Robert Young Pelton

As capable of some literary brilliance as he is of embroidering his texts, the only constant is his ability to go to the right place at the right time and make contact with interesting characters either big or unknown.

One can read the Sierra Leone story as a reflection on African wars and intervention, by either the UN or PMCs. The Chechnya one is the best IMHO, full on war, closed borders, POWs, religious fanatics, cold, hospitality, good cars, bad cars, artillery barrages, a dystopian city, narrow escapes ...

And with Bougainville comes the lowest point of the book, that section is half interview and analysis of the main characters behind Sandline (PMC) and half regular war correspondent story on the action on the island itself. As such it neither excels at one or the other.… (más)

Being Australian and living in one of the safest countries on earth, one can get complacent about danger. So, it's always an education to open "The World's Most Dangerous Places" to a random page and see what the poor people in any given country have to deal with on a daily basis.

"The World's Most Dangerous Places" lists a range of countries and areas one would be best to avoid and the myriad reasons for avoiding them. Interestingly, I've been to ten of the countries listed as dangerous and survived visiting them all so I don't know if that makes me a hardened traveller or just particularly lucky.

Young Pelton sometimes sounds like he's bragging about all the dangers he's seen and I can imagine that if you were to meet him at the pub, his stories would get a bit tiresome after a while. So much better all round if you get the book and read at your pleasure.… (más)

The first part of this big tome is a crash course in street smarts fro dangerous places, which can be anywhere. That's followed by several hundred pages of description for the most dangerous countries, such as Yemen, Columbia, and Russia. The first part is fast-moving and engaging. Pelton mixes true anecdotes with practical advice. The second part is long and intended more as a reference, though he does include stories for each location. I found the second part challenging because this version is from several years ago and many of the circumstances have changed.… (más)