Dead Men Don't Leave Tips: Adventures X Africa

This was my first experience reading about the travel adventures written by Brandon Wilson and I have to say it was one enjoyable one. We are taken with Brandon and Cheryl Wilson as they travel the length of Africa. We start our adventure right from the beginning and all the woes that transpire in preparation and sometimes some of the unfortunate, like Brandon catching the flu. Once aboard for the true beginning of their adventure they are grouped with nearly two dozen people who in themselves are a story ready to be written. Then our couple goes it on their own and it is here that they truly get into the meat of their journey, meeting natives, experiencing incredible landmarks and truly tasting of Africa. This work is very well-written, is brimming with giggles and down to earth reality and the photos bring the reality of the read to life. I enjoyed this one; I believe you will too.

Brandon, author of 'Yak Butter Blues' has now written about a 7-month trek covering almost all of Africa. You're going to laugh and cry. With his wife Cheryl, they start out on a whole-continent-bound bus with the most eclectic collection of travelers I've ever read about. I couldn't stop laughing. But, despite the humor, Brandon also describes the sometimes heart-breaking images of people and places in the Africa you don't hear about from the Travel Guides. He really captures these moments, both good and bad. Highly recommended. [smile]

Can one cross Africa from tip to tip, North to South? Yes. And there are plenty of ways to do it (a friend of mine even walked it alone, not something I would recommend). But no matter how you do it, there will be problems. There are visas to get, possessions to take or leave behind, and languages to learn (or else you rarely get to talk with and maybe stay with the natives you probably came to Africa to meet). Your vehicle will probably break down or get stuck. You may run out of food. There will be all sorts of unexpected delays (as I found out when I was in Africa). And you will almost certainly get sick at some point. Life isn't always easy for Mzungus ("mzungu" is Swahili for "white person"). In this amusing book, we follow the exploits of Brandon and Cheryl Wilson as they travel the length of Africa. Part of their trip is with a group of nearly two dozen rather diverse and "individually bizarre" people. For the rest of the trip, the Wilsons are on their own, and they then find it somewhat easier to meet people and make friends in the places they visit. Our travellers do get to see some true highlights in Africa. They do visit Marrakech, in Morocco. Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Lamu in Kenya. Mount Kilimanjaro (they climb it all the way to Gillman's Point, at an altitude of over 18000 feet). Victoria Falls. They try the Zambezi rapids in a raft. And much more. I found the description of South Africa interesting. After all, I've read books that boast about the end of South African apartheid. But how is life in that country these days? I've heard some bad things, and this book if anything confirms them. Oh yes, the title. If some maniacs drive you around unsafely, you may want to remind them that you won't give them a tip unless you remain alive. This is a well-written and funny travel story. It includes a bunch of surprisingly fuzzy black-and-white photos. Anyway, I like this book and I recommend it.

Dead Men Don't Leave Tips by Brandon Wilson I've read travel stories by Brandon Wilson before, so knew I'd be entertained, amused and instructed. His story of a crossing of Africa did not disappoint me. Leaving domesticity in Hawaii, Brandon and his brand new wife Cheryl joined what proved to be the do it yourself safari from hell. From the hot dry hell of the Sahara to the humid hell of the jungle, through starving villages and squalid cities, we follow a picturesque group of pilgrims. Brandon's writing makes the reader feel the heat, the discomfort and even despair, while giving one laugh after another. Living it was difficult. Reading about it isn't. If I wrote about the travails of camping beside a swamp infested with malaria-bearing mosquitoes, I might bring tears to your eyes, and have you grit your teeth. Brandon gives you a belly laugh instead. Not that it was all misery. It is clear that Brandon and Cheryl felt well rewarded for their endurance. His passages about wildlife, scenery and friendly people sometimes approach the poetic. Like all good writing, this book does a lot more than entertain. One would expect to learn about Africa -- its people, animals, landscape -- from a travel book, but, without lecturing Brandon gets us to see social conditions; the gap between rich and poor, urban and starving. Racially, he is colorblind, with respect for all people, while sometimes justly indignant about cruel or exploitative behavior. The language is always lively and entertaining, clear and lucid with amusing little word-paintings: `a Swiss cheese swatch of dirt road;' `we were finally waved on our way-and after only four hours;' and `It was a sleepy place-so quiet you could almost hear trouble simmering.' Brandon is a writer with the eye of an artist, a basic decency and social conscience that in another book made him the champion of the suppressed Tibetan people. He has the humor of a cartoonist and the old fashioned ability to tell a good story. I strongly recommend this one to you. About the reviewer: Dr Bob Rich is a multiple award-winning writer and professional editor http://bobswriting.com/

Brandon Wilson's DEAD MEN DON'T LEAVE TIPS is that rare event: a travel book that transcends its genre to become a transformative journey of the soul into a disparate and gorgeously challenging culture, as seen through the eyes of a man determined to experience life as it is, rather than as it's presented to us. Eschewing the typical tourist African safari, Wilson and his travel companion, along with a host of madcap dysfunctional fellow travelers, embark on a wildly funny, poignant, and at times terrifying, trip across the African continent. From the rapacious markets of Marrakesh to the stunning breadth of the Sahara and haunting domains of the Masai, Wilson brings to life in lucid prose the smells, sights, and sensations of being a foreigner in a strange land, who yearns for communion with the world he has set out to explore. This is travel writing at its most sublime, a paean to Africa in all her contradictory beauty, and a tribute to the resiliancy of those who travel beyond boundaries not only in search of meaning, but also of understanding.