Thanks to all for the kind words!
Originally Posted by
SQTraveller
Maybe I'm the only one who finds Mark Wiens incredibly annoying and uninformative. I used to watch his videos until it occurred to me that he almost never had anything bad to say about anywhere he goes or experiences. He seems to find everything great. The food is great. The location is great. I went to several places he really recommended in Bangkok, and found them to be a let down.
It's impossible to tell anything of relative value if everything is good or great.
You're not alone. I had never heard of him until this thread; I watched some of his videos and also didn't care for him. His schtick suffers from the same problem that I have with most travel bloggers, travel "journalists," etc. These folks are trying to make a living out of "travel" and almost always tell you that everything is so great and amazing and perfect. The goal is to make themselves seem cool and special so you're envious of them and keep coming back for more. Their incentive is to get clicks and make money, not to actually help you plan a good trip. This is why I find real travelers' trip reports on FlyerTalk (and other message boards) to be far more useful than the "professional" stuff.