The Backpacker

you never know what you're going to get." Very true (Forrest Gump) for this adventure. John Harris describes his own story as he engaged it when he was twenty-five. In particular a story about friendship. All types of elements from the backpacker's world are here. Dissing the longing for a secure life in a Western country (home, car, family, dog), working the 9 to 5 job, travelling around different countries, meeting other backpackers, interacting with the locals and experiencing other cultures. The only minor points in the book according to me are the following: There is a certain loss for the main characters but it's only briefly mentioned at the time but never ever brought back in to memory again. This was somewhat unconvincing to me. The second point is the entering of one of the country's. They enter it without receiving a stamp in their passport. This is likely to give a problem if discovered upon exit. When I arrived at the border of Mexico-Guatemala, a fellow backpacker (who I met on the bus from Mexico-City) and I had our passports checked at they airport but we both didn't receive a stamp. This WAS a problem! We were led to a distant customs office. We had a little interrogation, some phonecalls, a fine paid and at least two hours lost. So at least there should have been some anxiety about that in The Backpacker. Not so. Nothing at all. If you can smile about the somewhat egocentric point of view from the main characters than this, predominately book for males, is a good read. I especially recommend it as a holiday read. If possible at a beach in Thailand.

I'm not a fan of travel literature, I prefer to go to the place instead, but then this book is not the usual travelogue. A cross between Papillon and The Beach, if that's possible, it's one young man's escape from the nine to five drudgery that is life in England. We all go through it and bitch about it, but very few of us chuck it in and go wild all over the world like these guys do. They even steal a yacht from a Singapore boat club and sail through Indonesia, raping and pillaging along the way. Not very moral but a brillient read.

I've been all over the region and this is the only book that gets near the mark. From India to OZ and all in between, three guys go on the rampage through SE Asia, making money any way they can, from scamming in Thailand and Singapore to fruit picking on a NSW orchard for six months. No great insights into life, but who cares when it's this wild. If you're going to the region take it along, if you can't afford the ticket buy this and dream.

With its laddish overtones, ribald; almost crass style, I wanted to dislike this one from the start. The trouble was I could not put it down. It's all those things I always believed makes for a bad read - bad grammer, worse punctuation, simple and linear plot - and yet here I am giving the damn thing the thumbs up. The reason being, I think, is that John, the hapless protagonist, conveys his story to us without the usual analysis. It's writing brfore writing became so self-concious.

I hate travel literature. Most travel writers waffle on about things they know nothing about; namly foreign cultures. This doesn't. John doesn't presume to know what's going on aroung him, and instead concentrates on what he does know; himself and his own motives. One man's epithany, a story of escape from drudgery into a world without responsibilities and all that that has in store, goog and very bad. If Irvine Walsh were to write a travel story this is what it would look like. Nuff said.