Strange Tales of World Travel: * bizarre * mysterious * horrible * hilarious *

by Gina Gaille, Scott Gaille

“What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen or experienced?” Gina and Scott Gaille have traveled to more than 100 countries, including many off-the-beaten-path places in Africa, South America, and Asia. Wherever they go, they ask this question. Everyone has a story, and some are truly extraordinary. Strange Tales of World Travel recounts 50 of these Bizarre, Mysterious, Horrible, Hilarious encounters,

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

240 pages, Paperback

Published April 23, 2019

Reviews

[Sumit RK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange Tales of World Travel is a collection of crazy and weird stories and anecdotes from around the world. If you have ever watched and enjoyed the Lonely Planet series, you will find this series of stories about the oddest experiences ever encountered during travel to unusual and far-flung places, very exciting.

The book follows a unique pattern. Gina and Scott Gaille have traveled to more than 100 countries, including many off-the-beaten-path places in Africa, South America, and Asia. Wherever they go, they ask this question (usually to the tour guide) “What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen or experienced?” what they have learned is reproduced in the form of short stories in the book, and many of them are unforgettable. This book is a collection of fifty stories they have heard.

The stories are from all over the globe: From Africa to the Middle East and from America to Asia, which offers a good mix. Each story opens with a brief description of the place and any needed background information needed to lead into the story. The short stories are collected from guides and other travelers and costly personal anecdotes (in some cases difficult to verify).

Most of the stories were about dangerous encounters with various animals (from shark, snakes, flies, polar bears, mole rats and many more). Many of the tales followed a similar theme and I personally felt they got repetitive after a point. I would not classify many of these stories as ‘strange tales’ at all. For eg; -The story of the dead elephant -The tourist stepping on the snake -The story of the cape buffal++-o though interesting, either felt too short or not particularly exciting. Given the different geographical setting for each story, I was hoping for a unique story from each country.

Personally, I enjoyed the ‘human interest’ stories or stories about geographical wonders like -The Real Equator in Ecuador or the -Story about Ebola’s origins or –The story of ‘Road surprises’ in UAE- or Village with No Men in Botswana. These are the stories that will remain with you long after you have read the book and I wish there were many more of these stories in the book.
Overall it’s an entertaining & informative collection with an equal mix of hilarious and frightening stories. 3.5 stars out of 5

Many thanks to the publishers Ingram Publisher Services, the author Gina Gaille and Edelweiss for the ARC.

 

[Shruti (Hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had coveted this book from the second I heard about it on a podcast a few years back (I think it was covered on Mysterious Universe) and I have at long last read this book and bathed in its strangeness. It's a book of happenings either experienced by the authors themselves or stories they collected while on travel. I wish it was longer. I wish this were a series of books!
Highly recommend. My favourite story has got to be Honey of Man - a story of an experience in Oman.
Most experiences and stories are set in Africa, the Middle East, South America and Australia - wherever work took Scott Gaille, with a story or two peppered in from elsewhere. Prepare to feel shocked, awed, repulsed and intrigued.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange Tales of World Travel by Gina and Scott Gaille is a highly recommended collection of fifty bizarre, mysterious, horrible and hilarious tales.

“What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen or experienced?” Wherever they go, they Gina and Scott Gaille ask this question. Between them they have traveled to more than 100 countries, including many off-the-beaten-path places in Africa, South America, and Asia. What they have learned is that everyone has a story, and many of them are unforgettable. This book is a memoir of recollections of their experiences and fifty of the stories they have heard.

The tales open with the setting which begins with a brief description of the place and any needed background information needed to lead into the story. Stories come from across the globe: Bora Bora, the Sahara Desert, Botswana, the Galápagos Islands, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Kenya, Qatar, Equatorial Guinea, Caribbean, India, Lithuania, South Africa, Angola, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, Seychelles Islands, Rwanda, the Arctic Ocean, the Serengeti Plains, Australia, Mount Kilimanjaro, Guatemala - and that is only some of the settings.

All of the stories are brief, but memorable - as one would expect from the question being asked all of these various people in vastly different places. The first story is hilarious and will immediately grab your attention and propel you forward to read the rest of the tales. After that the content varies greatly depending upon the person asked the question and the place they are located. This is a book that you can read in short bursts or binge read all at once. Either technique will still result in some vastly different stories and amazing tales.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Travelers' Tales Guides, Inc.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/0...

[Vincent Bilodeau · Rating 3 out of 5]

It had a much better front half than the back one, the stories felt more fun and we definitely had more "outside" stories. All stories are either told by Scott or Gina, the authors, or an outside source, and i liked the outside sources' ones better. I still enjoyed reading most of those stories, but they could've spaced them better in the book itself to keep us more motivated to read all of them.

[Диана · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple and non-pretentious, straightforward content without inappropriate ornamentation. Most of the stories are about exotic animal encounters, or about peculiar situations to do with extremely rich people. Whoever doubts that our planet is an exciting place full of more things than the ones they usually hear about should give this a quick read.

[Rebecca Detzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great quick read with fast chapters and mostly interesting stories.

[Cordelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This small collection of stories is written by an oil executive who travels often for his job. He writes a lot about dealings he's had with the exessively rich and with wild animals. He tends towards the gruesome and his stories often start with unnecessary exposition about his life as an oil executive.

This really feels like show boating of how great it is to travel when you have money and influence and arrogance. Not worth reading. He really leans into the illegal activity and wants to seem daring for laughing at it. Honestly, the entitlement and arrogance is disgusting.

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a crazy, quirky, creepy, utterly fascinating collection of anecdotes and tidbits this was! Through a series of related stories about the oddest experiences ever encountered during travel to unusual and far-flung places, the Gailles have amassed a collection that is entertaining, informative, hilarious, frightening, and definitely encouraging - albeit with caution! - World Travel!

Thanks to the Gailles I now know how to save myself from sharks (this is the first story and was such a marvelous opening to the book!), snakes, royalty, Anthrax in the wild, sea ice, and cape buffalo - to name but a few. With humility and humor, the tales of dangerous and unusual experiences around the globe provided insight, information, and entertainment. This was a great find!

My thanks to the authors for providing a review copy. This provision in no way shaped my review - the book is fantastic and fun to read and worth every penny!

[Gabby Bangert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only took a star away because the title makes it seem like it would be more expansive, but most of the stories come from Africa countries.

I had to have this book after listening to some of the stories on the podcast Mysterious Universe. I really enjoyed reading the answers to the question what is the
Strangest thing you’ve ever experienced? I almost wish that this book was broken into two: one based in Africa and then the rest of the world. I thought the Africa stories could’ve rounded out to a bigger picture, but it was just snippets.

Even with that I really enjoyed this book :)

[AJ Stoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of very short stories that will give most people good reasons NOT to travel to nearly all of these places. So, you can make the journeys vicariously and safely in your imagination with this book. Probably not best to read this during meals since many tales involve trying the local specialty, for instance, the lip smacking yum of bbqed endangered species such as pangolin at a bush meat 'restaurant. '

[Steve Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a Best of the Best for the month of July, 2019, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet. You can find me at http://forums.delphiforums.com/stevo1, on my Stevo's Novel Ideas Amazon Influencer page (https://www.amazon.com/shop/stevo4747) or search for me on Google for many more reviews and recommendations.

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3.5 stars--the authors (husband and wife) share short stories they have gleaned from guides and other travelers in some very remote parts of the world, usually visited due to Scott Gaille's job in the oil business. Many of the stories were about extremely dangerous encounters. I enjoyed some of them but I found myself wishing for stories I could relate to from more accessible locales.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these stories are only possible with the privilege of being a lawyer for Big Oil. But, that’s how so many of them are so interesting; he’s able to access a world that most of us can’t. I appreciated how digestible the chapters are.

[Mercini Lazaridis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mildly interesting quick read. Many of the tales followed a similar theme and I personally felt there was not enough variety. I would not classify many of these stories as ‘strange tales’ at all.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth shattering. Definitely agree with the description on the cover. Bizarre and hilarious.

[Georgann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many sad tales, and too many nasty, and not enough fun.

[Alex Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of these stories are pretty great.

[Robyn Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting short tales, mostly from Africa and Australia. All unproven, but fun to think about.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this! Each story is just a couple pages, so you cover a lot of metaphorical and geographical ground quickly.

[Shiloh · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What's the strangest thing you have ever experienced or seen?" What a great question to ask people while traveling, this is a bunch of very short stories in response to that question.