A box of books.
August 11th, 2011
My new book ‘Tell Them to Get Lost’ arrived today. In fact, I got a whole box of them. The book looks great and it’s always such a buzz holding the book in your hands for the first time. Here’s the blurb from the back of the book: 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?… (read more)
The Laundry Boat Express.
July 3rd, 2011
After I finished my tour of duty in Vietnam with SNV I had a few days off before heading home. I went to a cooking class, had a massage (and no, not one with a happy ending!) and went on a 3-day cruise of Halong Bay. The cooking class (with Hidden Hanoi) was fantastic. There were only three of us in the class and we cooked up Vietnamese spring rolls, BBQ’d pork balls, fish sauce soup with green papaya and fresh bun noodle. We spent almost three hours cutting, dicing, slicing and cooking then I ate my body weight in food. It was the best… (read more)
Off the beaten track in Vietnam.
June 27th, 2011
I’ve just got home from another wonderful trip through the wilds of Northern Vietnam. Like my visit last November I was doing some work for SNV, a Dutch NGO. From Hanoi we travelled by car up into the Northern Highlands through areas that don’t get too many tourists. Last time I helped design four logos, write a few taglines and whip up a couple of brochures and a website, and this time we were just as busy. We did logo design and straplines for the remaining four provinces, plus whipped up a lazy three brochures in two days back in an ad agency in Hanoi. On this jaunt up north we visited the province of Cao Bang – pronounced “Cow Bung’. I suggested ‘Cowabunga, dude!’ for the strapline… (read more)
Thacker in Afghanistan.
May 30th, 2011
Not this Thacker, though. My brother Colin (or Titch as he prefers to be called) is in the Australian Air Force and is stationed in Afghanistan (and his son Justin is in the Army and recently was posted in East Timor!). He has been there for six months already and hasn’t been kidnapped or shot once yet (where’s the fun in it then I tell him). Although he did tell me the other week when I spoke to him on the phone that he didn’t get much sleep the previous night because ‘the buggers kept throwing missiles at the base.’ Well, those buggers can easily find out exactly where to throw those missiles. They just have to go to Colin’s Facebook page… (read more)
Tell Them to Get Lost.
May 19th, 2011
Well, after a few months of throwing titles around for my new book we’ve gone back to my original title (thanks to Larissa, my publisher!). And, I even have a cover! I got the first design layout last week from Random House and I quite like it (I like the nod to the original 1975 South East Asia on a Shoestring). I wasn’t sure if I liked it to begin with because it was different, but then I liked it because it was different – you need that book to stand out on the shelf! So all is chugging along nicely at the moment for the September launch. I went up to Sydney last week for… (read more)
Some random news.
April 13th, 2011
I’m alive. Yes, I’ve been away from the blogosphere for quite a while, but that’s because I’ve been frantically writing away to finish my new book. Which I just did – and only a week past my deadline. The other big news is that I have a new publisher. I’m now with Random House – which I’m very excited about (here’s my new Random House bio here). Some of my favourite travel writers of all time are also with Random House including, Bill Bryson, Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace, Tony Hawks , Colin Thubron, Tim Moore and (Tim’s brother) Peter Moore. For those that don’t know, my new yet-to-be-titled book is about my trip retracing the 1974 journey through South-East Asia of Lonely Planet founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler using their original South East Asia on a Shoestring guidebook as my only reference… (read more)
From couch to couch around the world.
January 24th, 2011
That’s the title of my new book. Well, my most recent book ‘Sleeping Around’ translated into Slovenian. It’s entitled ‘Od kavča do kavča okoli sveta’ which translates into ‘From couch to couch around the world.’ The book is published by Založba Dovganočka (try saying that with a mouthful of kranjska klobasa). The chapters in the book are by the countries that I couchsurfed in and it was interesting to see what they were in Slovenian. See if you can figure them all out… (read more)
Travel highlights of 2010.
December 31st, 2010
It wasn’t a big travelling year for me compared to last year, but the few overseas and local trips that I took were full of great highlights. From staying at five-star resorts (with our own private butler) to skiing untracked powder (in Australia no less) to dining with locals in the mountains of Vietnam (oh, except the smoked pig’s intestines part) to snorkelling with a dole of turtles (that’s the correct collective noun I believe!). So, without further ado here is my Top Ten Travel Highlights from 2010 (in no particular order)… (read more)
A Christmas tipple?
December 14th, 2010
It’s that time of year when most people (well, most Australians at least) give the bottle a bit of a nudge. I gave it a good nudge at the ASTW (Australian Society of Travel Writers) Christmas party last week. Oh, my head. My self inflicted hangover was wine induced, but it could have been worse. Last month when I was in Vietnam I got quite tipsy on rice wine and I had stomach cramps to go along with my headache. My stomach cramps may have had something to do with the fact that we (about twenty of us) were all drinking the sickly sweet rice wine from a large wooden bucket. Out of shared straws… (read more)
Friday Brilliant Friday.
December 5th, 2010
I saw U2 on Friday night and it was one of the best concerts that I have ever been to. My girlfriend Beth and I got there nine hours before the show started and I’m so glad we did. We ended up only fours rows from the front right below Bono – as in so close that I could see his nasal hairs. I’ve seen U2 four times now including, and this shows my age, way back in 1984. I even wore my 1984 U2 tour shirt to the concert (and I have to say that… (read more)