"The I’m-Not-Ugly American
By ANN HULBERT
Published: September 3, 2006
Going through passport control on our return from a recent two-week trip to Istanbul and the Turkish coast, my family and I faced the routine question, “And what was the purpose of your travels?” Asked at the start, I might well have answered “personal diplomacy” instead of “vacation.” In an era plagued by anti-Americanism — and by terrorism alerts and battles in the Middle East, not to mention bird flu — summer travel abroad, especially to a Muslim country, has acquired an aura of more than mere tourism. Sun and fun were in store, of course, yet as we packed, we weren’t feeling like carefree sightseers exactly."
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