Book Review: "Choose Adventure" by Greg Ellifritz

Book: Choose Adventure -- Safe Travel in Dangerous Places by Greg Ellifritz (2020), 494 pages, $18.95 (paperback)/$9.95 (Kindle). (As always, the Amazon link is for your convenience--I don't make any money off it).

Overview: This book gives you information and tips for traveling in third world countries touching upon the information you probably most need, but which you are not going to find in your Fodor's travel guides.The author also includes an extensive list of useful travel websites and blogs, useful travel apps for your smartphone, and a pre-travel checklist to keep your planning organized.

Impressions:

    Notwithstanding the cover, this book is not how to live dangerously. Rather, it is how to have fun, and still stay safe, traveling in undeveloped countries, especially if you go off the beaten path followed by most travelers. This covers a lot of territory. Obviously, as the old saying goes, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." So the author begins his book by discussing the basics of planning your trip, what to pack, negotiating airports (and customs), and more. And then there are the quirks of less developed countries: money, banking and shopping; eating and drinking; using toilets and restrooms; and transportation. And ... well, maybe it would be better to just set out the chapters in the book:

• My Story
• Planning Your Trip: What To Do Before You Leave
• What to Pack
• Airports
• Arriving at Your Destination
• Hotels
• General Precautions
• Tips for Smoothly Navigating Daily Life in the Developing World
• Money, Banking and Shopping Issues
• Eating and Drinking (Without Dying)
• Third World Toilet and Restroom Issues
• Just for Female Travelers
• Taxis, Motorbikes, and Automobile Transportation
• Buses, Trains, Subways and Other Transportation Options
• Technology
• Health Issues in the Developing World
• Specific Medical Conditions
• Scam Artists, Beggars and Hustlers
• Prostitutes
• Identifying Criminals and Pre-Assault Indications
• Dealing with Crime: The Fight/Flee/Comply Decision
• Discreet Travel Weapons
• Improvised Weapons
• Police and Government Interactions
• Bribery and Corruption
• Language Issues
• Surviving Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Other Natural Disasters
• Surviving Third World Riots and Political Demonstrations
• Surviving Bombings and Terrorist Attacks
• Surviving Kidnapping Attempts
• Drugs

As you can tell from the page length and the number of chapters, there is a lot of information in this book.

    So, who would benefit from this book? Well, the world traveler for one, particularly if travelling to un- or underdeveloped third world countries. Ellifritz says in the introduction that he has "traveled through all seven continents and through more than 50 countries and territories, most of which would be considered the so-called 'third world.'" Most of his stories involve travel to Central and South America, Africa, and South-East Asia, but the book has a wealth of information for a person traveling anywhere. I have a friend that frequently travels overseas for vacation--although I don't know if he has made it to Antarctica yet--and I'm sure that he would find a lot useful. I served as a missionary for my church for a couple years in Japan--hardly a third world country--and there is a lot of information in the book that would have found useful before going, such as the advice on using squatter toilets! Fortunately for me, squatter toilets were mostly found in older residences and public restrooms so I didn't have to use them very often, but it is an experience. Especially since the men don't bother to aim.

    And, with that, the second group of people that would benefit from this book are those travelling abroad, even if they are not going to be in a third-world country. The advice on planning, airports, dealing with scam artists and pick pockets, etc., can still come in handy on other countries. There are parts of major European cities that are little different from Africa or the Middle-East. Dealing with medical care should you be injured can be tricky. I lucked out in Japan--I had a sprain and the hospital apparently thought that it would be easier to enroll my in the national health insurance than try to pursue a claim against my health insurance. I left the hospital with a sprained wrist expertly wrapped and a brand new health insurance card. But I heard stories of some of the nightmares other missionaries had with getting bills paid. Japan was fortunately not corrupt, and the average traveler would likely never have to deal with bribery, but it was typical in renting apartments to have to provide a "gift" to the real estate agent and the landlord. The author discusses that bribery is a normal and expected part of life in many countries just to get government officials to do their jobs, although I prefer the term "grease payments" to "bribery" because that it what you are doing--greasing the wheels of justice or the bureaucracy so they do what they are paid to do. And, of course, natural disasters can strike you where ever you are vacationing, whether that is down on the Gulf Coast in the United States or the plushest resort in Bali. 

    As you will note, there is quite a bit of the book devoted to protecting yourself against crime, recognizing when you might be in danger, and defending yourself. Thus, the third category of person that should like this book is the person interested in self-defense. Even if you try to stay in the safer parts of a city in the United States, you might make a mistake or an evening stroll might take you into a part of town you didn't expect or place you in the position of meeting people you might not want to meet. My father-in-law likes to tell the story of attending a convention in San Francisco years ago and walking from the convention center back to his hotel. A homeless man sidled up to him when he wasn't looking and bumped into him. Glancing down, my father-in-law realized that the man was holding a knife against his side. Then the man laughed and walked off. 

    A couple points I really liked is that Ellifritz spends time on basically telling you not to be a jerk. I suspect the world could become near a paradise if people just tried to not be a**holes. In any event, one of the things that he mentioned was taking the effort to learn basic phrases in the language of the country to which you were traveling, and even trying it out. So true. I remember one occasion from my time in Japan where an old lady gave my and my fellow missionary a dressing down for not using Japanese while at the store. Literally, if you can't speak Japanese, go back to your home in America. 

    Of course, you don't want to be scammed, so there is a limit. For instance, don't start handing out money to the beggars, whether adults or children. And, as Ronald Reagan put it, "trust, but verify."

    Finally, I think this is a good book for preppers. The author describes traveling and interacting with people in some of the poorest nations in the world, and between the descriptions of conditions, dealing with criminals and corrupt police (but I repeat myself), and the advice on self-defense and protecting yourself in the event of a natural disaster, there is a lot to learn for if and when the fertilizer hits the rotary bladed oscillator. 

    If you enjoy this type of information, I would also point you to a series of articles called "Dark Arts for Good Guys" at the Straight Forward in a Crooked World blog, authored by Matthew Allen. These articles are more in the line of getting weapons in a non-permissive environment, and how to escape a country where the authorities are rounding up Westerners, based on lessons the author learned working as a security consultant. Another book you might enjoy is, Everything that follows is based on recent, real-life experience that has been proven to work, by James Shepherd-Barron, which I reviewed here. This book was written for aid workers working in really dangerous or primitive areas of the world, and also covers a lot of information on staying alive where warlords and drug cartels like to play.