Monte Carlo For Vagabonds

When R.A. Dalkey travels cheap, he thinks bigger than hostel dorms, overnight trains and pasta with tomato sauce for every meal. Hell roll out his sleeping bag in Madrids red light district, nap on the streets of Monaco and furtively string up his hammock on Swiss farms. Hell spontaneously teach English in Laos in exchange for rice. Hell thumb rides anywhere from West Timor to South Africa. Hell try smiling a lot, and see where it takes him. Most of the time its somewhere good.

As this collection of stories will reveal, it doesnt always go smoothly. Indonesian bush-fires chase him from his campsite. His shoes freeze solid in Siberia. He gets head-butted by an Albanian villager. Hes shaken by earthquakes and terrified by witching-hour excavations in Andorran valleys. And, incompetent as ever with ropes, his hammock has a habit of falling down in the middle of the night - with him in it.

Yet he wouldnt have it any other way: travelling Dalkey-style delivers the richest of experiences. And as he shares the adventures few of us would brave, youll pick up gems about this crazy planet. Do you know which head of state was an Olympic bobsleigh competitor? Or how long your unattended bag will go untouched in Japan? Whos eating all the ice cream in Pyongyang? And how do cats jump in Swedish?

Like that uncle with the rose-tinted specs and a grumpy anarchist student rolled into one, Dalkey turns up his nose at travel insurance and shows that theres more than one way to see a world that always steers us to play it safe...