BOOK YOUR VACATION
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.
