The Best Travel Writing 2011: True Stories from Around the World

265 Pages·2011·1.52 MB·English

by  James O'Reilly

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR
The Best Travel Writing Series
“Travelers’ Tales has thrived by seizing on our perpetual fascination for armchair
traveling, including this annual roundup of delightful (and sometimes dreadful)
wayfaring adventures from all corners of the globe.”
—The Washington Post
“Here are intimate revelations, mind-changing pilgrimages, and body-
challenging peregrinations. And there’s enough to keep one happily reading until
the next edition.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“The Best Travel Writing is a globetrotter’s dream. Some tales are inspiring,
some disturbing or disheartening; many sobering. But at the heart of each one
lies the most crucial element—a cracking good story told with style, wit, and
grace.”
—WorldTrekker
“There is no danger of tourist brochure writing in this collection. The story
subjects themselves are refreshingly odd…. For any budding writer looking for
good models or any experienced writer looking for ideas on where the form can
go, The Best Travel Writing is an inspiration.”
—Transitions Abroad
“Travelers’ Tales, a publisher which has taken the travel piece back into the
public mind as a serious category, has a volume out titled The Best Travel
Writing which wipes out its best-of competitors completely.”
—The Courier-Gazette
“The Best Travelers’ Tales 2004 will grace my bedside for years to come. For
this volume now formally joins the pantheon: one of a series of good books by
good people, valid and valuable for far longer than its authors and editors ever
imagined. It is, specifically, an ideal antidote to the gloom with which other
writers, and the daily and nightly news, have tried hard to persuade us the world
is truly invested…. This book is a vivid and delightful testament to just why the
world is in essence a wondrously pleasing place, how its people are an
inseparable part of its countless pleasures, and how travel is not so much hard
work as wondrous fun.”
—Simon Winchester
TRAVELERS’ TALES BOOKS
Country and Regional Guides
America, Antarctica, Australia, Brazil, Central America, China, Cuba, France,
Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Spain, Thailand, Tibet,
Turkey; Alaska, American Southwest, Grand Canyon, Hawai‘i, Hong Kong,
Middle East, Paris, Prague, Provence, San Francisco, South Pacific, Tuscany
Women’s Travel
100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Go, 100 Places Every Woman Should
Go, The Best Women’s Travel Writing, A Woman’s Asia, A Woman’s Europe,
Her Fork in the Road, A Woman’s Path, A Woman’s Passion for Travel, A
Woman’s World, Women in the Wild, A Mother’s World, Safety and Security for
Women Who Travel, Gutsy Women, Gutsy Mamas, A Woman’s World Again
Body & Soul
Writing Away, You Unstuck, Stories to Live By, Spiritual Gifts of Travel, The
Road Within, A Mile in Her Boots, Love & Romance, Food, How to Eat Around
the World, Adventure of Food, Ultimate Journey, Pilgrimage Special Interest
Wild with Child, Mousejunkies!, What Color Is Your Jockstrap?, Encounters
with the Middle East, Not So Funny When It Happened, Gift of Rivers, How to
Shit Around the World, Testosterone Planet, Danger!, Fearless Shopper, Penny
Pincher’s Passport to Luxury Travel, Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune,
Gift of Birds, Family Travel, A Dog’s World, There’s No Toilet Paper on the
Road Less Traveled, Gift of Travel, 365 Travel, The Thong Also Rises,
Adventures in Wine, The World Is a Kitchen, Sand in My Bra, Hyenas Laughed
at Me, Whose Panties Are These?, More Sand in My Bra Travel Literature
Cruise Confidential, Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, A Rotten Person Travels the
Caribbean, A Sense of Place, The Best Travel Writing, Kite Strings of the
Southern Cross, The Sword of Heaven, Storm, Take Me With You, Last Trout in
Venice, The Way of the Wanderer, One Year Off, The Fire Never Dies, The
Royal Road to Romance, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, The Rivers Ran East, Coast
to Coast, Trader Horn
T ’ T
RAVELERS ALES
THE
BEST
TRAVEL
WRITING
2011
T S
RUE TORIES
F A W
ROM ROUND THE ORLD
T ’ T
RAVELERS ALES
BEST
THE
T W
RAVEL RITING
2011
T S
RUE TORIES
F A W
ROM ROUND THE ORLD
Edited by
JAMES O’REILLY, LARRY HABEGGER,
AND SEAN O’REILLY
Travelers’ Tales
an imprint of Solas House, Inc.
Palo Alto
Copyright © 2011 Solas House, Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction copyright © 2011 by Pico Iyer.
Travelers’ Tales and Travelers’ Tales Guides are trademarks of Solas House, Inc.
Credits and copyright notices for the individual articles in this collection are
given starting on page 311.
We have made every effort to trace the ownership of all copyrighted material and
to secure permission from copyright holders. In the event of any question arising
as to the ownership of any material, we will be pleased to make the necessary
correction in future printings. Contact Solas House, Inc., 853 Alma Street, Palo
Alto, California 94301. www.travelerstales.com
Art direction: Kimberly Nelson Page layout and photo editing: Cynthia Lamb
using the fonts Granjon and NicolasCochin Interior design: Melanie Haage
Production Director: Natalie Baszile and Christy Quinto ISBN 10: 1-60952-
008-4
ISBN 13: 978-1609520083
ISSN 1548-0224
First Edition
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way
is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
—JEREMIAH 6:16