True Travel Tales Series

Travel Tales: Close Calls & Great Escapes Volume 1 is the first of a two-book companion set in the True Travel Tales series of very scary travel tales of danger in your travels and managing to just barely escape. It is a collection of the fearful and dangerous sorts of things that can and do happen to travelers, but mostly these will not happen to you. You'll read examples the real, raw fear and very unsettling occasions that may pop up now and again in your travels. The two books include true tales of close calls and great escapes in connection with all sorts of travel situations including chases, foiled kidnappings, attacks, roadblocks, scary places, trips from hell, borders and police, hitchhiking, international spying, smuggling, and intrigue, being in the wrong places at the wrong times, terror attacks, bandits, Mexican standoffs, airplane crashes, accidents and mishaps, white slavery, robberies, sexual harassment and assaults and more. This two volume series is the place to read about the accounts of the dangers and mishaps of others. And you'll gain a healthier respect of what it is like to experience the true dangers and risks of travel and adventure. And with a better a better knowledge and respect of travel and its dangers and risks, hopefully, you'll gain a better sense of safety, security, enjoyment and appeciation of your travels. Close Calls and Great Escapes includes many examples of bad things that happen to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid such things. But bad things DO happen on occasion, and the best thing to do is, of course, to avoid them in the first place. But if we cannot, we should at least do our best to escape them. Again, while there's no easy, simple miracle list of failsafe strategies for always staying safe and secure in each dangerous situation that may arise, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies from the many examples presented in these books that will enable you to develop and keep in mind ways to enhance personal safety and security and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous outcomes in travel. While many of the tales in these two book are not strictly about life and death situations surrounding travel, many are about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise annoying nuisances that we all would do well to better avoid and do without. The scope and variety of close calls in these two book may surprise you. And some would never likely even occur to you. Some are even humorous, like, for example, the many examples of exotic foods that you'd never eat on a dare back home, but are, instead, all in when it comes to trying, say, pressed rabbit in Peru or even steak tartare during your travels in the south of France! (I won't be the spoiler and reveal it to you here!) Yes, such an adventures may or may not ever happen to you, but after reading about it in these book, should at least give you pause — who knows? Maybe you'll never, ever eat such a bizarre, strange dish in the first or next instance. Sure, you'll read stories in this book series that will alert you to situations that may never even occur to you. But if you avoid even one new travel danger that you might never have even thought of by reading these books, then I'll have accomplished a very useful purpose.

THIS SERIES This series collects the true tales of close calls and great escapes of travelers in fearful, dangerous, and even life-threatening situations and what they did to travel safely and securely. These are the scary and dangerous situations travelers have encountered in their travels! No one wants to encounter very scary and dangerous situations in the first place, but if they do, they want to travel as safe and secure as possible to avoid or escape the dangers they may face. I've interviewed nearly 2,000 travelers and weaved the best of their tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories, These are travelers I've met on airplanes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in hotels, campgrounds, cafes, and pubs. These are courageous travelers who have shared their most fearful close calls, whether with wild animals, scary, menacing, and dangerous people, raging nature, or any number of other potential dangers. While the focus of this book is traveling as safe and secure as possible and avoiding danger in the first place, the book also focuses on how to best avoid the dangers and how to deal with them. While most of us experience good and wonderful travel, others have had to deal with horrific and life-threatening situations, which I, in turn, share with you now through my True Travel Tales series, specifically this book Travel Tales: Close Calls and Great Escapes.   THIS BOOK  This Book deals with the safety and security of the traveler. It is about how to travel safely throughout the world. Unfortunately, travel today finds us in a world of growing threats and dangers. For people who travel, having to deal with dangers and threats is daunting in the least. For most of us, travel is exciting and relatively safe, but for many, traveling in some countries, particularly in North Africa and the Middle East, parts of Asia, Africa, and the Central and South Americas can often be risky and downright dangerous. I have tales of travelers who have been caught up in very dangerous situations. The majority travel relatively safe, however, some of us at some points in our lives may find ourselves confronting and dealing with a variety of dangers. Fortunately, most travelers can remain relatively safe; some escape with only minor difficulties, and, sad to say, some travelers have been unable to escape some of the dangers they have confronted. Traveling to potentially dangerous and forbidding places is not for the faint of heart. Many relatively inexperienced travelers are sadly unaware and must be exceedingly careful in their travels. Every traveler abroad needs to know about and prepare him- or herself to deal with a variety of dangers. Again, while mostly safe, travel can also be foreboding and downright dangerous at times, and one must always be prudent. People have shared hundreds of their travel stories with me about how they have had to fend off the unwanted approaches of people, ranging from verbal harassment, unwanted overtures, and, yes, sometimes pickpocketing, robbery, assaults, and even rape at times! People have said to me, "Yes, I should have known better; I should have seen the signs. I should have taken better precautions."

Travel Tales: Pickpockets & Other Thieves is the next book in the True Travel Tales series of very scary travel stories of pickpocketing and theft in travel. If you are pickpocketed or robbed we hope you manage to escape in your travels with only minor consequences. This book is a collection of the fearful and potentially dangerous sorts of things that can and do happen to travelers on occasion, but mostly these will not happen to you. You'll read examples of the real, raw fear and very unsettling occasions that may pop up now and again in your travels. This book includes true tales of the variety of robberies, thefts, assaults, scams, some cons games, and even close calls of kidnappings (yes… a form of theft, after all). Also included are tales of successes and failures in connection with all sorts of travel situations including chases, foiled kidnappings, bandits, sexual harassment and attacks, roadblocks, scary places, trips from hell, borders, and police, hitchhiking, international spying, smuggling, intrigue, and sometimes merely being in the wrong places at the wrong times. Also included is, say you just happened to catch a pickpocket. What then? What in the world do you do with the pickpocket? This book is the place to read about the accounts of the dangers and mishaps of others. And you'll gain a healthier respect for what it is like to experience the true dangers and risks of travel and adventure. And with a better knowledge and respect of travel and its potential dangers and risks, hopefully, you'll gain a better sense of safety, security, enjoyment, and appreciation of your travels. Pickpockets & Other Thieves includes many examples of bad things that happen on occasion to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid such things. But bad things DO happen on occasion, and the best thing to do is, of course, to avoid them in the first place. But if we cannot, we should at least do our best to escape them. Again, while there's no easy, simple miracle list of failsafe strategies for always staying safe and secure in dangerous situations that may arise, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies from the many examples presented in this book that will enable you to better enhance your personal safety and security and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous outcomes in travel. While many of the tales in this book are not strictly about life and death situations surrounding travel, many are about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise annoying nuisances that we all would do well to better avoid and do without. The scope and variety of pickpocketing and thievery in this book may surprise you. And some would never likely even occur to you. And, indeed such misadventures may never happen to you, but after reading about such things in this book, it should at least give you pause — who knows? maybe you'll never suffer the indignity and inconvenience of a pickpocketing event, other thefts, cons, or scams after all. Sure, you'll read stories in the True Travel Tales book series that will alert you to situations that may never even occur to you. But if you avoid even one new travel danger that you might never have even thought of by reading these books, then I'll have accomplished a very useful purpose.

Travel Tales: Idiots Abroad is a very funny book. It's a collection of Michael Brein's funniest travel accounts of the nearly 2,000 interviews with travelers he has met in his own travels around the world over the last four decades. Although the typical travel stories collected in the books that make up the True Travel Tales series are ordinarily oriented towards safety and security in travel, the very scary accounts of the risks and dangers in your travels and managing to often just barely to escape, the tales are mainly of the fearful and dangerous sorts of things that can and do happen to travelers. Mostly these things will not happen to you. You'll read in the series plenty of examples of the real, raw fear and very unsettling occasions that may pop up now and again in your travels.  This book, Travel Tales: Idiots Abroad, however, pauses all of this. Instead of dealing with all sorts of true accounts of close calls and great escapes in connection with all sorts of travel situations including chases, foiled kidnappings, attacks, roadblocks, scary places, trips from hell, borders, and police, hitchhiking, international spying, smuggling, and intrigue, being in the wrong places at the wrong times, terror attacks, bandits, Mexican standoffs, airplane crashes, accidents and mishaps, white slavery, robberies, sexual harassment and assaults and more, rather, the series now pauses to simply make you laugh! Instead of reading about the dangers and mishaps of others, whereby you'll focus on and gain healthier respect for the true dangers and risks of travel and adventure... the point of Travel Tales: Idiots Abroad is purely and simply to make you laugh... to enjoy, for all it's worth, the many moments among two thousand or so travelers of their shared moments of smiles, of chuckles, of laughs, and yes, of belly laughs, too. This is the time to enjoy those special moments that you, yourself, just happened to be the focus of or perhaps at the behest of others. And make no mistake, whereas some of these stories and laughs are so profoundly silly, others are the stuff of keepsake memories. Many of the funny accounts of travelers in Travel Tales: Idiots Abroad are the tales of others; many are about us making others laugh instead, yes... often at our own expense. And that makes them especially funny and memorable. Yes, indeed, we are often the Crazy Stupit Scoundrels, ourselves, and I am one of you! I have often, myself, been the Idiot Abroad, and I am all the happier and prouder for it! The travel tales told in Idiots Abroad are things we got away with and laughed about later. Pouring bubble bath in Trafalgar fountain in London, getting away with things we'd dare not do at home, even, like eating critters in restaurants we'd never think of doing but for being overseas, like daring to eat a "pressed rabbit" (a roasted guinea pig in Peru), or Steak Tartare (raw horsemeat in France) or a potentially deadly poisonous fugu fish in Japan! Yep, like trying to talk two Italian motorcycle cops out of giving you a speeding ticket — and succeeding! — yes... in Italy for God's sake (everybody speeds in Italy!). Nope, such adventures may not ever happen to you, but assuredly something funny will! You'll laugh at these stories in Travel Tales: Idiots Abroad; you'll remember your own; you'll look forward to your next laughs overseas. And after you pick up this book, read a tale or two, and set it back down; you'll do so with a smile.

Travel Tales: Close Calls & Great Escapes Volume 2 is the second of a two-book companion set in the True Travel Tales series of very scary travel tales of danger in your travels and managing to just barely escape. It is a collection of the fearful and dangerous sorts of things that can and do happen to travelers, but mostly these will not happen to you. You'll read examples of the real, raw fear and very unsettling occasions that may pop up now and again in your travels. The two books include true tales of close calls and great escapes in connection with all sorts of travel situations including chases, foiled kidnappings, attacks, roadblocks, scary places, trips from hell, borders and police, hitchhiking, international spying, smuggling, and intrigue, being in the wrong places at the wrong times, terror attacks, bandits, Mexican standoffs, airplane crashes, accidents and mishaps, white slavery, robberies, sexual harassment and assaults and more. This two volume series is the place to read about the accounts of the dangers and mishaps of others. And you'll gain a healthier respect of what it is like to experience the true dangers and risks of travel and adventure. And with a better a better knowledge and respect of travel and its dangers and risks, hopefully, you'll gain a better sense of safety, security, enjoyment and appeciation of your travels. Close Calls and Great Escapes includes many examples of bad things that happen to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid such things. But bad things DO happen on occasion, and the best thing to do is, of course, to avoid them in the first place. But if we cannot, we should at least do our best to escape them. Again, while there's no easy, simple miracle list of failsafe strategies for always staying safe and secure in each dangerous situation that may arise, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies from the many examples presented in these books that will enable you to develop and keep in mind ways to enhance personal safety and security and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous outcomes in travel. While many of the tales in these two book are not strictly about life and death situations surrounding travel, many are about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise annoying nuisances that we all would do well to better avoid and do without. The scope and variety of close calls in these two book may surprise you. And some would never likely even occur to you. Some are even humorous, like, for example, the many examples of exotic foods that you'd never eat on a dare back home, but are, instead, all in when it comes to trying, say, pressed rabbit in Peru or even steak tartare during your travels in the south of France! (I won't be the spoiler and reveal it to you here!) Yes, such an adventures may or may not ever happen to you, but after reading about it in these book, should at least give you pause — who knows? Maybe you'll never, ever eat such a bizarre, strange dish in the first or next instance. Sure, you'll read stories in this book series that will alert you to situations that may never even occur to you. But if you avoid even one new travel danger that you might never have even thought of by reading these books, then I'll have accomplished a very useful purpose.

THIS SERIES: True Travel Tales Over the last few decades, I've interviewed nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers. I am weaving the best of their nearly 10,000 fantastic travel tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories. These are travelers I've encountered on planes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in campgrounds, bars, cafes, restaurants, and pubs. These courageous travelers have freely shared their most personal travel experiences, some good and wonderful and others even horrific and life-threatening, which I, in turn, get to share with you now through my True Travel Tales series.   THIS BOOK: Travel Tales: Michael's Own Best 150  The True Travel Tales series is the expanded full collection of the best of all my own personal travel stories in my rich, varied and adventurous travel life that has taken me to more than 125 countries. This book of travel tales includes a selection of my own personal best, worst, funniest, and in some cases, even my most embarrassing travel experiences that have now become my most memorable and interesting travel stories today. From my unique perspective of being the world's first and probably only 'travel psychologist,' I think you'll find the collection of my own personal best travel experiences riveting, informative, funny, and entertaining. Please enjoy! While some people say that some of my stories are riotous, others say that I should be kept locked up at home and not allowed to travel anywhere! These events, as unbelievable as some of them may seem to be, really did happen to me! Read on!   DISCLAIMER Please be forewarned that some stories in the True Travel Tales series may be graphic, unpleasant, and disturbing. Reader discretion may be advised. This series is generally aimed toward a more mature adult audience, yet, no doubt, some material ought to be communicated clearly and responsibly to younger and relatively inexperienced and naive travelers, who could benefit by knowing how to travel more safely and securely. The author does not necessarily agree with all the opinions expressed by contributors. Finally, no story in the series is meant to depict any country, people, culture. religion or gender in a negative light. Good and bad things can and do happen anywhere and to anyone. Finally, some stories may appear in more than one book in the True Travel Tales series, depending on the subject matter and countries covered.  

THIS SERIES Over the last few decades, I've interviewed nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers. I am weaving the best of their nearly 10,000 fantastic travel tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories. These are travelers I've encountered on planes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, cafes, and pubs. These courageous travelers have freely shared their most personal travel experiences, some good and wonderful and others even horrific and life-threatening, which I, in turn, get to share with you now through my True Travel Tales series.   THIS BOOK Travel Tales: Michael's Own Top 25, is the first book of the True Travel Tales series and includes the 25 best of my own personal travel tales in my rich and varied travel life that has taken me to more than 125 countries. For the full collection of the 150 best of my own personal travel tales — (that actually includes the entirety of this first book as Part 1 of three) —you may want to read instead the expanded collection of 150 stories included in Michael's Own Best 150. I would recommend you skip the lite version, Michael's Own Top 25, altogether, and obtain, the expanded edition, Michael's Own Best 150. But if you are only initially interested in a first look at the True Travel Tales series, then Michael's Own Top 25 would be a good choice.   My travel tales include a selection of my best, worst, funniest, most embarrassing, and truly most horrific travel experiences, that by virtue of their emotional impact upon me have now become my most memorable and interesting travel stories today. From my unique perspective of being the world's first 'travel psychologist,' I think you'll find my own personal travel experiences riveting, informative, funny, and entertaining. Please enjoy! While some people say that some of my stories are riotous, others say that I should be kept locked up at home and not allowed to travel anywhere! These events as revealed in my travel tales, as unbelievable as some of them may seem to be, really did happen to me!   DISCLAIMER Please be forewarned that some stories in the True Travel Tales series may be graphic, unpleasant, and disturbing. Therefore reader discretion in some cases is advised. This series is aimed toward a more mature adult audience, and, no doubt, some material as difficult as they may be ought to be communicated in a clear and responsible manner to younger and relatively inexperienced, and naive travelers who could benefit by knowing how to travel more safely and securely. The author does not necessarily agree with all the opinions expressed by contributors. Finally, no story in the series is meant to depict any country, people, culture, race, religion, or gender in a negative light. Good and bad things can happen anywhere and to anyone.   Note: Some stories may appear in more than one book in the True Travel Tales series, depending on the subject matter and countries covered.

Travel Tales: The Best of 10,000 Stories Vol 1 No collection of 10,000 or so travel stories, vignettes, or parts thereof that were shared with me by nearly 2,000 world travelers whom I've interviewed across the Globe over five decades would ever be complete without gathering them together into one place of simply the best of the best travel tales. In Vol 1, (Chapters 1 thru 6) travelers' tales include the numerous incredible accounts of the normal as well as the paranormal including ghosts, wizards, haunted hotels, premonitions, synchronicities, supernatural encounters, UFOS, and aliens as well as mystical legends that people report they've experienced throughout their travels. In Vol 2, (Chapters 7 thru 14) travelers' tales continue with numerous safety and security issues garnered from this worldwide sample of travelers' experiences including occasional kidnapping attempts, sexual harassment and assaults, and all sorts of other unpleasant episodes that may be matters of life and death for the unlucky few among inveterate as well as novice travelers. In my True Travel Tales two-book series you will find travelers' tales shared with me regarding their myriad travel encounters in hotels, on ships, planes, and trains, as well as in towns, pubs, restaurants, museums, historic battlefields, and even campgrounds. A Story Sampler The fictional movie character, Forrest Gump (in the movie of the same name) once said in a classic movie scene his famous quote, "My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." The Best of the Best of 10,000 or so stories included in the two-book series (both Vols 1 and 2) is basically divided into a variety of categories (chapters) all sampling what I feel are the most entertaining, informative, and interesting of all the stories that I've gathered from among the nearly 2,000 world travelers whom I've managed to interview traveling around the world over five decades. Of course, in the end, you are the final judge of which to you are truly the best of the travel tales that I've presented to you in this two-book series. However, be it as it may, even as everyone's tastes and likes are different, consider at least this collection of my best of the best to be a reasonable sample of travel stories that stand out for one good reason or another — at least to me! What to do? If any of the stories in Travel Tales: The Best of 10,000 Stories Vols 1 or 2 interest you in particular, you may want to read more of that same genre of stories in other books in my True Travel Tales continuing book series that capture your attention. Please be sure to search out and have a look-see among my variety of growing titles for more of those stories that grabbed your interest and attention in the first place. Finally, if you liked Vol 1 in my two-book series, you may also very well enjoy Travel Tales: The Best of 10,000 Stories Vol 2.

Travel Tales: Wild Animals is a collection of wildlife viewing stories including some very scary tales of often coming close to serious trouble with wild animals in your travels but managing to just barely escape. It is also a collection of the fearful sorts of things that can and do happen to travelers, but mostly these will not happen to you. But if they do, you get to experience real, raw fear including sometimes fear for your very own life. These are very unsettling occasions that may pop up now and again in your travels. Travel Tales: Wild Animals, includes specific tales of close calls, and, hopefully, great escapes with encounters by travelers, largely on safari in Africa and India, and elsewhere, even, with lions, tigers, snakes, hippos, elephants, Cape buffalos, crocodiles, dogs, bulls, monkeys, baboons, hyenas, birds of prey, cougars, bears, and more. This collection of true tales is the place to hear about them. I hope they don't happen to you, but if they do, I hope you manage to escape and overcome. Hopefully, you'll be all the wiser for reading about such things throughout these pages. By reading the accounts of the near mishaps of others you'll gain a healthier respect of what it is like to experience the true wild. And with a better respect of mother nature in the wild one gains better enjoyment and the utmost appreciation of creation. Close Calls: Wild Animals includes many examples of bad things that happen to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid such things. But bad things DO happen on occasion, and the best thing to do is to avoid them in the first place. But if we cannot, we should do our best to escape them. Again, while there's no easy, simple miracle list of failsafe strategies for always staying safe and surviving each dangerous situation with wild animals that may arise, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies from the many examples presented in this book that'll enable one to develop and keep in mind ways to enhance personal safety and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous outcomes. While many of the tales in this book are not strictly about life and death situations surrounding wildlife, many of them are, and many are about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise annoying nuisances that we all would do well to avoid and do without. The scope and variety of close calls with wild animals in this book may surprise you. And some would never likely even occur to you. Some are even humorous, like, for example, the many examples of exotic wild animal meats that you'd never eat on a dare back home, but are, instead, all in when it comes to trying, say, pressed rabbit in Peru or even steak tartare during your travels in the south of France! (I won't be the spoiler and reveal it to you here!) Yes, such an adventure may never even occur to you, but after reading about it in this book, it may give you pause — who knows? Maybe you'll never, ever eat a bizarre, strange dish in the first or next instance. Sure, you'll read stories in this book that will alert you to situations that may never occur to you. But if you avoid even one new travel danger that you might never have even thought of by reading this book, then I'll have accomplished a very useful purpose.

THE SERIES Over the last few decades, I've interviewed nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers. I am weaving the best of their nearly 10,000 fantastic travel tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories. These are travelers I've encountered on planes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in campgrounds, bars, cafes, restaurants, and pubs. These courageous travelers have freely shared their most personal travel experiences, some good and wonderful and others even horrific and life-threatening, which I, in turn, get to share with you now through my True Travel Tales series. THIS BOOK is a collection of the best travel stories of one of travel's greatest pleasures and most engaging pursuits, namely, dining and drinking. To be sure, obtaining food and drink is perhaps the singular most essential all-encompassing activity in travel. Beyond getting a roof over our heads, meeting and genuinely connecting with fellow travelers and the locals, and sightseeing, there is probably nothing so singularly important and demanding of our time as our focus on what we consume and what we imbibe on a daily basis in the service of our sustaining ourselves and quenching our thirst in travel. There is nothing more pleasurable and sometimes even more disgusting and discombobulating than the tales of our encounters with what we eat and what we drink. You will read or listen to interesting and riveting tales of the wide variety of occasions where food and drink create for us such great recollections of the best and the worst of our dining and drinking times that pop up time and again in our travels for most of us. This book is about the most exotic of our foods and drinks in travel including tales of what we would never dare eat or drink at home. To be sure, this book is the sum total of our daily experimentation with being often one or the other of both the 'Gourmand' or the 'Gourmet' within. And quite often the distinction blurs as we engage in the ridiculous behaviors of the oft hilarious and embarrassing comings and goings of crazy stupit scoundrels on their (our) own National Lampoon-like (summer) 'Vacations' who cannot seem to help themselves (ourselves) by behaving at times as the ugly Americains who we sometimes cannot help but be!

Travel Tales: The African Safari Reader is a collection of African wildlife safari stories including some very scary tales of coming close to possible trouble with wild animals in your African travels but fortunately managing to just escape unscathed. It is also a collection of some of the fearful sorts of things that can and do happen to travelers, but mostly these will not happen to you. But if they do, you get to experience real, raw fear including sometimes fear for your very own life. These are very unsettling occasions that may pop up now and again in your travels. Travel Tales: The African Safari Reader, includes specific tales of close calls, and, hopefully, even occasional great escapes by travelers, specifically on safari in Africa with lions, snakes, hippos, elephants, Cape buffalos, crocodiles, baboons, hyenas, and more. This collection of true tales is the place to hear about African wildlife. I hope dangerous African wildlife encounters don't happen to you, but if they do, I hope you manage to escape and overcome them. Hopefully, you'll be all the wiser for reading about such things throughout these pages. By reading the accounts of others on safari you'll gain a healthier respect for what it is like to experience the true wild. And you'll gain a better respect for Mother Nature in all her glory as you witness and enjoy her magnificent African wildlife creations. Travel Tales: The African Safari Reader includes examples of bad things that occasionally happen to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid such things. But bad things DO happen on occasion, and the best thing to do is to avoid them in the first place. But if we cannot, we should do our best to escape them. Again, while there's no easy, simple miracle list of failsafe strategies for always staying safe and surviving each dangerous situation with wild animals that may arise, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies from the many examples presented in this book that'll enable one to develop and keep in mind ways to enhance personal safety and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous outcomes. While many of the tales in this book are not strictly about life and death situations surrounding wildlife, some of them are, and some are no less about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise annoying nuisances that we all would do well to avoid and do without. The scope and variety of close calls with African wildlife in this book may surprise you. And some would never likely even occur to you. Some are even funny, like, for example, some of the examples of exotic wild animal meats you'd maybe try in Africa but would never eat even on a dare back home. Yes, such African wildlife encounters might never even occur to you, but after reading about it in this book, it may give you some pause — who knows? Please note: another book in our True Travel Tales series, namely Travel Tales: Wild Animals includes all of the African wildlife content included in this book plus more wildlife stories from all around the world. If by reading this African Safari Reader you avoid even one unexpected travel danger that you might never have even thought of other than by reading this book, then I'll have accomplished a very useful purpose.

Travel Tales: Russia & The USSR Is a collection of travel stories of one of the travel world's most, shall we say, duplicitous destinations — a bit mysterious, somewhat alluring, yet still demanding a modicum of caution. Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, aka the USSR, is a place you can never quite get comfortable with. Oh, for sure, things improved much when the Soviet Union as such collapsed and morphed into what is now a more modern-day Russia, or more formerly "The Russian Federation." Russia, for sure, abounds with history and untold artistic treasures and has modernized considerably bringing itself into the more modern-day 21st century. Maybe not quite among the world's most eagerly sought out destinations on Earth to visit, like, say, the Mediterranean, the pyramids of Egypt, the shopping and culinary meccas of  Western Europe, or the wilds of Africa, Russia remains, however, in the minds of armchair travelers and adventurers alike looking to travel one day to Russia, say, to St. Petersburg or Moscow, or perhaps, even take a river journey between these two cities, or take a train trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Russia, though lacking in the relatively innocuous and more mellow travel like, say, to Europe,  certainly now has suddenly become one of the more challenging countries to visit. Given the current world political arena, travel to Russia from the West for the foreseeable future will virtually cease to nil. Shall we say that this book on travel to Russia during the Cold War, through its return to the world stage, and now to its presence in the world as a pariah nation — now in the negative news media on a daily basis — is certainly not recommended as a destination for the unknown foreseeable future. This book, then, is more attuned to the armchair adventurer and those travelers who are now more curious than anything else and now more than ever before — about what travel to Russia has been like in the recent past, and now that Russia is largely off the plate for travel at least for the foreseeable future. Now is the time to sit back and contemplate more about what travel to Russia was like in the recent past, now that it is not likely to return any time soon as a goal for future travel adventures. So, given our True Travel Tales destinations sub-series, what was travel to the old USSR and Russia like, at least at the beginning of the more modern-day twenty-first century and slightly beyond? It is one of our purposes of the True Travel Tales series to provide a cross-section of travel life in the world's most popular and alluring places, that along with the good comes sometimes a portion of the bad as well. In the True Travel Tales series, we aim to pull no punches. You'll see some of the good and best sides of Russia as it reached the more modern era, and in so doing, you'll also sample some of the more discomforting or disquieting darker aspects as well that sadly were also part of the cycle of travel life in such a diverse and exotic region as the USSR and our token look of travel to Russia in its greater glory in the more modern day.

Travel Tales: Cons, Scams & Ripoffs is a collection of tales of schemes perpetrated against travelers. If you're conned or scammed in your travels we hope you escape them with only minor inconveniences. This book collects a variety of schemes that happen to travelers, but mostly these won't happen to you. You'll read examples of often elaborately orchestrated schemes that unscrupulous actors create and carry out on you if you're unwary. This book includes common schemes designed to separate you from your money. Although scammed victims will often credit con artists with undo creativity, most often victims would just as soon not be victims to begin with. Indeed, the stories  in this book run the gamut of clever ruses played out on unwary travelers. Even the manufacturers of alluring beautiful carpets for sale in the Middle East see you coming! How easy they fool you. Travelers pay ridiculous prices for items they could've paid far less. Is bargaining so distasteful, or have they not bargained nearly long enough? Scams have been around since time immemorial. Other cons lure unsuspecting victims into bars. And gambling cons are run on tourists looking for quick and easy wins, too trusting players, and unwitting losers.There are countless stories of ripoffs involving taxis, camels, rickshaws, boats, and what have you, whereby travelers would've been much better off had they negotiated fares in advance. "Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate" we're told before getting in cabs. You'd be surprised how many travelers still fail to do this! People love to be fooled by clever magicians. Americans are often easily conned into taking for granted so-called self-styled 'experts,' who fool you into believing they really know what they're doing when clearly they do not. It's no surprise that some river guide 'experts' have fallen victim, themselves, to crocodile and hippo attacks while guiding travelers on jungle rivers. This book is the place to read abou the perpetrators and the victims of cons and scams to get a good idea of what some are and how to avoid them. You'll gain a healthy respect for what it is to be the victim of one of the seemingly endless variety of schemes designed to lure the unwary traveler. And with a better knowledge of dangers of falling victim to these cons and scams through reading the accounts of others, hopefully, you'll gain a better sense of safety, security, enjoyment, and appreciation of your travels. This book includes many examples of bad things that can happen to the unwary traveler. But bad things DO happen, and the best thing is to avoid them in altogether. We should try our best to escape them. While there's no easy miracle fix for dealing with the seemingly endless variety of cons and scams, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies in this book that should better enable you to make you more aware of the schemes in travel to help you reduce the risks of succumbing to them. While many of the cons and scams are not particularly dangerous, many are about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise annoying nuisances that we'd all do very well to avoid. Some of the cons, scams, and ripoffs may surprise you, and some would never likely even occur to you. Indeed, such misadventures may never happen to you, but reading about them should at least give you some pause. Who knows, maybe you'll never suffer the indignity and inconvenience of a con game or scam after all. Sure, you'll read the stories that'll alert you to situations you've never heard of, but if you avoid even one con or scam through reading this book, then I'll have accomplished a very useful purpose.

Travel Tales: Getting Away With It — Or Almost! is about the mischief or worse that travelers sometimes get away with doing themselves. Yes, they may perpetrate their own schemes on fellow travelers or even the locals themselves. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you don't. This book collects the curious along with some extraordinarily funny situations travelers sometimes get themselves into that they'd normally not at home. This book includes the true tales of what travelers try to get away with while free of the controls of their normal daily lives at home. While traveling, you often strive to be all you can be, good or bad, and sometimes rightly or wrongly so. You behave, after all, often just to see if you can do it — if you can get away with it!  You are an 'Actor' playing roles you'd never dream of doing back at home. You might try foods or drinks you'd never dream of consuming back home. Or you might steal ashtrays, bathrobes, hotel keys, and even license plates as souvenirs that you'd never dream of doing back home. You might try to get into places without paying. You might pretend to be someone you're not, like crashing a party given by a famous movie star. You might try to sneak around the Metro without paying, not because you didn't have the money, but because you just wanted to see if you could do it. Some stories may border on being abject criminal acts like the guy who treated his friends to free dinners by paying for them using fraudulent credit cards. Some travelers smuggle. Some things people get away with are silly, funny, mischievous, or ridiculous even. One man, for instance, poured bubble bath in London's Trafalgar Fountain flooding the square with soap bubbles! Some tales involve doing some not-so-good things to fellow travelers. We don't condone some things that travelers have done, but don't we secretly admire some things some people manage to pull off? For example, some people secretly rooted for DB Cooper who hijacked an airplane over the Pacific Northwest. Travel is often a time to test yourself, to see what you are made of. Oh, we all get away with some harmless silly things that hurt no one. And to some extent, that is who we are. We travel, we grow up, we mature. Yes, we do things we wish we hadn't and that we're not proud of.  In our True Travel Tales series, in Pickpockets & Other Thieves, we help you travel more safely and securely, helping you to avoid pickpockets who will happily relieve you of your money, valuables, and passport. In Cons, Scams & Ripoffs we help you steer clear of cons and scams that separate you from your money in a variety of deceitful ways that also cause you untold discomfort and distress. And finally, in this book, Getting Away With It, it's your turn to learn the accounts of the sorts of things that some of us pull off that are not strictly legal and sometimes smack of things that we're not all that proud of doing.  Yes, this book may cause you to take a closer look at yourself and see some of the things that you as a traveler do that maybe you wish you hadn't done at all. Pickpockets and other thieves, and con artists and scammers are the sorts of people we want to stay away from. And our getting away with some things ourselves that we may not be all that proud of is a part of the process of growing up and learning what we should avoid doing in the first place or at least grow out of. 

THIS SERIES Over the last few decades, I've interviewed nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers. I am weaving the best of their nearly 10,000 fantastic travel tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories. These are travelers I've encountered on planes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, cafes, and pubs. These courageous travelers have freely shared their most personal travel experiences, some good and wonderful and others even horrific and life-threatening, which I, in turn, get to share with you now through my True Travel Tales series.   THIS BOOK Travel Tales: Egypt, Morocco & North Africa Is a collection of travel stories of one of the travel world's most mystical sought-after destinations — the top of Africa, also known as the 'Dark Continent.' Certainly among the world's handful of the most eagerly sought out places on Earth to visit, without a doubt, the pyramids in Egypt, the souks of Morocco, and the lure of the Sahara on camelback loom large in the minds of armchair travelers and would-be adventurers. And while North Africa, especially, the pyramids of Egypt and the souks of Morocco are so very untypical of the relatively innocuous and mellow travels in Europe, travel to North Africa is often beset with experiences that are always exciting for most yet potentially challenging for others. It is particularly recommended, for instance, that relatively inexperienced solo women travelers to North Africa keep its challenges clearly in mind regarding safety and security issues that would be well taken into consideration. To be sure, North Africa's marvelous exotic foods and drinks and sights do not disappoint. And there truly is no world equal to the view of the pyramids in all their splendor that may very well be the most amazing sights to be seen the world over. Indeed there are some ridiculous behaviors of the oft hilarious and embarrassing comings and goings of crazy stupit scoundrel tourists on their (our) own National Lampoon-like (summer) 'Vacations' who cannot seem to help themselves (ourselves) by behaving at times as the ugly Americains who we sometimes cannot help but be! I mean, really! Climbing to the top of the pyramids which is patently illegal? It is also one of our purposes of the True Travel Tales series to provide a cross-section of travel life in the World's most popular places, along with the good comes sometimes a portion of the bad as well. In the True Travel Tales series, we aim to pull no punches. You'll see the good and best sides of Egypt, Morocco, and North Africa, and you'll also perhaps sample some of the more discomforting or disquieting darker aspects as well that sadly are also part of the cycle of travel life in such a diverse and exotic region as North Africa.

THIS SERIES Over the last few decades, I've interviewed nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers. I am weaving the best of their nearly 10,000 fantastic travel tales into a psychology of travel as revealed by these very telling stories. These are travelers I've encountered on planes, trains, buses, ships, tours, safaris, and in campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, cafes, and pubs. These courageous travelers have freely shared their most personal travel experiences, some good and wonderful and others even horrific and life-threatening, which I, in turn, get to share with you now through my True Travel Tales series. THIS BOOK Travel Tales: France — Paris & the Riviera! Is a collection of travel stories of one of the travel world's most favorite destinations, if not certainly among the world's handful of the most popularly visited places anywhere. Without a doubt, Paris is by far my favorite city, not only in Europe but in all the world. And I love France as well. And while modern Paris is always exciting for me to visit, it is the old Paris that remains particularly etched in my memories. To be sure, with its marvelous food and drink and phenomenal sights Paris and France certainly do not disappoint. Paris may very well be the most popular city in all of Europe as well as the rest of the world for that matter. The tales perhaps of what we eat and drink in France you will read or hear interesting and riveting tales of the wide variety of occasions where food and drink create for us such great memories of the best that the world of fine dining has to offer. Indeed there are some ridiculous behaviors of the oft hilarious and embarrassing comings and goings of crazy stupit scoundrels on their (our) own National Lampoon-like (summer) 'Vacations' who cannot seem to help themselves (ourselves) by behaving at times as the ugly Americans who we sometimes cannot help but be! It is also one of our purposes of the True Travel Tales series to provide a cross-section of travel life in the world's most popular cities, along with the good comes sometimes a portion of the bad as well. In the True Travel Tales series, we aim to pull no punches. You'll see the good and best sides of Paris and France, and you'll also perhaps sample some of the more discomforting or disquieting darker aspects as well that sadly are also part of the cycle of life in such a diverse metropolitan city as Paris.

Travel Tales: Italy, Rome & More Is a collection of travel stories of one of the travel world's most favorite destinations. Without a doubt, Rome, Firenze (Florence), Venezia (Venice), and the rest of Italy are to be sure among my favorite destinations in the world to visit. The travel stories in this book are basically divided into a number of parts. And you may ask why is the book divided in this way? The short answer is that when asked to share their most interesting travel tales of their visits to Italy, it is no surprise that in addition to some of the more touristy stuff, there are some metaphysical stories of visitors as well because, simply stated, Italy does have its own share of the psychic and the paranormal that affect visitors to Italy just as elsewhere. There are also travelers' stories about some of the not-so-pleasant aspects of travel in Italy, particularly the fairly common occurrence of pickpocketing, especially by the Roma (Gypsy) populace, so travelers need to be particularly cautious and aware. Finally, solo women travelers often report a fairly common occurrence of aggressive sexual harassment in the form of fairly assertive, intrusive, verbal, and sometimes even unwelcomed physical advances. So, it is only fitting that I provide these stories for you as well — be they as they may —since these are the tales that travelers feel are important enough and therefore want to share with you. Mostly, your own Italy travels will typically be interesting, exciting, rewarding, safe, and without incident, but odd and unpleasant things can and do happen on occasion in your travels, and visiting Italy is certainly no exception. To be sure, with its marvelous food and drink, artwork, architecture, museums, and magnificent scenery, Italy with its great cities has so much to offer. It is also one of our purposes of the True Travel Tales series to provide a cross-section of travel life in the world's most popular cities and countries, but along with the good comes sometimes a portion of the bad as well. In the True Travel Tales series, we aim to pull no punches. You'll see the good and best sides of Italy and its cities and some of the more negative and regrettable travel occurrences in this area of the world as well.

Travel Tales: Hotels from Hell Is a collection of travel stories of one of the most basic experiences and needs of travelers, namely, securing safe and secure lodging during their travels. Indeed, of the nearly 2,000 travelers whom I have interviewed over nearly five decades, I've collected and chronicled the phenomenal, the good, the wonderful, and the fascinating of all sorts of aspects of hotels and lodging of travelers' stays. I've recorded as well for posterity their best stories in the form of ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks, just about anything and everything noteworthy that defines what the hotel and lodging aspects of their travel experience are all about. And along with these stories I've chronicled as well some of the not-so-good and not-so-wonderful sorts of risks and dangers of travel that travelers sometimes face with regard to their hotels and lodging. You might say I've studied and analyzed as best as I could the essence of travel safety and security while traveling abroad to countries around the world. The books in my True Travel Tales series include travel stories of just about anything and everything to do with lodging — all the sorts of situations that travelers may face in their adventures about their stays in hotels and lodges. Many stories are about the good and wondrous aspects of travel. And sometimes stories may even include the fascinating as well as sometimes the paranormal and psychic aspects of travel, too, and, yes, even the occasional strange and the bizarre. In all, this is a book on the psychology of travel with a focus on hotels and lodging in travel. And in this look at hotels and lodging in travel, we take a somewhat broader expanded look, and in some cases, we include hostels, campgrounds, safari lodges, cruise ships as floating hotels, and even as well the notion of a VW camper as a traveling hotel!

Travel Tales: Hawaii Paradox & Paradise   is all about travel to Hawaii. Sometimes Hawaii is the paradise you hope and expect it to be. But sometimes Hawaii is much more the paradox and less the paradise. And it is surprisingly so that Hawaii is sometimes home to the unusual, the paranormal, as well as even UFOs. This book collects the interesting situations travelers and residents sometimes get themselves into. This book includes the true tales of the sorts of things that you might expect to occur in a tropical paradise but also perhaps occurrences of the totally unusual and unexpected. Perhaps you are a visitor for the first time coming to Hawaii. Of course, you'll experience the wonder of the beautiful beaches, the weather, and the incredible surroundings and scenery. But you may not expect the unexpected or the unusual and just might be surprised at what can only be termed "a paradox," i.e., things you just might not expect would occur in paradise. You might try delicious foods or drinks you'd never dreamt of consuming back home. And you just may try some new things that are beyond the pale even. Some tales involve interacting with the locals. Some are about Hawaii visitors themselves. In our True Travel Tales series and Hawaii Paradox & Paradise, in particular, we encourage you to travel safely and securely and abide by all the rules. We expect that you will read about aspects of Hawaii that you have had no idea about. You'll see that Hawaii is a very complex blend of the incredible paradise that most visitors have in their imaginations Hawaii to be before they arrive. But you'll also see that Hawaii, like most anywhere else, is also a fascinating blend of some very unusual kinds of experiences that people would not normally expect. It is no wonder, then, this book will portray to you very important aspects of ancient Hawaiian history and culture that you would not normally expect to see or hear. So be surprised and yet expect the unexpected that makes up Hawaii to be both the paradise that you have learned to love and expect as well as the paradox full of wonderment and surprise that you never expect to see.

Travel Tales: England, Ireland & The UK   Collects travel tales of one of the world's multi-faceted favorite destinations. The allure of the UK or Ireland is a magnet to comfort and convenience, yet marvelous sightseeing, and is one of the easiest adventures to make without worrying about the language.             "Comfort" and "convenience," because, for the English speaker, a foreign language is not necessary. Gone are the fears of negotiating menus; it is the relief travelers feel.             There are occasional different accents and some expressions, but these are less a bother and more cute bumps on the culture road that bring occasional smiles. Unlike Mexico, for example, where safety and security necessitate keeping a wary eye on things… but with Ireland or the UK you can subtract that right out of the equation: fear is gone! Driving on the "wrong side of the road" can be scary, but rather think of it as a fun adventure. You haven't experienced true exhilaration until you've mastered driving on the left!             Also, factor into the equation — ancestry! What a great draw that is, for there is scarcely anywhere else in the world that bests ancestry hunting in the UK or Ireland. The possibility of finding a long-lost relative is huge! Of course, we have roots all over, but for many Americans and other English speakers, there's hardly a one of us who is not touched by the hint of a possible ancestor lost and found again somewhere, somehow in Ireland or the UK.             And still, there's one more significant draw for people to the UK: the interest in archeology, the metaphysical, spiritual, and even the occasional paranormal including UFOs and crop circles. Surely, Britain and Ireland also have an ancient history replete with mysteries that are ever more alluring.             For all these reasons a sightseeing or ancestry adventure to Ireland or the UK is unexcelled anywhere else in all your travels.

Travel Tales: Scary Stories Is also a collection of the fearful sorts of things that can and do happen to some travelers on occasion, but mainly these things will not happen to you. But if they do, you may get to experience real, raw fear including sometimes even fear for your very own life. These are very unsettling occasions that pop up now and again in your travels. This collection of true travel tales is the place to hear about them. I hope they don't happen to you, but if they do, I hope you'll manage to escape and overcome. Hopefully, you'll be all the wiser for reading about the scary tales of others told throughout these pages. Scary Stories includes many examples of bad things that sometimes do happen to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid such things. But bad things DO happen on occasion, and the best thing to do is to avoid them in the first place. But if we cannot, we should certainly at least do our best to escape them. And reading about the scary stories of others is helpful. While there's no easy, simple list of failsafe strategies for always staying safe and surviving each dangerous situation that may arise in life and travel, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies from the many examples presented in this reader of scary and frightening tales that'll enable one to develop and keep in mind ways to enhance personal safety and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous outcomes. While many of the tales in this book are not strictly about life and death situations, some of them are, and some are about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise annoying nuisances situations that we all would do well to avoid and certainly do without. The scope and variety of the scary tales in this book may surprise you. And some would never likely even occur to you. Some are even funny like, for example, El Diablo Rojo Loco, the story of riding the Crazy Red Devil "chicken bus" along the horrifying scary mountain roads of Panama.

Travel Tales: The Mexico Reader   Is a collection of travel stories to one of North America's no doubt favorite winter destinations. The allure of Mexico, whether its magnificent beach resorts, its exciting Latin culture, or its sumptuous food and drink… is a magnet to adventure, and is one of the easiest and closest escapes from the harsh American winter.          But travel to Mexico has always been something of a mixed bag — like one of Forrest Gump's famed boxes of chocolates — for in Mexico you never quite know what you're "gonna" get. In fact, so many stories of corrupt police, dangerous outlaws, the cartels, and other occasional unfortunate occurrences leave people who travel to Mexico always a little wary.          Mexico with all its wonder is not entirely without its dangers. And one need always be circumspect. While many North Americans love Mexico, Mexicans, and their culture, so many travelers to Mexico warn that aspects of visiting the country portend at times distinct potential dangers, so much so, that I have divided the book into three sections, modeled after the famous Clint Eastwood movie, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.          Succinctly said, the chances are that nothing untoward or unpleasant will happen to you. For the most part, your visit to Mexico will be memorable. But know this: you must always maintain a healthy respect and be circumspect in so far as your activities and actions in Mexico go. Betwixt and between most travelers' safe and secure travels to and within Mexico are distinct reports of some horrific and dangerous things that do happen on occasion to tourists.          Mexico has had a history of kidnappings, robberies, police extortions, as well as occasional rapes, and even murders.          If you act rationally and carefully and abide by common sense, again, your visit to Mexico is almost entirely likely to be among the most memorable of all your travels.

Travel Tales: Ghost Encounters Collects Michael Brein's ghostly accounts of the nearly 2,000 interviews with travelers he has met in his own travels around the world over the last four decades. Although the typical travel stories collected in the True Travel Tales book series are ordinarily oriented towards safety and security in travel, the very scary and spooky accounts of ghosts and hauntings and all the variations in between can and do occur to travelers. Mostly these things will not happen to you. But you never know. You'll read in the series plenty of examples of the wide variety of spirit and ghost encounters that may pop up now and again in your travels as well as your own home life.  This book, however, pauses all of this. Instead of dealing with all sorts of true accounts of close calls and great escapes in connection with all sorts of scary travel situations including chases, foiled kidnappings, attacks, roadblocks, scary places, trips from hell, borders, and police, hitchhiking, international spying, smuggling, and intrigue, being in the wrong places at the wrong times, terror attacks, bandits, Mexican standoffs, airplane crashes, accidents and mishaps, white slavery, robberies, sexual harassment and assaults and more — the series now pauses to explore the spooky world of ghosts and spirits and many of the no doubt related variations in between! Instead of reading about the dangers and mishaps of others, whereby you'll focus on and gain healthier respect for the true dangers and risks of travel and adventure... the point of this book is purely to explore a virtually little known aspect of reality. By all means, haunted places abound, and where it was heretofore a forbidden subject to bring up, it is now relatively good sport to seek out haunted establishments and even to write down your experiences in a variety of guestbooks and ledgers provided at these establishments for just that purpose. And make no mistake, whereas some of these stories are profoundly scary and unnerving, many are the stuff of keepsake memories and smack of efforts on the part of spirits to be recognized and even be remembered. Many of the scary accounts of travelers in this book are tales of times gone by. Many ghosts seem to be intent on making others remember them. Other ghost experiences seem to be never-ending repeating replays of cycles of discarnate entities seemingly trying to resolve conflicts of times long gone by. Yes, indeed, we are often the recipients of visits from ghosts and spirits on our own home turfs. It, therefore, behooves us to think of this book as not only a compendium of ghostly visits that we seek out or experience despite ourselves in our travels, but perhaps we ought to consider the visits of ghosts and spirits as similarly traveling themselves in a way from their own alternate space-time realities which conjoin or overlap with ours in one massive Contiguous Universe? In this Reader or compendium of ghost and spirit tales, we broaden our look at not merely what we think of as the typical shadows, spirits, or apparitions reported by so many, but also to a much broader reality of similarly related behaviors of presumably a wide variety discarnate supernatural entities that cut across in mysterious ways broad swaths of what we may typically refer to as ghost or spirit visitations and their interactions with us. Such ghostly encounters may not ever happen expressly to you, but assuredly something strange of an apparitional manifestation will invariably happen to a friend, a neighbor, or perhaps even a relative.

Travel Tales: Toilet Stories   is all about taking care of your daily business as best you can — doing your daily duty, so to speak… finding and using toilets and the like — in your travels. No matter where you are traveling to, no matter what you are doing, and no matter who you are when Nature calls, you had better answer. Talking about your bathroom needs is, indeed, one of the top ten daily topics discussed by fellow travelers among one another when they meet and talk and trade stories. Whether you are just a tourist or a seasoned traveler, rich or poor, old or young… King or pauper, no matter what and who you are, everyone shares this one absolute necessity in common of attending to your daily toilet needs post haste. Nature calls but waits for no one! Being under the weather toilet-wise definitely puts a damper on things — on every thing! One thing is for sure, if you do not have your bathroom and toilet ducks all lined up in a row, you will for sure be dead in the water. Of course, there is much disdain and disgust expressed by travelers in regard to their daily bathroom needs, especially the often gory details! No one really wants particularly to have to talk about it. But one thing is for sure whether or not you are a seasoned traveler or one of the world's truly great adventurers, when it comes to bathrooms and such, you had better have your act together! Last but not least, despite how disgusting tales of travelers' accounts of dealing with their number "ones" and their number "twos" may be, there are nonetheless many riotous accounts of toilet stories, too. Some of the funniest travel stories are about this very subject matter. This book collects the variety of interesting situations travelers and residents sometimes find themselves in especially in regard to their daily toilet experiences and encounters. This book includes the true tales of the sorts of things that you might expect to occur when Nature just does happen to call you — and know this for sure: Mother Nature will call you, sooner or later, sometimes even when you least expect it and often when you are not in a particularly appropriate space either to deal with it. You may very well be surprised when — not IF — Nature calls and you are just not prepared at that very instant to best deal with it. Nature cares not who you are, where you are, or what you are doing — when Nature does call you you had better be prepared to deal with it right there and then on the spot!

Travel Tales: Sea Stories — The Ways of Water I have collected so many fascinating stories of traveling the World's waterways from tales of ocean-going travel by huge ocean liners, and cruise ships to even sailboats. Indeed, if you expand the notion of travel along the World's waterways as well to include some of the Planet's most famous rivers, and if you consider the huge variety of means of water transport to also include small boats, canoes, rafts, and even scuba and snorkeling, and the like, you have an idea of the huge panoply and wealth of the means of water travel which travelers and adventurers are known to traverse and enjoy across the Globe. Indeed, if you consider the variety of purposes that travelers make use of bodies of water as well you will appreciate the wealth and variety of water-borne activities travelers and adventurers engage in from basic means of transport from one port to another to participate in an enormous variety of water-borne activities, including sports, entertainment, and exploration that travelers involve themselves with. It's so huge, after all. the why and the wherefore of how we engage in so many water-related activities that it does nothing less than boggle the mind, so much so, that in my True Travel Tales book series I have dedicated one entire volume to the myriad of water-travel and traveler-adventurer-related waterborne activities that travelers engage in whether for the simple purposes of transport from say here to there to the almost limitless variety of entertainment, and adventure activities as well as mind expansion that travelers engage themselves in. To be sure, the huge wealth and variety of water-related traveler-adventurer activities that people engage in will be seen to include an almost unimaginable variety of activities that a mere perusal of the chapter titles in Travel Tales: Sea Stories — The Ways of Water will be impetus enough to stir your imagination to appreciate more the huge scope and variety of possibilities, many of which you may not have even ever thought of. So relax and engage yourself in reading some of the most interesting travel tales that have resulted from my interviews of some 2,000 world travelers and adventurers on the particular subject of traversing and experiencing some of the World's most engaging waterways. On a more serious note please be advised some of the stories in this book take a more somber look at some of the more serious close calls, great escapes, and some not-so-lucky waterborne encounters of travelers during their travels and adventures around the Globe. In travel and adventure, just as in any other human activity, there are some serious personal safety and security issues that we must all engage ourselves in. Finally, very sadly and very somberly, no book on travelers' and adventurers' experiences could ever be complete without paying homage to those solo women travelers who through no fault of their own have fallen victim to disappearing and even losing their lives at times to the dastardly (still very likely occurring)… North African slave trade as well as elsewhere throughout the World.

Travel Tales: Snakes & Other Critters Collects Michael Brein's numerous accounts of the nearly 2,000 interviews with travelers he has met in his own travels around the world over the last five decades. Although the typical travel stories collected in the True Travel Tales book series are ordinarily oriented towards safety and security issues in travel, the very scary and dangerous accounts of snakes, scorpions, poisonous and deadly insects, other crawling critters, nasty pests, and nuisances of all kinds, and all sorts of variations in between are indeed reported by travelers. Mostly these encounters with nasty, dangerous, wild, and annoying critters will not likely happen to you. But you never know. You'll read in the series plenty of examples of the wide variety of encounters with snakes and other nefarious critters that may pop up now and again in your travels as well as your own daily home life.  This book, however, about pests, nuisances, and dangerous wild critters adds to all sorts of true accounts of other kinds of close calls and great escapes in connection with all sorts of scary travel situations including chases, foiled kidnappings, attacks, roadblocks, scary places, trips from hell, borders, and police, hitchhiking, international spying, smuggling, and intrigue, being in the wrong places at the wrong times, terror attacks, bandits, Mexican standoffs, airplane crashes, accidents and mishaps, white slavery, robberies, sexual harassment and assaults and more.

Travel Tales: Airplanes — Terror in the Skies: No collection of travel stories told by world travelers would be complete without the numerous accounts of the sorts of things people report they've seen or done on airplanes during their various travels to destinations around the world. Of course, in a book about travel you'd naturally expect to include stories of all kinds of goings on to do with airplanes and flying — for one, the normal sorts of travel experiences to do with flying as well as occasionally the more unusual, the strange, and even the paranormal. However, on the rare occasion, there are also the occasional horror stories to do with such things as hijackings, terror attacks, crashes, unusual turbulence, and a variety of other mishaps. Notwithstanding the above there also occasionally happen to be hilarious sorts of occurrences that happen on airplanes. And the things they never tell you… well, we have some aircrew shenanigans to share with you about crewmembers on and off duty! Mostly these unusual airplane occurrences gathered for you in this book will never likely happen to you. So this book is the safe and comfortable place for you to learn of the wide variety of vagaries of air travel that do occur on rare occasions. In Travel Tales: Airplanes — Terror in the Skies you'll find among travelers and airline crews as well the sorts of tales shared with me regarding their occasional encounters of the psychic and the paranormal that go hand-in-hand, right along with the typical wonderful accounts of a traveler's onboard experiences that you would not normally ordinarily expect to hear about except in a book like this that gathers the variety of airplane and flying tales. The stories in this book are basically divided into a number of different parts including travel tales of the good, wonderful, happy and glad, and funny, too — including as well a fair share of truly scary moments, spooky happenings, and some truly disquieting things that can occur onboard an aircraft that you otherwise might never expect experience, nor ever want to have happen to you. Mostly your own travels around the world will not likely be about ghosts, the spiritual, the mystical, or paranormal, per se, or the rare hijackings or onboard terror that can occur but rather more like the typical visitor mix of stories that you would normally expect to experience onboard an aircraft. In the True Travel Tales series, we aim to pull no punches, either. You'll see much of the good side and expression of the so-called "yang" (the good) that a wonderful and satisfactory experience on board an aircraft destined to wherever you are going. When I refer to this book as "Travel" you'll find that the term as used in "Travel Tales," really covers a broader brush as well — yes, travel tales in the sense of someone traveling from one place to another, but it also means, in a wider sense, the idea that ghosts, or spirits, or UFOs, or what have you, however, you may choose to refer to them, also appear to be 'traveling' or 'travelers' themselves in their own right as perhaps from one realm or dimension to another! Even hypothetically onboard or in tandem with an aircraft. So, think of travel in this broader sense as well. Finally, in this book of airplane and flying stories, you will also see some stories thrown in of some of the challenges and happenings with regard to the wondrous lucky few who have managed to fly around the world on incredible airline tickets.

Travel Tales: Down Under — Australia & New Zealand   Is a collection of travel stories of among the travel world's most favorite destinations. Without a doubt, Australia, New Zealand also known affectionately as Downunder), as well as nearby neighboring islands of the South Pacific are to be sure among my favorite destinations in the world to visit. The travel stories in this book about this area of the world are basically divided into a number of geographic parts. When asked to share their most interesting travel tales of visits to Downunder and other nearby island nations, it is no surprise that in addition to some of the more touristy stuff, there are some interesting metaphysical-related stories of visitors to tell as well since, simply stated, this part of the world does also have its own share of the psychic and paranormal aspects that affect visitors to just about anywhere. There are also a few travelers' tales about some of the not-so-pleasant aspects of travel to these areas as well. So, it is only fitting that I provide some of these stories for you too — be they as they may — since these are the tales that travelers feel are important enough and therefore want to share with you. Mostly, your own Downunder travels will typically be interesting, exciting, rewarding, safe, and without incident, but odd and unpleasant things can and do happen on rare occasions in your travels, and visiting the Southern Pacific is certainly no exception. To be sure, with its marvelous food and drink, artwork, architecture, museums, and magnificent natural scenery, Downunder with its great cities and natural vistas has so much to offer. It is also one of our purposes of the True Travel Tales series to provide a cross-section of travel life in the world's most popular cities and countries, but along with the good comes occasionally a portion of the bad as well. In the True Travel Tales series, we aim to pull no punches. You'll see the good and best sides of the world and its cities as well as some of the rarer possibly negative and regrettable travel aspects in this area of the world as well.

Travel Tales: Trains — Terror on the Rails: Is the next book in line of relatively shorter-take samplers in my True Travel Tales book series. It's a collection of some scary close calls on passenger or freight trains while plying some of the World's most famous railways and barely managing in some instances to escape from being robbed or even harmed. Train Stories is a collection of some fearful close calls that can and do happen to world rail travelers on occasion. Mostly these will never happen to you but if they do, you may get to experience some real, raw fear including sometimes even fear for your own life on some very unsettling occasions that can potentially pop up now and again to any of us rail travelers and adventurers. This collection of True Travel Tales is the place to hear about them. I hope such things don't happen to you, but if they do, I hope you'll manage to escape and overcome. Hopefully, you'll be all the wiser for reading about such things throughout these pages. Again, Trains includes some examples of bad things that occasionally happen to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid such things. But bad things of course DO happen now and again, and the best thing to do is to of course avoid them in the first place! Hah! But if we cannot, we should certainly at least do our best to escape them. While there is no easy, simple laundry list of failsafe rail traveling strategies for always staying safe and surviving each potentially dangerous situation that may arise in your travels on the rails, there are, nevertheless, meaningful takeaway strategies to be learned from the numerous examples presented in this book that will enable one to develop and keep in mind ways to enhance personal safety and reduce the risks of potentially dangerous outcomes at times in your travel on the World's railroads. While the tales in Trains are of course not all strictly about life and death and/or robbery situations, many are doubtless about difficult, embarrassing, and otherwise potentially annoying nuisance situations that we all would do very well to do without in the first place. The scope and variety of close calls and ultimate escapes in Trains — Terror on the Rails may very well surprise you and cause you a good laugh now and again as well. Some are quite funny, like, for example, the story of soiled clothing so very badly in need of laundering that traveled over and over again throughout the rails of France. The extreme close-call adventures may never happen to you, but reading about them in this particular book in my True Travel Tales series, may give you pause: who knows? Maybe you'll never, be followed, stalked, chased, or intimidated at all in the first place or maybe in the next instance throughout your travels on the rails. Sure, you'll read stories in this book that will alert you to situations that may never even have occurred to you in the first place. But if you avoid even one potentially new (to you) travel danger by reading this book, then I will have accomplished a very useful purpose.

Travel Tales: Nine Lives Travelers is a collection of very scary tales of close calls and great escapes in your travels. Nine Lives Travelers are people who could have easily lost one of their "nine lives" by not making it through a travel situation that should have claimed at least one of them, had things gone awry. This book is a collection of bad and fearful things that do occasionally happen to travelers despite their best efforts to avoid them. But bad things DO happen now and again, and it's best of course to avoid them in the first place, but, of course, if we cannot, we should certainly do our best at least try to escape them. While there's no easy, simple list of failsafe strategies for always staying safe in dangerous situations that may arise in travel, there are, however, meaningful strategies to be learned from the examples in this book that will enable one to increase one's safety and reduce the risks of dangerous outcomes. While many of the Nine Lives Travelers tales are not strictly about life and death situations, some are about difficult, embarrassing, funny, and otherwise annoying situations that we all would do very well to avoid and certainly do without. The scope of the close calls and ultimate escapes in this book may very well surprise you. And some would never even occur to you. Some are even funny, like, for instance, El Diablo Rojo Loco, the very close-call story of riding the Crazy Red Devil "chicken bus" through the horrifying mountain roads of Panama. Yes, such an adventure may never happen to you, but after reading about it, it may give you some pause — who knows? Maybe you'll never, ever happen to board a chicken bus! Sure, you'll read stories in this book that will alert you to situations that may never even occur to you. But if you avoid even one new travel or life danger — if you can avoid losing that one of your nine lives) by simply reading this book —then I'll have accomplished a very useful purpose. Since it's impossible to include every tale of nearly losing one of your very valuable nine lives, in my collection of True Travel Tales all in one single volume, they do, of course, appear throughout my True Travel Tales series. A few books elsewhere in the series, for example, Travel Tales: Wild Animals, Travel Tales: The African Safari Reader, and Travel Tales: Snakes and Other Critters, of course, do specifically include tales of close calls (and, hopefully, great escapes) by travelers, largely on safari in Africa and elsewhere in the world, with wild animals, including lions, tigers, snakes, hippos, elephants, Cape buffalos, crocodiles, dogs, bulls, monkeys, baboons, birds of prey, cougars, hyenas, bears, snakes, scorpions and many more. Just What Is a "Nine-Lives Traveler?" In Travel Tales: Nine Lives Travelers we broadly consider that those of us travelers and adventurers though having naturally our one and likely only single cherished God-given life to live have the potential, of course, to court seriously dangerous or potentially disastrous (or even funny or embarrassing for us) close calls such that we may very easily and loosely have skillfully managed to "save" or even sometimes hypothetical "lose" in our travels or adventures. Yet we live another mindful day. We say we have "lost" (or nearly lost) one of our potential so-called "nine lives" when we have managed to maintain, contain, or even sustain ourselves in these sometimes risky (or exceedingly embarrassing or funny situations during our travel lives) and have duly managed to "survive" and "overcome" to live yet another travel day!