Brian Thacker

When Tony Wheeler wrote Lonely Planet's first-ever shoestring guidebook, South-East Asia offered 'cheap and interesting travel without the constantly oppressing misery of some of the less fortunate parts of Asia'. Certain 'hotspots' in the region attracted the tourist crowds, but there were many 'untouched places' too.

So have Tony's recommendations stood the test of time? Just how much has South-East Asia changed since the Wheelers ambled through the region in flared pants?

Brian Thacker decides to retrace Tony and Maureen's footsteps through Portuguese Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Burma using the original 1975 South east Asia on a Shoestring as his only guidebook. Along the way Brian meets a cast of folk from the old guidebook who are still manning hotel desks and serving in restaurants. He also encounters mishap and adventure at every step of the Banana Pancake Trail - breaking bread with a gang of ravenous rats; swimming with a hungry goat-and-possibly-also-human-eating crocodile; crashing his scooter (twice); being wanted by the police and propositioned by Gary who likes 'pens', and getting lost everywhere..… (más)

Der australische Autor fliegt von einer Stadt der Welt zur anderen, nur um bei Couchsurfern zu schlafen. Ich finde das eine sehr witzige Idee, denn man erfährt auf diese Weise viel über Land und Leben. Aber man muss wohl auch trinkfest und belastbar sein.
Für mich wäre es nicht unbedingt etwas, ich bin gern alleine und brauche meinen Schlaf. Allerdings hatte ich sowohl über Couchsurfing (von meiner Tochter) als auch über Homecrossing schon Leute bei mir und fand das wunderbar. Man macht sich Gedanken, was man anschauen könnte, geht zu Veranstaltungem ,die man sonst auf dem Sofa liegend verpasst hätte und lernt andere Menschen kennen.
Couchsurfing und Bookcrossing sind für mich Phänomene, die das Gute in den Menschen beweisen, wie ich finde. Meine Tochter war in Skandinavien als Couchsurferin unterwegs und hat nur gute Erfahrungen gemacht.… (más)

This is one of the rare non-fiction books that managed to keep my attention so that I could read it rather quickly (less than a week in comparison to my usual time of several weeks for a non-fiction).

The title of the German edition (Couch Surfing) first caught my attention at the library because I had heard of Couch Surfing and was interesed in reading about somebody who actually tried it. Brian Thacker has an intereseting way of writing.
The thing that started to get on my nerves after some time is that his time seems to be spent mostly with going to parties and drinking alcohol (to be fair his hosts usually took him along, so Brian is not completely at fault here). The reason for this might be that the author's goal was to visit "interesting" people, who ended up to be the sort of people who went out late and drink lots of alcohol. I myself being a non-alcohol, non-party person, I would have prefered some less "interesting" and sober people (just to prove that such persons are also doing Couch Surfing). That might also have prevented the book from feeling a bit dull during the end.

Certainly an interesting book to learn about Couch Surfing and see into the private lives of people from foreign countries. The writing style and topic would have gotten four stars from me, but the excess of partying lowered my rating to three.… (más)

Das ist nur eine Leseprobe aus dem angeführten Werk. Es handelt sich nämlich um ein Leseexemplar von einer Buchhandlung.

Die Geschichte ist nett, schnell zu lesen und die Begegnungen angemessen ungewöhnlich. Genau, was ich mir von einem Buch über Couchsurfing erwarten würde - es geht um die Leute, die man trifft und nur zweitranging um die Länder, die man bereist.

Ich werde das Buch zum nächsten Couchsurfing Treffen mitbringen und schauen, ob ich es auf eine Couchsurfing Reise schicken kann.… (más)