Around the World in 50 Years: My Adventure to Every Country on Earth

362 Pages·2015·4.5 MB·English

by  Albert Podell

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Table of Contents
About the Author
Copyright Page

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To
my beloved mother and father,
may they rest in peace,
and may they forgive me
for having assured them
that this journey was
“nothing to worry about.”
We will either find a way, or make one.
—HANNIBAL
I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast
and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight
amid the mountains.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Walden Yes, Al, there is a certain publicity
value to your being killed on this quest, but most publishers want a
living author who can do TV and press interviews, so, on balance, it’s
a bit better to stay alive. If you can.
—TONY OUTHWAITE, LITERARY AGENT
One of the many spectacular rock formations in the desert of Saudi Arabia near Al-Ula, north of Jeddah.
After Saudi Arabia stopped issuing visas to tourists several years ago, I was able to slip in as part of an
archaeological group.
FOREWORD
Harold Stephens
This is the best adventure/travel book written in this young century.
It’s a robust, rugged, insightful, humorous, raunchy, wise, thrilling, intensely
readable saga of how my favorite travel buddy, Albert Podell, overcame
tremendous odds and hardships to achieve an almost-impossible dream of
visiting every country on earth.
This book has it all—adventures, disasters, survival, victories, wit, wisdom,
intriguing facts, fascinating figures, perceptive observations, graphic
descriptions, history, geography, culture, politics, revolution, war, intrigue, spies,
sin, sex, snakes, and sharks, all conveyed in a smooth, engaging, page-turning
style that makes you feel that you are right there beside Al as he gets into one
jam after another. And out.
Around the World in 50 Years memorializes, and takes us along on, a unique
human achievement. To my knowledge, there is no other book by, or about,
anyone, living or dead, who achieved this remarkable feat of perseverance,
resourcefulness, and quiet courage.
It is not a travel guide, yet there is much that Al did from which a traveler
could take guidance. Nor is it a book of traditional explorations or corny claims;
Al did not go to any place “where no man has ever gone before,” but he went
everywhere with a brave heart, clear eyes, and an inquiring mind that made
astute observations and discerned remarkable relationships, all told in a bright,
vigorous, and eminently enjoyable style.
Al’s travels required 102 separate journeys that encompassed more than 50
years and close to a million arduous miles. He highlights the major troubles,
accidents, wars, breakdowns, robberies, problems, hassles, dangers, detours,
misunderstandings, nut cases, and whack jobs he needed to overcome to survive
to 196 countries. It describes only those travels and events that were particularly
adventurous or engrossing and only those countries that were exotic or far from
the tourist track, like Nauru and Lesotho, Benin and Tuvalu, Palau and East
Timor, Saudi Arabia and Guinea, North Korea and Somalia, Congo and Rwanda
and Yemen.
This fact-packed book is loaded with fascinating encounters with voodoo
sacrifice rituals, king tides, tiger sharks, fruit-bat pie, the Ghost Fleet of Truk
Lagoon, Cuban counterintelligence agents, Havana hookers, killer hippos,
Zambezi River rafting, Kalahari sandboarding, primitive bungee jumping,
bizarre foods, the New Guinea Wigmen, camel caravans, the slave trade, lovable
lemurs, swimming with penguins, Islamic politics, the drowning nation, the
Lord’s Resistance Army, how to greet a gorilla, hunting with nomads, Pure
Blonde Naked Pale Ale, and much, much, much more, all recounted in a fresh,
funny, and exuberantly rollicking manner.
Although primarily an adventure tale, it provides a special background for
understanding today’s world and its dangers, splendors, animosities, oddities,
politics, problems, and people.
Al would be the first to admit that this is not a tale of exceptional heroism,
because the many dangerous situations and hair-raising adventures in which he
found himself did not spring from purposeful attempts to put himself in harm’s
way, but were simply the result of ordinary ill luck, inadvertence, misplaced
trust, foolish notions of invincibility, or just the way the cookie crumbled. Nor is
it a book of miracles, because Al paid a high price for his many misadventures in
injuries, illnesses, expenses, and girlfriends who gave up waiting for him to
finish.
It’s a book about the dedication, persistence, and indomitable will of a guy
who spent a good part of his life pursuing his goal on ancient Third World
airplanes; leaky, overloaded foreign ferries; and broken-down, jam-packed bush
taxis driven on rutted roads at 100 mph by wild kids who never passed a driving
test. He unrolled his sleeping bag at border posts, campsites, roadsides, jungles,
glaciers, airport floors, and in hostels, dahk bungalows, tents, trailers, trees,