The Lesser Known Travel Tips memoirs are a hilarious series of travel misadventures and dubious personal introspection by Australian author Simon Yeats, who from an early age learned that the best way to approach the misfortunes of this world is to laugh about them.
Simon shares his comedic insights into the unusual and uproarious elements of living life as an Aussie ex-pat and having a sense of Wanderlust as pervasive as the Spanish Flu in 1918 or hordes of Mongols in 12th Century.
From how to keep yourself entertained when unwittingly forced to watch 11 hours of live sumo wrestling in Japan, to surviving heartbreak in India at the hands of a French flight attendant, to 48 hours spent in Nepal that qualify as the funniest most gut-wrenching travel experience since Captain Bligh was set adrift in the Pacific, to his unsuccessful attempts at avoiding going to a brothel in Thailand. From what to do when several people converge to rob you after midnight on a deserted Copacabana Beach, to how to save the Sierra Mountain Range from a wildfire outbreak due to a lack of quality toilet paper, to where not to go in Tijuana when trying to locate the origins to stories of the city’s mythical adult entertainment, to how to save yourself from drowning when caught in a storm while sailing off the California coast. From how to outwit the Italian police while trying to find parking in downtown Genoa, to how to negotiate exploring the Roman ruins of Plovdiv, Bulgaria while on crutches, to how to impress the German Mafia with 80s dance moves, to how to leave a lasting impression on a crowded bar in Gothenburg, Sweden after combining alcohol and antibiotics.
Simon Yeats has gone into the world and experienced all the out of the ordinary moments for you to sit back and enjoy the experience without the need to break a leg, contract Dengue fever, or rupture a pancreas.
Excerpt from How to Start a Riot in a Brothel in Thailand by Ordering a Beer and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips -
My family’s most cherished vacation when we were all kids was a trip we took to the South Island of New Zealand in the southern hemisphere Autumn of 1980. All our relatives live on the north island where my mum and dad both grew up on dairy farms. So, we had already made a trip or two to Auckland in my young life. My parents had emigrated to live in the tropical heat and brutal humidity of the northeast of Australia before any of us kids were born and given a choice in the matter.
There are four of us in my family. An elder brother, an older sister, me, and a younger sister. Each of us is quite different in our personality and our interests. My older sister is the athlete. My younger sister is the diplomat. My brother is the brainiac. Me? Well, I tend to just sit back and let my siblings be in the limelight.
You can imagine me as being the little kid running around in the playground under a mop of red hair being extra polite with all the other kids and no one teasing me at all for having red hair. Something close to that.
But among me and my siblings, none of us ever stole a car and took off for a joy ride. None of us have ever been arrested by undercover police for trying to sell them synthetic crack cocaine we had cooked up in the basement. None of us ever got in trouble for mislabeling someone by using the wrong pronoun. I mean, sure, I once got in trouble for calling my headmaster the C-word, but, other than that small blemish on my record, I considered myself an exemplary student. Our mum and dad were amazing parents to raise us all so well.
We were a very content family growing up in the 70’s and 80’s while living in the sweltering pizza oven, otherwise known as North Queensland. What about central air conditioning? Oh, how entitled and twenty-first century of you to ask. Rubbing an ice cube across the forehead and asking my younger sister to blow against it. Does that count? Central air conditioning? No. There was none. Just like there was extraordinarily little to do in my hometown. Watching paint dry as a kid living in Townsville brought out the same level of unbridled fascination that I now see with adults viewing porn.
The reasoning behind there being nothing to do is obvious. It is not safe to do anything where I lived. Australian country towns are just holding pens for human beings surrounded by a natural species menagerie of death.
Full of humor and heart and all the great things that make life good.
How to Start a Riot in a Brothel in Thailand by Ordering a Beer, and Other Lesser Known Travel Tips is the first book of author Simon Yeats’s fun four-set volume Lesser Known Travel Tales, and it is a spectacular grin-inducing collection of vignettes from his extensive past wandering the globe. Told with humor and a lot of heart, warts and all, Yeats’s stories entertain, inspire, and elaborate on his experiences of a life well lived.
Yeats is a natural storyteller, and each chapter is introduced with a groan-worthy Dad joke. I was immediately drawn into his narrative, which starts with a family trip when the author was at the impressionable age of twelve. His father is a combination of wise and wild, and I easily commiserated with Simon’s mother about some of the events of the trip. Still, this family had FUN and created memories to last a lifetime.
Yeats’s experiences are amazingly varied and emphasize his adventures traveling on a tightly managed budget. Some of his journeys are financed as part of a job, such as being an international courier, while others come to be by working at his intended tourist destination. His life is devoted to fulfilling his wanderlust and subsequently always living away from his family. As satisfying as his ex-pat life proves, his reunions with family are scenes of joy and laughter but bittersweet as he ponders all the missed celebrations and life events of his loved ones. Still, the author has no regrets and has lived his life to the fullest.
With its amazing stories of travel and self-exploration, I
recommend HOW TO START A RIOT IN A BROTHEL IN THAILAND BY ORDERING A BEER, AND
OTHER LESSER KNOW TRAVEL TIPS to readers of memoirs, biographies, and travel.
Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.
Thank you so much for reviewing today!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a fantastic novel. Thanks for sharing and hosting this tour.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the review. Sounds good.
ReplyDeleteI like the book details.
ReplyDeleteCheers. Great review. Thank you for featuring my book series on your blog.
ReplyDelete