num_pages: 298
description: In the spirit of Stanley and Livingstone, Brian Thacker is striking out for destinations unknown. Under-equipped and totally unprepared, Brian leaves the guide books behind and gets off the beaten track, out of his comfort zone and into trouble in some of the oddest countries you've never heard of.Paul Theroux, Eric Newby, Bruce Chatwin, Bill Bryson, Michael Palin all have ventured forth to provide their readers with vivid and compelling accounts of strange peoples and exotic lands. But none has ever been daring (or perhaps stupid) enough to arrive in a country not knowing a single thing about the place. Until now.In the spirit of Stanley and Livingstone, Brian Thacker set out for far-flung lands armed with nothing more than an air ticket and an armful of immunisation shots. He didn't know the local language, the currency, the customs or even the climate of the places he was heading for; not to mention the political, religious or cultural situations of the countries he might end up in. He didn't take a guidebook; he didn't even do a quick web search. And so it was that Brian found himself on an incredible journey that would see him set up home inside the Gabon airport terminal; dodge civil unrest in Togo; receive a history lesson from a Ghanaian prostitute; share a small dark room in Benin with 500 snakes; anger the Vodou gods of Cotonou; be abandoned on a deserted island off Wallis; gatecrash the King of Futuna's party; become lost in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan; and narrowly avoid being shot in the backstreets of Bishkek.
language: English
title: Where's Wallis?
titlecomplete: Where's Wallis?
genres: Travel, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 77
publisher: Allen & Unwin