Strange Tales Book & Reviews

Click here for Amazon.com page for Strange Tales of World Travel

Gina and Scott Gaille have traveled to more than 100 countries, including many off-the-beaten-path destinations in Africa, South America, and Asia. Wherever they go, they like to ask the people they meet the same question: “What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen or experienced here?” Everyone has a story, and some are truly extraordinary.

Strange Tales of World Travel recounts 50 of these Bizarre, Mysterious, Horrible, Hilarious encounters, including:

• Imperial CEO, who made a minion fly 12 hours to Paris from Abu Dhabi to buy clean underwear
• Death-Defying Instagrammer, who stepped on the tail of the world’s 6^thmost venomous snake in Australia to take a better photo
• Agent Ghost, who was shot and left to die in a pile of garbage in Africa
• Human Pet, who became a prince’s prisoner in Qatar
• Daring Diplomat, who ate the flesh of the venomous cobra bird in the Sahara Desert
• Pearl Trader, who survived a fever through a harrowing honey treatment in Oman
• Gorilla Doll, who broke the rules of visiting Rwandan gorillas and got dragged up the side of a volcano by the daddy gorilla

“A fabulous new book! Two- or three-page stories, each one brings you to a different part of the world.”

“This book contains some of the most astonishing tales I’ve ever encountered. One after another. They make for obsessive reading.”

“The entire point of travel is to encounter the unimaginable. Gina and Scott Gaille have collected some of the most remarkable tales to ever see the light of day. A hoot to read.”

“Strange Tales of World Travel presents a world you will not find in glossy magazine articles, breathless blogs, or self-adulatory Instagrams … it’s a world of adventures gone awry, … of intimate glimpses of unimaginable wealth and unquestionable power, of close encounters with the wilder edges of human culture …. The result is a collection that is, as the book’s subtitle suggests, bizarre, mysterious, horrible, and hilarious―like travel, and life itself.”

―Don George, author of Lonely Planet’s How to Be a Travel Writer

“Damn! I thought my book had the strangest bunch of true travel tales under the sun, but the Gailles’ collection leaves me in the dust. Maybe even obliterated in a Sahara sandstorm.”

―Albert Podell, New York Times best-selling author of Around the World in 50 Years

With the Internet spreading a homogenous media culture around the world, the appreciation–and the very existence of–our global differences threatens to fade away.

Strange Tales of World Travel presents unforgettable stories that celebrate the unique character of countries around the globe–and the distinctive characters that make travel endlessly intriguing and exhilarating.

The map below highlights the broad geographic range of the stories:

Gina & Scott Gaille

Strange Tales of World Travel was published by Palo Alto’s Travelers’ Tales and edited by Don George. Don was previously the Global Travel Editor for Lonely Planet Publications. He is currently Editor at Large and Book Review Columnist for National Geographic Traveler and the author of Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing, now in its third update, which is the best-selling travel writing guide. Don has edited ten literary travel anthologies and has received dozens of awards for his writing and editing, including the Society of American Travel Writers’ Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year Award.

Don George, author of Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing