I love reading travel books as I am travelling. I picked up this one before I embarked on my trip to Belgium and I am so glad I did.
I really like the layout of this book. Is that a weird thing to comment on? Let's just go with it, shall we...the book is broken down into Countries/Continents and then sub-divided into ‘chapters’, each chapter told by the point of view of one of the authors.
I saw this book recommended on one of the many travel blogs I read. I unfortunately cannot remember the exact one. I think it was Twenty Something Travel.
The book is about three women in their late twenties who start off by taking a trip to Peru for a vacation. Like most women in their late twenties, these women are done school and are in their chosen profession. They have roommates, one or two have boyfriends that may or may not be potential lifelong partners. All three of them have busy New York lives that they are not quite sure if they are willing to give up, or at least put on hold for…let’s say a year.
In Peru they make some sort of pact that they will all take one year off and travel the world. They do. They go to Kenya to volunteer, India for yoga, Southeast Asia for culture and Australia for a road trip. While reading this book I definitely felt inspired. I wish I had the means and guts to take a year off and buy a Round-the-World Ticket and just live like a nomad for a period of time.
Their trip was not always blissful. Complications like job opportunities and love life issues from back home started to catch up with them and choices had to be made. In addition these women slept in cockroach infested hotels, were harassed/threatened by a taxi driver and even woke up to find a hairy tarantula at the foot of their bed. The latter may have been enough for me to book it the hell out of there. I cringe every time I think of that scene and I am considering staying in only 5-star hotels when I am in India (Ok, that may have come off as a bit pretensions, but my fear of spiders or in this case poisonous monsters, is off the charts).
This novel definitely made me smile and have slight panic attacks (spiders are my biggest fear). I really love the way they told their adventure. Sometimes reading travel blogs I find that they have it so easy, just traveling around, writing about their experiences as a way to earn money. This book definitely puts it into perspective that just because you leave home for a year to travel, does not mean the responsibilities and issues you left behind won’t follow you.
Happy Reading!
Labels: Book Review, Travel Reads, Wanderlust Reads