This isn't the official State Department tour. Kaplan has a Pulitzer nomination for his best-selling Balkan Ghosts , an excursion through the former Yugoslavia , and is a regular contributor to several national magazines including the Atlantic Monthly . All face similar problems from environmental destruction to overpopulation, and most have governments so corrupt they make even Mexico look pretty good.
Many places seem hopeless.
But just when the highly descriptive Kaplan has you ready to give up, he finds a place running counter to the trends. There's a wonderful interlude in a reforestation area in India called the Rishi Valley, a glorious place we in the West know little about. Kaplan travels light, and not very fancy. And he doesn't stay in the nice hotels. Some of these countries don't have any nice hotels.