J_P_B's VirtualTourist Home Page

Well, I have to say that the next few months are going to be busy for me. I've just got back from travelling the world with my wife (Georgie_B) for nine months and I find myself stuck in career limbo - got to get a job! Anyway, while I've got a bit of time off, I going to try and get some travelogues up online and post some info, which I hope people will find useful. I was consistantly frustrated using VT whilst I was away with the number of people who put up useless info on here - "here's a picture of a place I didn't stay, but they had a large plastic parrot outside. Don't know how much it cost, or what it was like, but, hey, the parrot was just great" or even worse, "A hotel". It's a good job that there are some people on here who seemed to have got with the program and can give good info... rant over. Anyway, here's to some (hopefully) productive info for those of you out there with the travel bug.

Been adding stuff to my Birmingham page:
- Fantasia Travelogue;
- St Patrick's Day Album;
- must see activities.

Added my South America Page.

Mexico City, Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Malmo, Sweden
Ecuador
Galapagos Islands
Peru
Chile
Easter Island
Moreno Glacier, Argentina
New Zealand
Australia
Hong Kong
Thailand
Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
Malaysia
Singapore
Colmar, France

I love travelling and visiting places - it's just a shame that the world is such a big place. Fortunately the faster planes become, the easier it is to see, but the problem lies in that flying everywhere means you miss on many travel experiences :(

The only other problem is that the more I travel, the more places I find that I haven't been to. You meet people who tell you about things and then you want to go and see them. We have just got back from 9 months travelling around the world where we visited 14 countries. I thought that this would cure my Wanderlust, but all that has happened is that it has grown greater. I've decided that itchy feet are like mosquito bites - the more you scratch them, the nore they itch.

Malmo, Sweden
New York, USA (Again)

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Peter Moore - one very funny guy.

Armchair Travel

I've always thought that this was a particularly lame way of going about things - after all, who wants to read about other people's travel experiences... errrr... us obviously.

Consequently, I started reading travel books, beyond your Rough Guides and Lonely Planets...

Check out the following:
Anthony Bourdain - A Cook's Tour
Bourdain is the Executive Chef of Les Halles in New York. Having written a critically acclaimed novel (Kitchen Confidential - very funny, but not about travel), he managed to blag his publisher into paying for him to go on a trip around the world to find out what the best meal is. It takes him to Mexico, UK, France, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia and Morrocco, amongst other places. Not for the faint hearted, but amusing nonetheless. Don't ask me why, but the thought of him eating the still beating heart of a just killed cobra is one that will stick with me for some time... "Make you strong!", apparently. :)

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Bill Bryson - Down Under
Arguably the most famous travel writer around, Bryson's two jaunts around Australia caused me much mirth - it also gave me a very refreshing outlook on what some of the important things are when travelling. It's got some great ideas for places to go in Australia, quite a few of which seem off the beaten path.

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Alain de Botton - The Art Of Travel
Alain de Botton has rather a bizarre background - he has lived all over the place when growing up. Rather than be a standard travel book - "we went here, it was great, etc." he looks more to the process of travelling, how to get the most out of it and why we look on new places differently to home. Very thought provoking.

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Peter Moore - The Wrong Way Home
The traveller's traveller, Peter Moore is an insane Australian, who seems to like nothing better than a dose of the runs, an AK-47 being pointed at him and the totally perversity of travel. A really funny read and something that would appeal to anyone who loves roughing it and those who like to think that they would, but can't be bothered!

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Peter Moore - No ***ting In The Toilet
Forget about Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, if you want the real low down on what it is to go travelling, read NSITT - all those useful tips that previously money couldn't buy.

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Peter Moore - The Full Montezuma
Peter and his girlfriend, The Girl Next Door (GND), go on a stroll around Central America in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. It gives you a funny insight into the foibles of travelling with someone to whom you are romantically attached and perhaps therefore a few pointers on ways to avoid an acrimonious divorce at the end of it all - great fun.

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Peter Moore - Swahili For The Broken Hearted
Acrimoniously split from the GND, our intrepid traveller heads for Africa. Cape Town to Cairo by any means possible, the book says. As usual, Peter doesn't make life easy for himself. From a visit to the townships of South Africa, to a presidential birthday party in Zimbabwe. From several missed out "definite shags" to nearly getting killed in riots in Ethiopia. Not forgetting the now familiar visa wranglings that always seem to plague Mr. Moore's travels. Extremely entertaining read, I couldn't put the book down.

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Mathew Parris - Inca Kola

Mathew Parris - Inca Kola
4 guys going round Peru and Bolivia all written by an ex-conservative Junior Minister. A bizarre combination, but also a good book. From Huarez to Puerto Maldonado, on trains, planes, buses, trucks and mules - an interesting look at life in Peru, especially in the time of the Shining Path.

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Andrew X. Pham - Catfish and Mandala
A journey of discovery for a displaced American Vietnamese, trying to find his identity after the death of one of his siblings. For some reason, he decided that this was best done on a bike. Interspersed with flashbacks to events in his past, it is a sometimes harrowing tale of his efforts to learn more about who he is. A very interesting insight into life as a refugee and beyond, as well as being an entertaining look at Vietnam.

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Robert Twigger - The Extinction Club
More a book about writing a book than anything else, The Extinction Club is both informative and interesting, taking a look at both the conservation of a species and the extinction of several species.

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Danny Wallace - Join Me
Known for his colloborations with comidien Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace has something of a reputation for being funny. This book is no exception. It's based on the simple premise that Danny wants people to join him. What starts as something he did when a bit bored, gets rather out of hand and takes him all over the UK, to Paris, Brussels, Bruges, Norway and Holland meeting members of his accidental cult (sorry, it's not a cult, it's a collective). You can still join up with him, sign the Good Friday's agreement and become part of the Karma Army. Do it, it's harmless fun!

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Sara Wheeler - Travels in a Thin Country: A Journey Through Chile
A six month journey throughout the whole of Chile, that I found to be quite a frustrating read if I am honest. Whilst her observations are intriguing and entertaining, she has a tendancy to ramble off into socio-political and historical discourse for pages on end, making you question whether it is a book about Chilean travel or a book about the terbulant history of Chile. There are some wonderful descriptions and some interesting points, but she can go on. Not the best book, I've ever read, but then as the French say, "Chacun a son goût".