BOOK REVIEWS

ADVENTURES OF A CONTINENTAL DRIFTER


Elliott Hester had just about had it–had it with pay cuts, had it with increasingly angry passengers, had it with low morale and had it with the always-present threat of danger. So when an enraged passenger had a meltdown over the in-flight meal, the veteran flight attendant took advantage of the leave of absence his airline offered and bought a ticket that took him around the world. He traveled to six continents–he decided Antarctica was way too cold–on a budget of about $60 a day, taking 34 flights on 14 different airlines and riding in 22 long-distance buses, cars and trains. Not surprisingly, he met many "characters" and had many adventures along the way, such as the corpulent Tahitian transvestite who tried to seduce him on a local bus or the very friendly Russian hooker, and not to forget the "Kamikaze-style" flies that plagued him in the Australian Outback. In Buenos Aires, people stared at him not with malice but with fascination ("Blacks in Argentina are as rare a sight as Mormons in South Central Los Angeles."). In Bangkok everyone from immigration officers to taxi drivers insisted he was a boxer ("You strong body. Mike Tyson."). He is taken aback by the pristine condition of the Singapore subway ("Walking into the Singapore subway is like stepping into the lobby of the Ritz."), although the city-state's Draconian laws got to be a bit overwhelming. But there's much more: India, Ethiopia, Egypt, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain. Hester (whose reports appear regularly in the Tribune's Travel section) is a terrific travel companion–funny, self-deprecating and exceedingly open-minded.
– Chicago Tribune


Hester, who quit his job as a flight attendant to wander around the world, is a boon companion ... He tells some funny stories in this first-person travelogue, chief among them a tale about some very large transvestites who hit on him in Tahiti.
– San Francisco Chronicle


The perfect escape for the armchair traveler.
– Philadelphia CityPaper


Elliott Hester is the bestselling author of "Plane Insanity," which hilariously chronicled his misadventures as a flight attendant. By 2002, the cheap thrills of no-frills flying had finally worn thin for him. Between the disgruntled passengers and the cutthroat airline CEOs, he wanted out. So he got a ticket to go around the world, sold his car and his stereo to have extra pocket money, and took off for a year. The result is this rather R-rated "excursion into weirdness, danger, lust, and the perils of street food." What other travel writer would get a severe case of the runs in the middle of the Taj Mahal and dare to tell the tale? And that's nothing compared to the humiliation he endured in a bathroom stall at the Buenos Aires International Airport. Moral of that episode: Don't travel so lightly you have to depend on a hand-dryer to make your only pair of pants presentable. Several times, Hester's global escapades made me laugh out loud. One of my favorite tales herein was when he impersonated Samuel L. Jackson to help his hosts pull off a prank at the Czech International Film Festival in Prague. Clearly, as he does say so himself with all due modesty, Hester is "an escape artist of the most deviant persuasion." May his feet never stop wandering.
– New York Newsday


Hester's stories are hilarious and occasionally bawdy; I dare you not to laugh as he describes bathing in a Finnish sauna, upgrading his wardrobe in Rome, riding an overnight train in India ("The cellular phone in the bunk above mine was programmed to play ... you guessed it, Jingle Bells.") and learning to make a bomb (not his idea) in Coober Pedy, Australia. One of my favorite lines – and appropriate for this lively read – is in the Coober Pedy segment: "As any good Christian will tell you, the Devil is never far away."
– Houston Chronicle


“Adventures of a Continental Drifter” is one of the funniest adventure books I’ve read in awhile. Hester’s stories prove that travel is still safe (although he has several close calls), but it requires common sense (of which he says he occasionally lacks) and plenty of intestinal fortitude – literally. If you’ve ever longed to travel, but haven’t, then pick up this book and dream of your own adventure.  “Adventures of a Continental Drifter” is a whole lot cheaper than an around-the-world ticket and a whole lot more fun than an armful of someone else’s travel albums.
– St. Louis Daily News


Travel editors and aficionados of travel writing discovered long ago that the insightful words of Elliott Hester, author of the syndicated column "Continental Drifter," can stick long after the newspaper has been set aside. Hester's recently released collection of essays, "Adventures of a Continental Drifter" ($23.95, St. Martin's Press) offers more tales from his far-flung journeys, which not only span the globe but the human condition, offering a look into culture as well as the psyche. Whether he's being mistaken for a boxer in Bangkok or trying to drink beer through a snorkel mask off the coast of Australia, Hester manages to find the humor and shrug off the insult. Sometimes the stories are just plain hilarious, such as the time Hester pretends to be Samuel L. Jackson at the Czech Film Festival. And sometimes things get a little bizarre. But mostly this is just a fun read from more than 50 destinations, and Hester's promise to take the reader on an "around-the-world excursion into weirdness, danger, lust, and the perils of street food" is more than delivered upon by the end.
– Denver Post


Laugh your way through 22 countries on six continents as Elliott Hester writes of his 17-month journey in "Adventures of a Continental Drifter." The subtitle sums up the tone of the tome: "An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness, Danger, Lust and the Perils of Street Food."
– Atlanta Journal-Constitution


After suffering cuts in pay and benefits as a flight attendant after 9/11, Hester turned in his wings and became a travel writer. This follow-up to his industry tell-all, Plane Insanity , is based on his syndicated column, "Continental Drifter," and details his experiences traveling across six continents in the space of a year, spending just $60 a day. Although Hester manages to land on couches as often as he rents hotel rooms, this isn't a guide to frugal travel tricks. Instead, it's a romp with an adventurer who rarely becomes jaded or travel weary, and has a way of falling into amusing situations. For example, Hester's affection for Kangol hats has people mistaking him for Samuel L. Jackson at a film festival in eastern Europe; true to his jaunty nature, he doesn't correct them. Hester's writing is lively, and he keeps his observations light. However, the travelogue does have serious moments, as when the author describes being stared at unrelentingly in Argentina because, he says, 97% of the inhabitants are of white European origin. But the seriousness, like Hester's stay in each country, never lasts long.
– Publishers Weekly


At the end of 2001, the author, a flight attendant with 20 years' experience (and author of the witty and revealing Plane Insanity, 2002), realized he was fed up, burnt out, at his wits' end. The events of September 11 had devastated the airline industry, and when his own company offered leaves of absence to its employees, he took them up on it. Then he sold nearly everything he owned and bought himself a ticket around the world. This sparkling book recounts his exploits as a "continental drifter" (also the name of his syndicated newspaper column, which he files from far-flung locales). It's an over-the-top  travelogue that's both informative (what to do when diarrhea strikes at the Taj Mahal) and very funny (how to impersonate Samuel Jackson at the Czech International Film Festival). This is perfect for armchair travelers, but it can also be used as a blueprint for readers with a yen for a little continental drifting of their own.
– Booklist


Elliott Hester has gotten used to being mistaken for Samuel L. Jackson. An African-American flight attendant with a proclivity for wearing his Kangol cap backward, Hester travels to some of the world's more obscure places. And people who rarely see blacks up close just assume that he has to be the most famous one they know. "It used to be Michael Jordan," says Hester, 47. As a result of the supposed resemblance, Hester even impersonated Jackson at a Czech film festival, one of dozens of over-the-top escapades in Adventures of a Continental Drifter (St. Martin's, $ 23.95). The book's premise is simple: Hester ditches most of his earthly belongings and buys a one-way ticket around the world. Along the way, he inadvertently participates in a cow-poaching incident on the Pacific island of Nuku Hiva (site of Survivor 4), accidentally gets high eating coca leaves in Argentina, and barely avoids a beating from a group of Thai boxers. "A lot of people think some of this stuff is made up," Hester says. "But you go away for a year and some weird stuff is going to happen." His best advice to travelers? Don't be afraid of greasy street fare overseas. "Fried foods kill any contaminants."
– Entertainment Weekly


Elliott Hester is a marvelous storyteller who leaves out none of the gory details about his travels. From India, he writes about the glorious Taj Mahal – as viewed when in the grips of Delhi Belly, known elsewhere as Montezuma's revenge or turista. You've got the picture. What's more, he didn't have his passport in Agra; it was in Delhi, where he had tried – unsuccessfully, even after hours in line – to get a yellow fever shot so he could go later to Ethiopia . . . As I said, you've got the picture. A onetime flight attendant (his first book was "Plane Insanity"), he sold everything – even knickknacks – and spent a year traveling around the world. You'll want to keep traveling with Hester, even if it's only vicariously. Thinking back on some of his experiences, vicariously probably is the best way. You'll laugh, you'll think. Hester is among the best travel writers out there now.
– New Orleans Times-Picayune


Elliott Hester tells funny and sometimes harrowing stories. Wrapped up in the core of each tale is some bit of illumination: about other countries and other people; about travelers and dreams. The man has no permanent home and travels incessantly, a world citizen adrift in a cross cultural maze, frequently bewildered but curiously at "home" in the oddest places. He's one of my travel heroes.
– Tim Cahill
   author of Lost in My Own Backyard, Jaguars Ripped My Flesh, and Hold the Enlightenment


Continental Drifter is travel beyond the brochure–a real look at the places we go but stripped of the hype and pretty pictures. What remains, under Elliott Hester's careful telling, are stories that are far more compelling than the sanitized-for-our protection versions of reality that often pass for travel writing. This is the real deal, refreshing but no less enticing.
– Catharine Hamm
   Travel Editor, Los Angeles Times


When it comes to travel, and for that matter, life itself, one of the worst five letter words is..."plans." Elliott Hester is the personification of travel without plans. And you know what that means–wild adventures, great stories and some important lessons for even the most sophisticated travelers.
– Peter Greenberg
   Travel Editor, NBC's "Today Show"


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


Hester (Plane Insanity) had had it with his flight attendant job after 9/11. So when a rude vegetarian on a flight to Barbados shouted at him to "get away" after she didn't get her meatless meal, he took her advice, sold his worldly possessions, and set off on a round-the-globe adventure. One year, six continents, and 22 countries later, he's survived to tell the tale here. Starting in Miami and more or less heading west, Hester recounts his mishaps (and triumphs) along the way. Where to begin: with frisky Finns in a sauna, intestinal explosions in India, a sex scam in Russia, or a backed-up toilet in Argentina? Or how about with Hester rustling cattle in French Polynesia, playing power Scrabble in Sydney, or clubbing a trout to death in Estonia? This compelling, highly readable book is recommended for large public libraries.
– Library Journal


Having encountered one-too-many unspeakably rude passengers, Hester leaves his flight attendant job and goes off in search of the world that, so far, he has seen only in glimpses from the crew van on the way back to the airport. His low-budget, year-long drift takes him to tourist hot spots, but also to places rarely included in travelogues, including Ethiopia, Brunei and Coober Pedy, a remote Australian opal-mining town. To complicate things, often Hester is the only African American where he visits, a distinction that sometimes works in his favor, sometimes not. His entertaining accounts [are] more like a bull session around the keg, after the children are safely out of earshot, where everyone tries to outdo the others with stories of the funniest-weirdest-sexiest ... thing he's ever seen. Except that all the stories are Hester's.
– Washington Post

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