Product Description

This is not your grandfather's, or even your father's, idea of a travel book. It is, in fact, the most unlikely travel itinerary you'll probably ever read. Some of the destinations in these pages have rarely, if ever, made it to those high-gloss volumes of global travel literature. And for a good -- or at least logical -- reason: most people in so-called 'advanced' countries looking for 'exotic' locales to spend time in, normally wouldn't want to go here. These are places that we might consider deep in poverty and hopelessness, where civil wars rage, where dictators confiscate land for their own use, where babies starve, and where travel itself is crimped by men in battle fatigues and carrying automatic rifles. On roads paved and unpaved leading to the four corners of the globe, the ones in the Third World are the very least traveled. Where the scent of stability and higher living standards can be whiffed, and tour-guided safaris through safely-made 'wild' jungles and nature preserves can be offered for a pretty price, that is when the roads begin to get crowded. This book, then, is testament to the folly of those stereotypical Third World incursions, and the fiction inherent in their premise. It also highlights real danger, moments when less luck or less wise on-the-spot decisions might have been life threatening. However, this is an occupational hazard for any hardy world traveler with a yen to veer off the well-beaten path. Traveling light in the pocketbook, in fact, is one of the rules of this book -- the reason being that you don't want to stand out and become a target, especially in the Third World. Being Western looking enough as it is, you don't need a sign around the neck reading: "Free money for everybody, right here."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308842 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-19
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 308 pages

Customer Reviews

Almost like being there
So, I was in Old Town, San Diego, just minding my own business, you see, when this tall, gregarious, self-confident guy strolled toward me with a book in his hand. I knew he was going to try and sell it to me. And I am very glad he did. Christopher Blin writes just the way he presented himself that day -- easy going, straightforward, light-hearted, but confident and determined.

Before I bought the book, I was thinking, "Okay, how can I politely get out of this? Maybe my wife and daughter will finish their shopping quickly." But it turned out that the subject matter of the book is something that interests me, which is traveling the world, especially Africa. Occasionally I'll visit LonelyPlanet.com just to see if the world has gotten any less hostile, so I can go. But I probably never will.

Luckily for me, Blin has gone, and he's visited many places. Along the way he made friends, and helped others, and always left a little part of himself to try and improve the lives of those he met. He writes about his travels in such a way that you feel you're with him. In fact, now that I know him better by his writing, I'd like to go back to Old Town and sit and talk with him for a while, but that was a few weeks ago and he's no doubt moved on by now.

If you have any wanderlust in you at all, or just enjoy reading about someone who does, I think you'll enjoy this book.