• Strange Tales of World Travel
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Strange Tales of World Travel

$34.95
$34.95 $34.95
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Hardcover $34.95
These just might be the strangest stories you've ever read.
  • 23 April 2019
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“What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen or experienced?”

Gina and Scott Gaille have traveled to more than 100 countries, including many off-the-beaten-path places in Africa, South America, and Asia. Wherever they go, they ask this question. Everyone has a story, and some are truly extraordinary.

Strange Tales of World Travel recounts 50 of these Bizarre, Mysterious, Horrible, Hilarious encounters, including:

  • Daring Diplomat, who ate the flesh of the venomous cobra bird in the Sahara Desert
  • Pearl Trader, who survived a fever through a harrowing "human" honey treatment in Oman
  • Agent Ghost, who was shot and left to die in a garbage dump in Africa
  • Death-Defying Instagrammer, who stepped on the tail of the world’s sixth most venomous snake in Australia to take a better photo
  • Human Pet, who became a prince’s prisoner in Qatar
  • Imperial CEO, who made a minion fly twelve hours to Paris from Abu Dhabi to buy clean underwear
  • Gorilla Doll, who broke the rules of visiting Rwandan gorillas and got dragged up the side of a volcano

    Strange Tales of World Travel presents unforgettable stories that celebrate the unique character of countries around the globe—and the distinctive characters that make travel endlessly intriguing and exhilarating.

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    Price: $34.95
    Publisher: Travelers' Tales
    Imprint: Travelers' Tales
    Publication Date: 23 April 2019
    Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.50 in
    ISBN: 9781609521714
    Format: Hardcover
    BISACs: TRAVEL / Essays & Travelogues, TRAVEL / General, TRAVEL / Special Interest / Adventure, TRAVEL / Special Interest / General, TRAVEL / Special Interest / Haunted & Unexplained
    REVIEWS Icon
    “This book contains some of the most astonishing tales I’ve ever encountered. One after another. They make for obsessive reading.” —Tim Cahill, author of Jaguars Ripped My Flesh

    “The entire point of travel is to encounter the unimaginable. Gina and Scott Gaille have collected some of the most remarkable tales to ever see the light of day. A hoot to read.” —J. Maarten Troost, author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals

    “A fabulous new book! Two- or three-page stories, each one brings you to a different part of the world.” —Frommer’s Travel Show

    “Strange Tales of World Travel presents a world you will not find in glossy magazine articles, breathless blogs, or self-adulatory Instagrams ... it’s a world of adventures gone awry, ... of intimate glimpses of unimaginable wealth and unquestionable power, of close encounters with the wilder edges of human culture .... The result is a collection that is, as the book’s subtitle suggests, bizarre, mysterious, horrible, and hilarious—like travel, and life itself.” —From the Foreword by Don George, author of Lonely Planet’s How to Be a Travel Writer

    “Damn! I thought my book had the strangest bunch of true travel tales under the sun, but the Gailles’ collection leaves me in the dust. Maybe even obliterated in a Sahara sandstorm.” —Albert Podell, New York Times best-selling author of Around the World in 50 Years

    Bronze Winner in Travel Essay category - 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs)

    Honorable Mention in Travel Book category - 2019 North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) Awards

    Finalist in Travel category - 2019 Foreword Magazine INDIES Book Awards

    Gina and Scott Gaille grew up in small towns in central Michigan and south Texas. Even then, both dreamed about exploring the farthest corners of the planet. Gina’s favorite TV show was Hart to Hart, whose globetrotting detectives—played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers—journeyed to South America, China, and Australia. Scott spent Sunday evenings glued to Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, whose safari-jacketed host, Marlin Perkins, introduced him to exotic landscapes and their peoples. Gina is most passionate about Africa, where she once served as a missionary in a remote part of Kenya. Scott’s career as a lawyer and academic at The University of Chicago and Rice University has taken him to more than 100 nations around the world, including 30 in Africa. It was their shared passion for experiencing the world that brought them together.
    Foreword by Don George

    1. Shark Repellent, Bora Bora
    2. Cobra Bird, Sahara Desert
    3. Contagions, Botswana
    4. Honey of Man, Oman
    5. Beware of Road Surprises, Emirate of Sharjah
    6. Feeding Frenzy, Galápagos Islands
    7. No Snake Dies Before Midnight, Kangaroo Island
    8. The Emperor Has No Underwear, United Arab Emirates
    9. Road Warrior, Nigeria
    10. Agent Ghost, Somewhere in Africa
    11. Here, Little Birdie, Kenya
    12. The Human Pet, Qatar
    13. That’s Not a Rubber Ducky, Equatorial Guinea
    14. Great White Shark Buffet, Southern Ocean
    15. UFOs, South America and Caribbean Sea
    16. Shere Khan, India
    17. The Fourth Girlfriend, Lithuania
    18. The Dying Giraffe, South Africa
    19. Smooth Air Decree, Oman
    20. Evicted, Angola
    21. The Floating Islands, Peru
    22. The First Hmong Lawyer in Laos, Laos
    23. A Pug in Peril, Saudi Arabia
    24. The Accidental Masseur, Madagascar
    25. Hello, Mr. Bin Laden, Pakistan
    26. Prehistoric Forest, Seychelles Islands
    27. Too Close for Comfort, Rwanda
    28. Lord of the Flies, British Virgin Islands
    29. Digging Your Own Grave, Mauritania
    30. Bush Meat, Cameroon
    31. The Cat in the Hat, Kangaroo Island
    32. Dr. Ebola, Central Africa
    33. One Person’s Pet Is Another’s...Dinner, Ecuador
    34. Be Careful What You Admire, Emirate of Abu Dhabi
    35. The Red Carpet Isn’t for Me, Gabon
    36. The Askari, Tanzania
    37. The Polar Bear, Arctic Ocean
    38. Tsetse Fly Food, Serengeti Plains
    39. The Concierge, South Australia
    40. Valley of Mole Rats, The Rift Valley
    41. The Real Equator, Ecuador
    42. The Land of Hospitality, Japan
    43. The Home of Vodun, Togo
    44. The Hidden People, Iceland
    45. Sea of Scooters, Vietnam
    46. Road Kill Art, Australia
    47. Don’t Mess with the Cape Buffalo, Malawi
    48. The Tanzanite Miner, Mount Kilimanjaro
    49. The Elephant Graveyard, Ngorongoro Crater
    50. Mayan God, Guatemala

    Acknowledgments
    About the Authors