The World's Best Travel Book
"The Way of the World" is a 1950s travelogue of a trip that Nicolas Bouvier and Thierry Vernet took from Geneva to the Khyber Pass in their faithful FIAT Topolino. Bouvier’s account is now famous amongst travel literature lovers and is generally considered to be the best travel book ever written.
Chasing Gorillas is Better than Lions
From Somerset to the Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve in Southwest Central Africa Republic. A trip to meet up with the Bayaka hunter-gatherer Pygmies, visit the big elephant clearing known as Dzanga Bai and follow the lowland gorillas.
Devouring Venice
Fleeing the rapacious hordes of Attila the Hun, refugees from nearby Roman cities took refuge on the islets of the Venetian lagoon during the 5th century, laying the foundations of what was to become the great and powerful city of Venice. These days the “Serenissima” is overrun by hordes of a different kind.
Green Island, Taiwan
At about twenty miles off the eastern shore of Taiwan, this jungle-carpeted volcanic outcrop may be an ideal retreat from the glitz and hubbub of the country’s major urban centers, but, for better or worse, it has been pretty much ignored by international travelers.
Xi’an’s Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
Xi’an attracts huge crowds of (predominantly Chinese) tourists every year thanks to the Terracotta Warriors in the Mausoleum of China’s first emperor. However, having read “The Journey to the West”, I was keen to see another of Xi’an’s fabled attractions: the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda.