A Travel Junkie's Diary: Searching for Mare's Milk and Other Far-Flung Pursuits

by Dina Bennett

Overview

Dina Bennett’s on the road again—and she can’t stop! Having completed the 7,800-mile Peking to Paris Classic Car Challenge while braving carsickness and patching rocky marital relations, she’s once more in over her head, enduring 100,000 miles of road trips through the world’s out-of-the-way places.

Drawn to strange foods and intriguing views into the kaleidoscope of local life, and with a knack for getting into—and out of—awkward situations, Dina gives you the world in all its glory. She’s a born storyteller, uncovering the curious and unusual in the ordinary, bringing you along on vivid experiences in laugh-out-loud style. Neither particularly brave nor wild, she opens her diary of personal triumphs and embarrassments, suspense and discovery, in places most will never get to. Join her as she stands knee-to-knee with a Tajik border guard in his bedroom, hunts down camel pad meat in the street markets of China, and seeks out the source of mare’s milk in Kyrgyzstan. Whether stranded on a sandbar in Myanmar’s Chindwin River or sharing barley beer with an ex-Black Panther in Ethiopia, Dina’s observations are half prying neighbor, half best friend gossiping together on the crooked path to enlightenment.

The tales in A Travel Junkie’s Diary plunge the reader right into the midst of exhilarating travel experiences, with all the smells, sounds, sensations and emotions of being right there. They are by turns fascinating and frightening, endearing and bittersweet, humorous, humiliating, and always engrossing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781510727557
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	08/21/2018
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Dina Bennett was born in Manhattan. After five years as a PR executive, she joined her husband’s software localization company as senior VP of sales and marketing. The two worked side by side until they sold the firm in 1998 and abandoned corporate life for a hay and cattle ranch. Since then she has untangled herself from barbed wire just long enough to get into even worse trouble in old cars on over 100,000 miles of far-off roads. She is the author of Peking to Paris, and she resides in France.
Dina Bennett was born in Manhattan. After five years as a PR executive, she joined her husband’s software localization company as senior VP of sales and marketing. The two worked side by side until they sold the firm in 1998 and abandoned corporate life for a hay and cattle ranch. Since then she has untangled herself from barbed wire just long enough to get into even worse trouble in old cars on over 100,000 miles of far-off roads. She is the author of Peking to Paris, and she resides in France.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Introduction: How It All Began xv

Blastoff

Preamble 1

Blessings: Cochin, India, 2009 5

Drive, She Said: Western Sahara, Morocco, 2004 12

Solutions: Kerala, India, 2009 18

Unsinkable: Chindwin River, Myanmar, 2012 24

Eating

Preamble 31

Sacrificial Lamb: Río Gallegos, Argentina, 2008 33

Pads: Dunhuang, China, 2011 42

Bottomless Pits: Zaouia Ahanesi, Morocco, 2004 52

Food Fair: Gran Isla Chiloé, Chile, 2008 58

Mare's Milk: Naryn, Kyrgyzstan, 2011 67

Insiders

Preamble 75

Omo Beauty Queens: Omo River Valley, Ethiopia, 2011 78

Divine Intervention: Pemayangste Monastery, Sikkim, India, 2009 86

Garbage and Dogs: Ushuaia, Argentina, 2008 91

Finding Dereka: Axum, Ethiopia, 2011 100

Getting Down with the Locals: Cabo Virgenes, Argentina, 2008 108

Etiquette

Preamble 111

Carma: Orchha, India, 2009 113

Bush Spa: Dimeka, Ethiopia, 2011 120

If It Floats: Puerto Montt, Chile, 2008 127

Kindness of Strangers: Ghalat, Iran, 2016 137

Affliction

Preamble 147

Toes: Pucón, Chile,2008 150

Shoulders: Mysore, India, 2009 159

Knees: El Chaltén, Chile, 2008 163

Body: Völs, Italy, 2012 172

Outsiders

Preamble 177

Camel Carts: Kesroli, India, 2013 181

Hidden: Mashhad, Iran, 2011 189

Huaso Initiation: Torres del Paine, Chile, 2008 195

Hyena Bait: Harar, Ethiopia, 2011 205

Borders

Preamble 211

Isolation: Paso Roballos, Argentina to Chile, 2008 215

Gated Community: Karakul, Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan, 2011 224

Checkpoint: Kapikoy, Turkey to Iran, 2011 230

River Boundaries: Khorog, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, 2011 235

Missed It: Gauriganj, Nepal to India, 2012 241

Here and Gone

Preamble 253

Tailored: Kolkata, India, 2013 257

Red Carpet: Alodaw Pauk Pagoda, Myanmar, 2012 261

The Tired Deva: Kolkata, India, 2013 264

Come Back!: Puerto Cisnes, Chile, 2008 268

Acknowledgments 275

About the Author 277

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“[Bennett’s] writing captures the beauty of the austere landscape . . . A fun ride, worth the trip.” — Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

07/02/2018
Bennett (Peking to Paris) rollickingly recounts her 10 years of driving around the globe with her husband, Bernard. They got hooked on long-distance driving after they participated in a 7,800-mile road rally in 2007 that took them from Peking to Paris. Since then the pair have driven the “back country roads” of China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Siberia, and Tibet. Bennett arranges her travels by topic rather than date, beginning with “Blastoff,” in which she describes a drive through India during which she and her husband received a blessing from a Brahmin priest who smeared turmeric paste on their windshield for good luck. In “Borders,” she describes offering sweets to belligerent Bolivian border guards with the hope of softening their attitudes, and in “Eating,” she experiences grueling intestinal pains in China and then realizes she hadn’t washed her hands before eating. In “Etiquette,” Bennett and her husband experience driving in India (“mesmerizing and horrifying at the same time”), during which they learn the rule of the road that states one must honk before passing—especially when passing long lines of trucks with no side mirrors. This is an exhilarating journey. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

A Travel Junkie’s Diary is, by turns, confessional, amusing, and very informative. Perhaps Dina’s greatest talents lie in her keen descriptive powers which beckon to the reader to hitch a vicarious ride.” —Mary-Lou Weisman, author of Playing House in Provence and Traveling While Married

“These are not your average road trips. . . . Instead of the thrills, though, Bennett travels to seek everyday moments where she can connect with people whose lives are vastly different from hers. Bennett’s chatty style enlivens this enjoyable travelogue, cleverly grouped into themes instead of chronological accounts. While the couple faces the many challenges of life on the road, they are richly rewarded by what their experiences allow them to become.” —Booklist

“Bennett rollickingly recounts her ten years of driving around the globe . . . an exhilarating journey.” —Publisher’s Weekly

“A Travel Junkie’s Diary is, by turns, confessional, amusing, and very informative. Perhaps Dina’s greatest talents lie in her keen descriptive powers which beckon to the reader to hitch a vicarious ride.” —Mary-Lou Weisman, author of Playing House in Provence and Traveling While Married

“These are not your average road trips. . . . Instead of the thrills, though, Bennett travels to seek everyday moments where she can connect with people whose lives are vastly different from hers. Bennett’s chatty style enlivens this enjoyable travelogue, cleverly grouped into themes instead of chronological accounts. While the couple faces the many challenges of life on the road, they are richly rewarded by what their experiences allow them to become.” —Booklist

“Bennett rollickingly recounts her ten years of driving around the globe . . . an exhilarating journey.” —Publisher’s Weekly

From the Publisher