Warning: This book could cause your feet to wander...
But if that's no problem, "pass the goat dick, please," and lean back for laughs and low adventures with "Planet Backpacker: The Good Life Bumming Around the World."
The book by Robert Downes celebrates the backpacking lifestyle enjoyed by an estimated 100,000 travelers out wandering around the world at any given moment.
'Backpacking' is a style of travel that involves using native transportation, staying in local digs (guest houses, hostels, pensiones), and visiting exotic destinations on the cheap. In America, 'backpacking' tends to mean a backcountry camping experience, but in Australia and Europe it more commonly refers to the kind of trip that college kids take during their gap year.
Increasingly, backpacking is a passion for travelers of all ages, and certainly the best way to see the world at the lowest cost.
In 2007, Downes set off on a solo trip around the world, biking across Europe on a mountain bike and backpacking on through Eastern Europe, Egypt, India, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. The resulting book got its start as a blog, written one excerpt at a time in more than 100 of the grubbiest internet cafes on the planet.
Downes notes that backpacking around the world is one of the last epic adventures possible for the average person to achieve. 'Planet Backpacker' offers plenty of hard-earned wisdom on that score, along with advice on how to make your own trip a success.