“This book contains some of the most astonishing tales I’ve ever encountered. One after another. They make for obsessive reading.” —Tim Cahill, author of Jaguars Ripped My Flesh

“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.” —J. Maarten Troost, author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals

Recommended by Tim Cahill(author) and J. Maarten Troost(author, forward by Don George(author)
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, including:

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

Gina and Scott Gaille grew up in small towns in central Michigan and south Texas. Even then, both dreamed about exploring the farthest corners of the planet. Gina’s favorite TV show was “Hart to Hart,” whose globetrotting detectives—played by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers—journeyed to South America, China, and Australia. Scott spent Sunday evenings glued to “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” whose safari-jacketed host, Marlin Perkins, introduced him to exotic landscapes and their peoples. Gina is most passionate about Africa, where she once served as a missionary in a remote part of Kenya. Scott’s career as a lawyer and academic at The University of Chicago and Rice University has taken him to more than 100 nations around the world, including 30 in Africa. It was their shared passion for experiencing the world that brought them together.

Foreword by Don George

Shark Repellent, Bora Bora
Cobra Bird, Sahara Desert
Contagions, Botswana
Honey of Man, Oman
Beware of Road Surprises, Emirate of Sharjah
Feeding Frenzy, Galápagos Islands
No Snake Dies Before Midnight, Kangaroo Island
The Emperor Has No Underwear, United Arab Emirates
Road Warrior, Nigeria
Agent Ghost, Somewhere in Africa
Here, Little Birdie, Kenya
The Human Pet, Qatar
That’s Not a Rubber Ducky, Equatorial Guinea
Great White Shark Buffet, Southern Ocean
UFOs, South America and Caribbean Sea
Shere Khan, India
The Fourth Girlfriend, Lithuania
The Dying Giraffe, South Africa
Smooth Air Decree, Oman
Evicted, Angola
The Floating Islands, Peru
The First Hmong Lawyer in Laos, Laos
A Pug in Peril, Saudi Arabia
The Accidental Masseur, Madagascar
Hello, Mr. Bin Laden, Pakistan
Prehistoric Forest, Seychelles Islands
Too Close for Comfort, Rwanda
Lord of the Flies, British Virgin Islands
Digging Your Own Grave, Mauritania
Bush Meat, Cameroon
The Cat in the Hat, Kangaroo Island
Ebola, Central Africa
One Person’s Pet Is Another’s…Dinner, Ecuador
Be Careful What You Admire, Emirate of Abu Dhabi
The Red Carpet Isn’t for Me, Gabon
The Askari, Tanzania
The Polar Bear, Arctic Ocean
Tsetse Fly Food, Serengeti Plains
The Concierge, South Australia
Valley of Mole Rats, The Rift Valley
The Real Equator, Ecuador
The Land of Hospitality, Japan
The Home of Vodun, Togo
The Hidden People, Iceland
Sea of Scooters, Vietnam
Road Kill Art, Australia
Don’t Mess with the Cape Buffalo, Malawi
The Tanzanite Miner, Mount Kilimanjaro
The Elephant Graveyard, Ngorongoro Crater
Mayan God, Guatemala
Acknowledgments

About the Authors