Sometimes travel doesn't go according to plan - but that's what gives you best stories! Around the world, these Lonely Planet writers encounter hurricanes, road accidents, secret police and nasty parasites - among other aspects of life onthe dark side of the road.
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October 4, 1999
This collection of 26 first-person essays by Lonely Planet writers includes tales that describe, in mostly self-effacing detail, the horrors and embarrassments that can befall even the most seasoned travelers. Getting into his car after a soul-cleansing hike in "Walking the Mount Kailash Circuit," Wheeler, founder of Lonely Planet Publications, is startled when a drunk Tibetan repeatedly slams his head against the car windshield. In her Kafkaesque tale of her detention in a police station in Mirny, a desolate Siberian city, Suzanne Possehl writes: "I tell him I write for Lonely Planet; he looks at me like I'm from another planet." Andrew Draffen details in "The Local Cure" how he survived a case of Bicho Geographico, a parasite he picked up while walking (stoned) along a beach in Trancoso, in the northeast section of Brazil. He turned to native bartender Ulysses, who recommended a natural way to stop the parasite from burrowing too far into the travel writer's skin. The remedy? Draffen tied a huge block of ice to his foot and drank caiupirinhas till he was too soused to worry; eventually, the parasite froze "estupidamente gelada (stupidly cold)." Readers wanting a real look at what it's like to work in one of the most seemingly glamorous professions will find a wide variety of insider information and confessions of na vet and helplessness experienced in remote parts of the world.
October 15, 1999
Ever since self-publishing their first travel guide (Asia on the Cheap), the folks at Lonely Planet have produced over 350 titles--travel guides, walking guides, language guides, and travel atlases for independent travelers. There are now over 80 Lonely Planet authors in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. This most recent installment is meant to be a humorous compilation of travel disasters, mainly in Third World countries but also in Europe and North America. If your clientele like stories about car and motorcycle crashes, kayak drownings, trips and falls, scabies infestations, and more car crashes, then you should consider this title. While some of the stories are amusing, many merely make a mountain out of a mole hill. Although Lonely Planet travel guides can be useful additions to library collections, this title should be considered only for the most comprehensive ones.--Thomas K. Fry, Univ. of Denver, Penrose Lib.
Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.