Jason Jones - NOMAD

Nomad: Letters From a Westward Lap of the World
ISBN 0-9643434-2-8
Author: Jason Jones
Publisher and/or Distributor: Palm Island Press
Pages: 263

Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than
by the ones that you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover. — Attributed to Mark Twain

Jason Jones has done what most people only dream of doing. He has backpacked around the world and done it on a budget of $40 a day. This is his funny, insightful and true to life journal of that solitary sojourn. Jones takes us along to the nighttime streets of Phnom Penh, the magnificent temples of Angkor Wat, on safari in deepest Africa, and up the snowy slopes of Mt. Everest. He introduces us to Chinese entrepreneurs who promote themselves to tourists visiting the Great Wall, to the gentle natives of Africa, and finally, to the wise and generous friends who helped him to learn Spanish in South America.

He describes the sickening experience of learning of the 9/11 attacks on America while in a distant land, and describes the surprising strength and hope he finds within himself in 15 months away from family, friends, and the comforts of home.

Jones' wide-eyed and earnest account of his trek through 25 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, is great reading for anyone with a yen for adventure, and a hunger for knowledge of the wide, wide world beyond our United States.

CHAPTER LIST

Author’s Note

A Regular Guy Decides to Do an Irregular Thing
Leave Your Shoes – and Ethnocentricity – at the Door
Mama-San Pitches a Fit
A Warm Welcome, With a Taste of Kudzu
Three Monks’ Promise: ‘We Will Pray for You’
Despite the Juicy Girls and the DMZ, This Land Is Rough Around the Edges
Hello, Mr. Moneybags Have I Got a Taxi, and Hotel, For You
Stepping Into a Majestic Capital and Its Crazy Quilt of Traffic
Exuberant Leo – A Wannabe Capitalist in New China
A Black Suit and a Bowl of Beef Noodle
Making Peace With a Rodent Roommate in the Mekong Delta
Basking in Smiles as “Chief” Shepherds Us to the Cambodian Border
In Poor Cambodia, A Palace Rivals the Forbidden City
Cambodia’s National Highway 6: Oh, the Horror
Exploring Khao San Road, Mecca for Backpackers in Asia
Rumbles in the Jungle: A Volcano and White-Knuckle Ride in Sumatra
There’s Something Fishy About Transport to Singapore
A Pleasant Interlude in a Land of Order and Prosperity
Hello, Buddha. Como esta?
Feeling the Repressive Touch of Big Brother in Myanmar
At the Top of the World, Rewarded for Pain and Hardship
Where East Meets West: A Modern Confluence in Istanbul
Stalking the Big Five on Safari in Kenya
It’s Smooth Traveling, Even After Wine-Tasting, in South Africa
At the End of the Line in Quito, Ecuador, With Thoughts of Home

Epilogue

Index