by Carl Hoffman
I enjoyed this, but I don't know that it was what I expected. I understand that he took methods of transportation that had had disasters in the past, but I was expecting at least some harrowing experiences here - instead, it was pretty much crowded, uncomfortable and unpleasant, but not much feelin...
A round-the-world trip, using the most dangerous methods possible. It's when the book is describing the conditions traveling this way that the book is at its most fascinating. The speeding, teetering buses, the overcrowded ferries, all fascinating. It was the author himself who gave me pause. On mor...
Eh, too much mid life crisis and basking in the warmth of all humanity whenever offered a cup of tea. Not enough trains.
A pleasant surprise--this was better than I expected, in that the author was respectful of people from other cultures and engaged in a certain amount of introspection about why he travels as much as, and in the ways that, he does. Where it disappointed was in the anti-American/America conclusion. Pe...
Here's Hoffman's idea: Travel around the world using the most dangerous forms of transportation. Sound like fun? And he does it. He rides on dangerous places, goes on dangerous trains, travels on dangerous ferries, and takes dangerous buses. All the while, he ruminates on why he is not content to st...
A first-reads win. Four and a half stars.Decades ago, I met a French-Canadian girl in Mexico City who hitchhiked by herself from Panama City to Mexico City. I was also traveling through Mexico by myself but I was amazed by her courage as a young woman to travel in an area that was considered to be q...
Here in the U.S. we take it as our due that we have clean, comfortable, reliable, safe modes of public transportation. How rare and fortunate is that circumstance, as I learned from this book.Carl Hoffman spent five months traveling around the world seeking out the most notoriously unsafe means of ...
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