BootsnAll Travel Community

my friend gave this book to me as my bday present today. we both had a laugh when she told me the reason why she chose this particular book for me - half of the places discussed are places i really want to go to.

i know it's been out for a while.. has anyone else had a chance to look through it?

they've rated chechnya, colombia and liberia 5 stars ('hell on earth'); afghanistan, great lakes area, israel/palestine as 4 stars; georgia, iraq, pakistan, philippines, south africa, sudan, yemen, and zimbabwe as 3 stars; algeria, india, kuridstan, nepal, and russia as 2; the balkans, iran, lebanon, north korea, and the US as 1 star (one star being listed as 'dangerous rep'). i'm not sure how i feel about what some of them are rated.

Obviously, that series of books are overflowing with machismo and bravado, but like any decent travel book, there is some useful information to be pulled out of them. I think it's just important to balance those "dangerous" facts with other, tamer information.

I've heard from several people that Pakistan feels very safe and I would love to go to Georgia. Colombia? Again, I believe it is a very small portion of the country that is dangerous and that deserves 5 stars? Certain neighborhoods in L.A. are 5 stars, but if you take the U.S. as a whole it is quite safe.

Again, I say read the books as entertainment and pull out the useful nuggets, but don't inflate the author's ego too much.

I have looked through this book before. Like you, I was surprised by some of the rankings. It was interesting to me thougth that he did go ahead and rank the US - and not (100%)play into many people's fears that it is dangerous "out there" in comparison to "here". But I think when I looked the US was ranked as more dangerous than now. I remember thinking at the time that he was pretty detailed about the specific risks and who would be most affected or what the threat was. In most of these countries I imagine the risk really depends on when/who/where exactly...

quote:

Originally posted by xoom:
great lakes area

As in the Great Lakes in the Midwest US?

quote:

As in the Great Lakes in the Midwest US?

Look at the map yourself. What do you think they meant when they wrote "Here be dragons"?

I'm not sure what they meant, Joe. I was just asking for a clarification.

I was just giving you the schtup. Carry on.

great lakes.. rwanda, burundi, zaire/DRC, uganda.

skobb, you're definately right about the machismo and bravado.. there's things in here like how to clear mines, becoming a mercenary, graphic details about specific kinds of landmines, learnign how to deal with kidnappings..

there is some good info in here though. ah well. i've only gone through it briefly.. time to really dig in.

apparently, the guy also has a tv show on travel channel. anyone seen it before?

It seems I saw an episode or two. I don't know that it's on anymore. I imagine The Travel Channel had to cancel it and replace it with a cooking or home decoration show.

You can check out his website at http://www.comebackalive.com . There's occasionally good travel info but 95% of the site, well the forums, are dedicated to political and soldier/war type discussion/stories, etc. There's a travel forum but doesn't see much use.

I haven't read the book you mention, but I've read his autobiography: My Life In Dangerous Places. He seems to have had an, umm, interesting childhood. The bio wasn't something I'd read over and over, but it was fun, and did succeed in making me want to go to Borneo.

robert young pelton got kidnapped
a couple years ago in the darien gap.

That's kind of interesting and to me brings up two questions...

- What do you think about the fact that he brough two 22-year-olds with him? In the article it sounds like he pretty much expected to be kidnapped. Obviously they are adults but...I don't know...

- He says he told the group that he was there to find out more about them ("hang out with them" I think were his words)...has he done anything to get the word out or whatever, or did he just go there to have an adventure? In that case, doesn't it seem a little more negative that he brought two people with him..?

I don't want to be too judgemental, I've enjoyed paging through his books, and obviously you have to have a certain personality to investigate that kind of stuff...

??

Well that Pelton guy certainly likes to make a "statement"
especially if it is "comebackalive".

On statements, here in Oz. the department of forein affairs have DFATS - Trabeller advisory statements for overseas travellers, but most of the globe is pretty well covered by docs and news.

I have seen on over sites that non Americans in visiting the US are somewhat surprised with the lesser ammount of overseas news.

Is that true?, and then is there a State Department facility online where intending travellers can go to get overseas countries updates?

If not, you could always just log on to the aussie site - either smarttraveller.gov.au or dfat.gov.au
And though it is free, it is also perhaps over the top a bit - government have to cover their A...

taking two 22 year olds along with him and then saving them sure makes pelton sound good in the press.... if it were just him it wouldn't be nearly as engaging a story as him, the old wise sage, mentoring and saving two young souls who found themselves in harms way...

as for the travel advisories, the us state department issues travel advisories for many (all?) countries as well as updates with warnings and what not. the us govt is also quite paranoid in terms of wanting to cover their.... bases....

I've seen this book a few times when I've been looking around the travel section. I have flipped through it, but never actually bought it.

After reading that article I am a bit torn though. Everyone knows how dangerous the Darien Gap is, yet he still takes two young newbies in there with him. Yeah, it's an experience they may never have had, but was it worth risky your life over???