Written in diary format but resembling nothing like the dry diary entries of our own travel journals, Kevin and I in India is a funny account of four months' backpacking through India and Nepal in the mid 1980's. Despite having been written 30 years previously, this is a book that hasn't aged at all, with the complexities of travelling through India as relevant today as they ever were.
It's Only the Himalayas is Sue Bedford's debut travelogue regaling her outrageous tales during a year spent backpacking with her bestie around the world. Packed full of hilarity, this is a book that will delight both older backpackers looking back nostalgically at misspent youths and those thinking about embarking on their own wild travels themselves.
My Holiday in North Korea: The Funniest/Worst Place on Earth reads like a failed gonzo experiment of the author's 10 day "solo" tour of North Korea undertaken in 2014. A relatively short read told with boorish humour and interspersed with a large number of photographs, Simmons' narcissistic book is at times interesting but provides little by way of new material on the hermit kingdom of North Korea.
Vroom with a View: In Search of Italy's Dolce Vita on a '61 Vespa is a very amusing travelogue through Northern Italy as seen from the back of that most iconic of Italian motor scooters - the mighty Vespa. Meandering via the back roads through bucolic countryside and visiting the best tourist spots the regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Lazio have to offer, Vroom with a View provides a breezy armchair escape to one of the most loved parts of the world.
Hunter S. Thompson's legendary road-trippin novel follows Raoul Duke and his Attorney, Dr Gonzo, on their drug-fuelled search for the American Dream in Las Vegas. The book that birthed gonzo journalism, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is widely considered as an American literary classic and one which deserves to read again and again in order to enjoy, understand and then simply enjoy once again.
Where the Hell is Tuvalu? describes the two and a bit years Ells spent working as the People's Lawyer, or the People's Liar as came to be known, in the world's 4th smallest independent nation during the mid 1990's. Focusing on his job and ex-pat life among the Tuvaluans, Ells self-deprecating humour makes this an interesting read and stands almost alone as the only travel book written on this country.
Lost on Planet China is J. Maarten Troost's hiliarious travelogue on his travels around China trying to come to grips with and understand this vast and complex country. Honest and at times unflattering, this is not your run of the mill fluff piece extolling the virtues and beauty of the country but instead shows what the country is like from the eyes of a first time visitor.
Hawks stumbles into something like a mid-life crossroads and decides that the two things he wants most in life is to meet his soulmate and to find lovely house abroad somewhere. For most of us, this simply would have been an ill-advised thought over a pint and a bag of crisps. But for a man who has made his name out of taking on wagers such as lugging a fridge around Ireland or attempting to beat all eleven members of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis, it is inevitable that this course of action will be put into practice.
Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn provides glimpses of life in Iran from the viewpoint of a young British backpacker as he is showered with hospitality from nearly all he meets during his journey in and around the country in 2007. Travelling mostly by bus and train, Maslin's journey is an on-the-ground account of the changing attitudes of people within the country towards those in control and one which has resulted in him being banned from visiting Iran again.
New Europe by Michael Palin is the companion book to the TV-series of the same name which was filmed in 2006 and early 2007. As the name suggests, Palin visits those countries in what used to be called Eastern Europe, as they look increasingly to the west and inclusion within the European Union. Told with Palin's usual witty style, this is an enjoyable whirlwind tour that takes you through 20 countries that once were on the other side of the iron curtain.
Concerned at the rate at which the Appalachian wilderness is disappearing, Bill Bryson teams up with his long-forgotten college friend, Stephen Katz, to walk the granddaddy of hiking trails, The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, more commonly known as the Appalachian Trail or AT. Told in Bryson's usual humourous fashion, this story of two middle-aged mountain men shambling down the pathway munching on Snickers bars is an extremely fun read and one that brings the AT to life.
Hokkaido Highway Blues (also known as Hitching Rides with Buddha) is an outstanding hitchhiking travelogue by Will Ferguson detailing his journey the length of Japan, from Cape Sata to Cape Soya, in the early 1990's. Insightful observations delivering cultural and historical information in genuinely funny fashion, this is everything you could ever hope a travelogue to be, with the only caveat that a fair amount of the material is at the adult end of the spectrum.
Congo Journey is the Kindle version's name of Redmond O'Hanlon's book first published in 1996 called No Mercey: A Journey to the Heart of the Congo.
I read this as part of a quartet of Congo River books I'd bought with a view to deciding which book was the best Congo River journey of them all. Part way through the book however, I realised that Congo Journey was quite different from the others in that the travelogue mostly occurred on land away from the Congo River and secondarily it took place in the People's Republic of the Congo.
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