it from the ground up with publications reflecting his own personal area of interest.

In 1995 Pelton published »Borneo,« a book about »one of the last wild places,« as well as the first edition of »Dangerous Places,« which promptly became a surprise best-seller and by now has gone through several editions. He is able to continually update the titles on the publishing house’s list thanks to the new information on the relevant regions that constantly pours in from his readers.

The Black Flag Café serves as a collecting point for such information. While Robert Young Pelton originally stood at the counter himself, he has since found a congenial successor in Erik Solomonson (»He has been to Haiti twice and lived in the Balkans [Bulgaria] for parts of 1993 and 1994,« it says on the website by way of introduction). Solomonson comes into contact in the café with both young students and seasoned adrenaline tourists who display the customary urge to communicate on the site that is familiar from Web 2.0. While this accumulated intelligence makes the Black Flag Café a unique place on the World Wide Web, it is also an indispensable basis for the »Dangerous Places« guide. After all, it’s the semblance of collective authorship that keeps the transnational community concept alive and makes »Dangerous Places« seem equivalent to a movement like »Lonely Planet.« The historical status of »Dangerous Places« can surely be compared with the first edition of »Lonely Planet,« which opened a gateway to another world for what was then quite a modest-sized group of adventurous but above all culturally open-minded backpackers. Whether or not »Dangerous Places« will bring about a comparable mass-culture revolution in individual tourism remains to be seen.

 

Translated by Jennifer Taylor-Gaida

 

---