Traveling mainly by motorcycle, the author traverses 45 countries on six continents in this memoir, experiencing both fascinating and harrowing travails during a one-year journey. With a healthy mix of contemporary and historical perspectives, new insights are provided on typical tourist destinations such as the Taj Mahal and the Trevi Fountain. Additionally, encounters with a law enforcement official in the Czech Republic and a panty-wielding pickpocket in Istanbul (among other things) supply plenty of humor along the way. These vivid and engaging accounts showcase the destinations not just as tourists see them, but as residents experience them as well, realistically portraying floods, earthquakes, and civil unrest.