Q: Some people in Russian travel community consider you a great guru. There was even a rumor that you didn't exist, and all your books were hoaxes. It looks like you are not very happy with such popularity. Why?

A: The whole point of travel for me is doing something no one has done before: going to a place no one has ever been to, seeing things nobody has seen, finding new methods of travel. There are lots of great travelers I respect and admire, but I have no gurus, and don't think it's a good thing to have one. You don't have to discover America, but you have to take some risk and do something new, even if it is just discovering a shorter way from one village to another. Otherwise you are not a traveler, only a tourist. My books were never intended to be "traveler's Bibles" like Lonely Planet's and other guidebooks. I wrote them to show that anybody can get anywhere, all you need is determination, ingenuity, and readiness to shake off stereotypes.

Q: Some people find many of the adventures described in your travel diaries difficult to believe. How accurate are your descriptions?

A: Pretty accurate, at least the ones raising the most questions. But there's a lot of stuff I omitted because I knew nobody would believe it. As soon as you start traveling, your ideas about what is and what isn't possible change a lot.
When Marco Polo published his book, most people in Italy didn't believe any of his accounts. When he was dying, his friends asked him to tell, finally, if there was any truth in his writings. "My friends," he answered, "I didn't describe even half of the things I'd seen."

Q: Why did you start traveling?

A: I wanted to travel since I was a small kid - 3 or 4 years old. By the age of eleven, I'd already explored all forests around Moscow. I think it's a hereditary trait. In every species, some individuals are genetically programmed for exploration, for colonizing new areas, while the majority stays back home to guarantee the survival of the population.

Q: How many countries have you been to?

A: About a hundred.

Q: Which places in the Soviet Union and abroad did you like the most?

A: Depends on what for. The best places to live in are California and the UK. The most interesting country is China. Italy, USA, Peru, Japan and India are also very interesting. Italy has the most beautiful cities; American West, Nepal, Chile and Venezuela have the most beautiful Nature. These countries and also Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Brazil, Madagascar, Japan and Malaysia are very comfortable and easy to travel around. In the former Soviet Union, the most beautiful Nature is at the Kuril Islands, Kamchatka and Pamir, and the only area with really interesting culture is the Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

Q: Have you ever seen UFOs, yetis, or other mysterious things?

A: No. I am very sceptical about cryptozoology and other myths, from psychics to god. I don't even believe in Santa Claus, although there are millions of eyewitnesses.

Q: So you don't believe in afterlife? Aren't you afraid of death?

A: Death itself is not that scary, our fear of it is. There's an old African saying: "A man of courage dies once, a coward dies every day." I don't like the fact that I'll have to die eventually. But if your life was really interesting, death in the end is more tolerable.

Q: How different was what you saw from what you had expected?

A: Very different. Our stereotypes of the people of any given country are usually just the opposite of what they are really like. A more sad discovery - our image of the Tropics as a world of green jungle is outdated by at least a century. Even in South America, you often have to travel for a week to find some relatively undisturbed forest.

Q: How do people react to travelers?

A: Normally, people are friendly everywhere, unless a place is over-touristy. The most hospitable are people in poor areas with traditional lifestyle. But in places frequently visited by Russians, it's better not to tell you are one of them. If you want a really interesting trip, go to one of the countries not recommended by the US State Department - you'll never be disappointed.

Q: What are you more interested in: people or Nature?

A: Nature. It is much more diverse, too.

Q: How do you communicate with people in countries where nobody speaks English, Spanish or Russian?

A: You can say a lot with only 20-50 words of local language. Also, in such places I usually have a pencil at hand, and draw simple cartoons to explain what I'm trying to say, if necessary. It's a lot of fun for both sides. That said, I'm now trying to learn French.

Q: Would you like to settle down in some country eventually?

A: No.

Q: Do people get tired of traveling at some point? Do you think you will?

A: It's individual. My father is 70, but he still travels as much as he can, often to very scary and remote places. Most people grow up and get too lazy, too cautious, or too comfort-dependent to enjoy travel. But I'm sure I'll travel as long as I live, and live only as long as I can travel.

Q: How do you manage to combine traveling, writing, and science?

A: Poorly. Until very recently, I had to make a living by doing other things, not all of them interesting. I had many jobs, from snake hunting to web design, and from pizza delivery to camel driving.

Q: How do you cope with fear? You should be feeling it all the time when you travel in remote places.

A: Why? After a few years of travel, you realize that you can get yourself out of almost any situation. The only scary moment is just before you leave home. If you really want to get somewhere, it would not stop you. People who don't really want to travel usually say that they cannot get enough time, or money, or visas. But nothing can stop you if you are determined enough.

Q: Many travelers complain that their parents worry too much about them. Can you recommend any methods of making one's relatives more calm about their loved one being away from home?

A: Well, your parents will always worry about you. My mother was totally freaked out at first. It took me years of effort to make her more comfortable with my lifestyle. I even took her traveling with me a few times - hitchhiking around Caucasus, for example. It's much easier to hitch a ride when you are accompanied by your mother, by the way.

Q: Is it imperative for a traveler to maintain a healthy lifestyle?

A: It's a matter of personal taste. Of course, if you're a mountaineer, smoking is not a smart thing to do. Vodka-damaged liver will make it difficult for you to explore exotic restaurants, and you won't be allowed in some countries if you have AIDS.

Q: Is Russia the dirtiest place in the World?

A: No. If you mean personal hygiene, the dirtiest places are probably Gaza, Comoros and Northwestern Tibet. If you mean spiritual dirtyness (if there is such a thing), Gaza, Colombia, Kenya and Tanzania are the worst. The environmental situation in the Philippines was the worse I've ever seen.

Q: Why did you move to America?

A: First of all, I was so tired of all the red tape and humiliation you have to go through when you try to get any visas with a Russian passport, I would've traded my Russian citizenship for any high-caste one. Second, North America is a wonderful continent with splendid Nature and good roads. It is also full of very nice and interesting people, but I didn't know that until I actually moved here.

Q: Do you miss Russia?

A: No. I miss my relatives there, and some places such as the Far East. But most of my Russian friends now live elsewhere, and there are countries I miss much more - Peru, for example.

Q: Will you ever come back to Russia?

A: I visit my relatives once every few years, but only when I can't invite them to my place instead for some reason. I've already seen pretty much everything there was to see, and I hate big cities such as Moscow. Except for visiting my family, the only part of a trip to Russia I enjoy is the flight over the Arctic. I don't think I'll ever go there for more than a week, unless my work will absolutely require it.

Q: So, you don't like the idea of patriotism?

A: Depends on what your idea of patriotism is. I am a great patriot of planet Earth, but I don't think anyone should be expected to love his country more than others simply because he happened to be born there. I don't mind taking up arms to protect freedom, but not territorial integrity or other stupid political slogans.

Q: Do you think in English or Russian now?

A: Both, and also in Spanish sometimes. Russian is a relatively outdated language: it is becoming increasingly difficult to think in it about some things, such as science or computers. English is said to have twice as many words as Russian now.

Q: What language do you curse in?

A: I seldom do, and I never know which word would come to mind. It can be in any language, even in Arabic, from which I know only a few words.

Q: Do you have as many friends in USA as you did in Russia?

A: Good friends are very difficult to find, so it takes a lot of time. I think I had only 7-10 in Russia. I got 4-5 more here in seven years, so the rate of aquiring them is the same or higher. With Internet, it doesn't realy matter where you live. I have close friends in Brazil, Chile, Germany, Israel, Madagascar, Pakistan, etc.

Q: Why did you travel alone most of time?

A: I had to. When I lived in Russia, most people thought it was a crazy idea to travel anywhere without an organized group and a KGB representative. Now it is all very different: if you're looking for someone to hitchhike from Moscow to Cape Town together, all you have to do is post an ad at www.bpclub.ru. Recently I have another problem: with most people I inevitably feel like a guide taking care of a client.

Q: Is it better to travel alone or with friends?

A: It is better with one or two reliable friends than alone. It is better and much more safe to travel alone than with someone you don't know well enough. If you are planning to take someone in a rowboat across the Atlantic, you better start with a shorter trip together. In a week-long trip to a nearby forest, you'll come to know a person better than in a year of working in the same office.

Q: What are your future plans?

A: There are some places I'd like to visit as soon as possible: Indonesia, West Africa. The rate of environmental destruction is so high there, that in a few more years there won't be much left to see. I'd also like to see all interesting places in the Americas I haven't see yet in the next few years, so that I can move to some other continent.

Q: What do you like more: North or South?

A: The Tropics. But I also like the Polar regions, and try to visit the Arctic or the Antarctic at least once a year.

Q: Your travel diaries are full of encounters with rare animals, some of them almost never seen by other naturalists. Is it just good luck?

A: Sometimes, but also experience and knowledge. Finding rare animals in the wild is an art as much as a science. There are many books written on the subject, and it takes many years of experience. For example, it took me about ten years to become able to tell small rodents from lizards by the sound they make in the leaf litter. It took me twenty years to reach the point when I could find more species of small mammals visually than by trapping. And there are still many people who are much better than I am at, say, snow tracking, or birding by ear, or finding rare insects.

Q: What are the ten things you like the most?

A: Well, something like that, not in any particular order:
1. Travel (preferably to a completely new geographical area for a few months).
2. Watching wildlife, particularly rare and little-known. Domestic cats also qualify to some extent.
3. Good sex.
4. Early fall and early spring, particularly in the Far North.
5. Evenings and early mornings, particularly in the mountains.
6. Moonlit nights, particularly in the rainforest or at sea.
7. A good book and a nice garden to read it in (or a chair and a woodstove in rainy days).
8. Simple food.
9. Quiet parties with only close friends present.
10. Living in a free, diverse, and morally relaxed country, including the process of making my country a such.

Q: What are the ten things you dislike the most?

A: Well,
1. Staying at the same place for more than a month (unless it's outstandingly interesting).
2. Organized activities, from guided tours to army service.
3. Luxury as lifestyle.
4. Professional bullshit sellers, such as clergy, communists, fascists, populist politicians, and current (April 2004) US president.
5. Having nothing to do for more than 10 seconds, particularly in stressful situations.
6. Big cities, particularly with recent architecture, and clearcuts in general.
7. Customs, traditions, and ideas maintained entirely for fear of change.
8. Hateful people.
9. Sports and other mindless activities, including getting high.
10. Religions, commercials and other idiot-oriented mass culture.

Q: Do you envy somebody?

A: Not really, except for people who have skills or knowledge I'll never have time to obtain. People who can speak Chinese, for example, or play musical instruments.

Q: Speaking of music, what are your favorite sounds?

A: AУoustic guitar, sounds of rain, surf, and wind. My favorite bird song is that of blackcap.

Q: You had more than a usual share of adventures in your life. What was the best and the worst thing to ever happen to you?

A: The best thing was being born. The worst thing was wasting ten years of my life in school. If I ever have children, particularly a son, I'd seriously consider teaching them (him?) at home. Assuming, of course, that he will be as badly suited for school as I was.

Q: Are you a happy person?

A: Yes, absolutely.