I liked the topic of the book and I was completely fascinated by the hotel development in Dubai (The World: a huge development selling beachfront hotel properties in the shape of all the countries of the world), the medical tourism in Bangkok (plastic surgery and sex changes), and the pseudo-anthropological visit to a native Papuan tribe. I think the author excelled in commenting on contemporary culture and was hilarous at times describing people and their odd habits. I wasn’t as keen on the “first contact” as tourism part. I guess, since I don’t have the desire to meet people who have never seen a white Anglo-I just cannot connect with the story.

Also, at times I couldn’t follow the author’s prose rhythm. it threw me off and I had to reread several sentences. It wasn’t exactly bad grammar, just a strange flow in the writing.

I share the author’s fear of flying and liked this quote: “It is in airports, in any case, that I always make a final reckoning with the life I have lived up till then as well as the unknown place that I am about to enter. If, like me, you think you are going to die every time you fly, you do this—it is like saying the Last Rites to yourself.” ( )