Unpacked: An Anthology of Lonely Planet Disaster Stories (Lonely Planet Journeys) Book

Lonely Planet have a reputation for savvy writers--travellers who get the real story on the places they visit, who don't take payments from hotel bosses and travel bureaux, who go to superhuman lengths to find the authentic experience. But even they occasionally get lost, ill or simply stopped in their tracks. Drawing on the wealth of these writers, Lonely Planet Unpacked is a collection of real-life travellers' tales from hell.Lonely Planet writers travel further and faster than most and they don't give up when the going gets tough. In "Three spies in a diamond tub" Suzanne Possehl is trailed then arrested in Mirny, a remote Siberian city. Andrew Draffen agrees to undergo a grim local cure to remove a parasite in Rio. Admirably, the contributors rarely complain, instead turning sour experience into illuminating prose. Most interesting is the glimpse these tales offer into the life of the Lonely Planet travel writer. Alone in Vietnam, Daniel Robinson is less concerned for his own safety than for the safety of his voluminous notes for the first edition of a travel guide, which represented "many weeks of 16-hour days." Pat Yale writes about physical and emotional pain of fleeting love on the road. If you crave the glamour of the travel writer's life, think again. --Tamsin ToddRead More