Lonely Planet the Kindness of Strangers

Before you pick up this book, close your eyes for a second and think of a time when you felt scared, lost, or possibly at the mercy of those around you. Perhaps this was something that happens when you were in a foreign place where you did not understand the language or customs. The circumstances are out of your control, and something that you could not possibly control has led you into your current predicament. Now, imagine how would have felt if someone came by to help you with the purest of intentions and without a desire for remuneration for their assistance. That someone just wants to help you out of your situation so that you can continue on your way or with whatever you have to do. The feelings, experience and circumstances described above are essentially at the heart of this book. Its purpose is to remind the reader of the power of doing the right thing and assisting someone in need. The message is so simple yet poignant: to know that you have done the right thing and helped someone along is tremendously gratifying and makes the world a better place. Obviously, the book is not representative of every travel experience, let alone human interaction. Still, it is a book that everyone ought to read and internalize. If we all show a warm heart and desire to help out one another, the world will be a better place. After all, each and everyone of us has, at some point, been in a situation where we have counted on someone or something outside of our control to give us the help we need to feel less stressed and in better control of our respective predicaments.

This is a collection of very short stories, consisting of a few pages each, written by travelers who had encountered acts of kindness by strangers. There are stories from countries in turmoil or at war(Antony Sattin's "The Way I look"), and Rolf Potts' "My Beirut Hostage Crisis"), and there are stories of the sweet unaccounted acts of gentle kindliness such as Pico Iyer's "Meeting Maung-Maung", the Burmese trishaw rider with a BSc in mathematics. Then there are stories, not of kindness, but the possibility of kindness such as Dave Eggers' "We Can't Fix Anything, Even the Smallest Things, in Cuba". In all these stories, we are led to contemplate not only kindness but all the related virtues of compassion, generosity, altruism, and perhaps even that most indefinable notion called love. More importantly, we soon realize that whenever an act of kindness is perpetuated, it drives the negatives out of the space that act occupies. When there is kindness, there is no room for greed; no room for envy; no room for disdain; and no room for hatred. It seems as if a singular act of kindness, however small, blots out the entire face of evil.

Lonely Planet has done a great job of collecting travel stories of all moods and locations from great writers, some well known and others just beginning. It would be a great book to take travelling because you could finish a story intead of interrupting a novel. The stories feel so real that you want to say "don't get in that car". Other stories make you well up in emotion at the "Kindness of Strangers."

From the Dalai Lama's preface, right through the stories of the quest for underwear in Buenos Aires and finding a campsite in the Sahara, you feel as if you are with the writers. My favourite, perhaps, involves the travel of a postcard and two women from the shores of Galapagos to Veneto and the people they meet. A quick but enjoyable read.

This was such a lovely little book. The stories were filled with vivid descriptions of the travels and encounters of many a traveler. Some inspired laughter, others tears, and some the weird juxtaposition of the two simultaneously! Really a beautiful collection that speaks to the possibility of innate goodness across racial, religious and linguistic lines. Quite refreshing!