Travel disaster stories were promised but the only disaster were the stories…

Since I stumbled upon “Kamikaze Kangaroos!” by Tony James Slater several years ago, I sometimes like to read travel memoirs - especially when there’s disaster involved!

By now, I’ve read all of Tony’s books (and those of many other travellers!) and it seemed a logical next step to take a famous travel guide’s collection of supposedly funny travel stories…

Sadly, the promised “disaster stories” here are mostly of the following variety...

“Look, I did this and this is why: (long-winded explanations)”
“I could have died from that long walk, the road traffic, my inability to overcome inertia, (blah blah)!”
“And, lo and behold, I dangerously sprained my ankle!”

This is neither very entertaining nor does it make for a good read which is why I’m abandoning this for good.

One star out of five.

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Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam ( )

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
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. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Ever since self-publishing their first travel guide (Asia on the Cheap), the folks at Lonely Planet have produced over 350 titlesAtravel 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.AThomas K. Fry, Univ. of Denver, Penrose Lib.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Yeah, yeah, your flight was delayed, and the onboard meal, once your plane finally got off, was crummy. Big deal. You want to hear about big-time travel horror stories? Read the essay-anecdotes offered here by 26 writers who contribute to Lonely Planet's travel guides, including Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler. In his piece "Walking the Mount Kailash Circuit," Wheeler remembers an incident while trekking in Tibet, when his group was attacked by a gone-crazy-with-drink, head-butting man. Dani Valent, in "Crash," recalls a could-have-been-fatal car crash in "rough-as-guts" outback Australia. And Miles Roddis, in a tale that is revealingly titled "The First Hour of the First Day of My First Assignment for Lonely Planet," finds, when he gets to Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, his hotel in ruins, the "victim" of an overactive army needing things to shoot at. So don't complain about being bumped from one flight to the next. Nobody's listening to your lame story! Brad Hooper

Review
that inescapable sense that the world contains possibilities you can never anticipate, magic and mysteries you'll never understand' -- Salon.com

There were a few good stories but overall it was not very entertaining. ( )

Loved it! Great stuff from the Lonely Planet team ( )

This is a collection of stories billed as "travel disasters" and written by the folks who write or edit the Lonely Planet guides. I dived into this fully expecting some really funny but harrowing tales (well, only expecting funny because the authors clearly survived their disasters to later write about them) but found the comedy I was expecting to be sorely lacking. And for me, the non-lover of short stories, simply reading short essays about travel going wrong written with the literary equivalent of a straight face was not all that satisfying. The disasters ranged from a remotely occuring car accident to being robbed while in a foreign country and surrounded by unhelpful officials and they occurred all over the world, proving that there is no such thing as a disaster-proof trip. I suspect that these writers are very good at the travel writing they do for the Lonely Planet Guides, and none of the essays here were poorly written, but this collection left me disappointed. Personally I find that levity helps in the re-telling of any and all disaster situations and would definitely have helped here. So this wasn't my cup of tea but perhaps other armchair travelers will have a better experience. ( )