What are the motifs in Travels by Michael Crichton?

Foreign cultures are a recurring idea. From a young age, Crichton seemed to be highly fascinated with foreign cultures. In some cases, the more removed the culture was from the life of an American, the better. Crichton traveled around the world, to some of the remotest parts, to find these cultures and to experience the differences in traditions and ways of living. Sometimes the experiences were pleasant, other times they were not.