Morton has a lovely, evocative turn of phrase-- some of his images have stayed with me for ages, and he manages to be warm and interested in people and places. I... well, it's been a long time since I've read his books, but he's Quite Christian (some of his books retrace the steps of Jesus and St Paul). I don't exactly remember if his racism-of-the-times included anti-Semitism-of-the-times -- but if you want to avoid the Money Grubbing Jew at all costs, it might be better to choose someone a little more contemporary.

I like Wilfred Thesiger's travel writing, which is shades of TE Lawrence in both its love of the desert and its love of handsome young men. He's all very, "Let the beautiful noble people of the desert stay as they are, and never have cars or roads and the evil trappings of modernity!", but his writing is beautiful.

Maybe I would recommend you Jonathan Raban ('Arabia' and 'Soft City', and he wrote some lovely pieces about California in some online magazine somewhere). He used to be a travel writer, before he moved into the sort of politically-conscious fiction he does now. I remember also liking Tahir Shah, who writes sort of drugged-out surreal travel adventure stuff ('House of the Tiger King', 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'), but I recommended him to one of my flatmates who pronounced him 'unreadable', so I guess he's not for everyone.