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Adventures of a Continental Drifter:
An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness,
Danger, Lust, and the Perils of Street Food

Elliott Hester
Bestselling author of Plane Insanity

The unexpurgated version of Elliott Hester's around-the-world journey, with all the good parts we couldn't print in the newspaper.
-Randy Curwen
 Travel Editor, Chicago Tribune

Elliott Hester is the personification of travel without plans... wild adventures, great stories and some important lessons for even the most sophisticated travelers.
-Peter Greenberg
Travel Editor, Today Show

We've all dreamed of quitting our jobs, selling our possessions, chucking responsibility, and traveling the world. Bestselling author Elliott Hester turns the dream into reality in ADVENTURES OF A CONTINENTAL DRIFTER: An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness, Danger, Lust, and the Perils of Street Food. Hester is the ultimate escape artist. In October, 2002, he dumped his job, gave up his Miami Beach apartment, sold his car, Yamaha digital stereo system, every knickknack and piece of furniture he'd accumulated over the years. Longing to live the life of a vagabond, he lived off the grid, and has been traveling the world ever since.

With no set itinerary and no place to call home, Elliott drifts from country to country, continent to continent, partaking in cultural escapades and adventure activities in the world's most intriguing destinations. A full year of his experiences is chronicled in ADVENTURES OF A CONTINENTAL DRIFTER. In this hilarious collection of stories from his one-year frolic around the globe, Hester, who's syndicated "Continental Drifter" column appears in over 50 newspapers, shares hair raising tales readers won't find in most travel memoirs. Among his more unusual experiences, Hester...
• Became an unwitting accessory in a Marquesas cow-poaching debacle
• Was hit on by 250-pound Tahitian transvestites
• Got drunk on Estonian moonshine at an eightieth birthday party,
• Successfully impersonated Samuel L. Jackson at the thirty-eighth Annual International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.

The mileage and the mayhem he encounters would test the resolve of even the most seasoned traveler. Hester endured everything from a waterborne amoeba that tormented his digestive system for days, a Russian hooker who just wanted to be his "friend", a corrupt cop in Denpasar, a porno shop stalker in Berlin, slobbering Egyptian camels, man-eating Aussie flies, and the wriggling trout he clubbed to death near Tallinn. In spite of all that went wrong during his around-the-world adventure, though, Elliott Hester had the best time of his life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elliott Hester is an award-winning travel writer, former Salon.com columnist, and bestselling author of PLANE INSANITY. He writes Continental Drifter, a syndicated travel column carried by 50 dailies including the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post, Dallas Morning News, and Cleveland Plain Dealer. Unattached and blissfully homeless, Elliott travels continually from country to country, writing his column and toting his possessions in a rolling duffel bag. Visit the author website at www.elliotthester.com

Photo by Tomek Sikora
For a high-resolution photo file, please contact John Karle at john.karle@stmartins.com or Elliott Hester at elliotthester@hotmail.com.

Adventures of a Continental Drifter:
An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness,
Danger, Lust, and the Perils of Street Food

by Elliott Hester
Price: $23.95  
Publication Date: September 15, 2005
ISBN: 0-312-31241-5

To request additional review copies and/or or an interview with the author, contact: John Karle, Associate Director of Publicity;
646-307-5546 or john.karle@stmartins.com

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

A conversation with bestselling author Elliott Hester, a real-life "Continental Drifter."

You've been homeless since 2002, Elliott. Can you explain?
In October, 2002, I pulled out of the rat race. I dumped my job, sold most of my possessions, broke my apartment lease, and purchased a series of airline tickets that would take me around the world and back. I traveled to 22 countries on six continents. Visited more than fifty destinations. The trip changed my life. When I returned a year and a half later, I no longer fit into my previous surroundings. So I hopped on a flight to Quito, Ecuador, and have been traveling around the world ever since.

What's it like to live a keyless life?
Liberating. Many of us have way too much "stuff." Unnecessary stuff. Stuff that bogs us down and makes us stagnant and fools us into thinking we're secure. I didnít realize the unimportance of material things until I gave up nearly everything. Now I own no property save for a notebook computer, Ipod, digital camera, and my traveling clothes. I have no keys. No travel itinerary. I live in hotels, guest houses, and occassionally in the homes of people I meet along the way.

What's Delhi Belly?
If you travel to India, you're guaranteed to hear the phrase, "Delhi Belly." It's a euphemism for a nasty gastric ailment that had me camped out on a toilet for days. You don't want to hear the gruesome details. Suffice it to say, I was glad to be traveling alone.

Do you ever get lonely traveling by yourself?
Sure I do. But that forces me to meet people and involve myself in situations that I might not be privy to if I were traveling with a companion. On an email tip from a stranger, for example, I contacted a local in Mysore, India. After meeting him for tea, he insisted that I be his houseguest. I stayed with him and his family for nearly two weeks and had one of the most interesting experiences of my life.

You started your one-year around-the-world trip five months before war broke out in Iraq. Did you encounter any anti-American sentiment along the way?
I encountered a lot of resentment toward American foreign policy. But there was no outward hostility directed toward me as an American. Not even in Brunei, Indonesia, and Egypt, which are predominantly Muslim countries. I did notice a slight pause when I introduced myself to some European travelers, however. It was like: "Oh... you're American."

What was the funniest thing that happened to you during the trip?
I met two Czech actors in Prague who were convinced that I look like Samuel L. Jackson. So convinced were they, I was asked to impersonate Mr. Jackson at the 38th annual International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary. The actors’ agents hired a stretch limousine, four real bodyguards, and a makeup artist to make me look more Samuel L. Jackson-ish. We fooled everybody in Karlovy Vary. Even Evetu Bartosovou, the Czech Republic’s most popular pop singer. (She had dinner with me … er, Samuel L. at a posh restaurant.) The next day the farce was revealed in a local newspaper. It was the coup of the summer. Everyone thought the charade was hilarious. Everyone except Evetu Bartosovou.

What was the scariest thing that happened?
During a visit to Bangkok, I was accosted in a strip club by three Thai ex-boxers. The three bouncers had been summoned by the bar manager because I refused to pay an inflated bar bill (I consumed only one beer; my bill was more than six times the stated price.) Even if I wanted to pay, I couldn't because I didn't have enough money on me. As I walked toward the exit, the three bouncers followed. I expected to hear the click of a switch blade, the clink of a breaking beer bottle. So I ran out the door and never looked back.

What was the biggest annoyance?
Mobile telephones. The world has gone to hell in hand-held device. I heard mobile phones ringing in sacred churches, on pristine beaches, along remote village roads, an in a cramped sleeper compartment during a 35-hour train ride from Delhi to Bangalore even at three o'clock in the morning. It used to be that a traveler went to the local bar or beach when he was lonely. These days, travelers are so busy telephoning their friends back home, there's hardly enough time to enjoy the surroundings.

Which is your favorite destination, and why?
Bali. Even though it's exceedingly touristy in places, and was rattled by the 2002 terrorist bombings, Bali is the most beautiful island in the world. The locals are friendly. The inland rice patties are like emerald stairways to the gods. And the sunsets off Legian Beach are so spectacular, so vividly amber-orange-red, they can occasionally bring tears to your eyes.

Can you offer any advice to those planning an around-the-world trip?
Don't make too many plans. Allow yourself to get lost. Leave your prejudices at home (better yet, get rid of them altogether). And step off the beaten path, if only for a moment or two. You'll feel better about yourself and the world.