If you are looking for a book that combines travel writing with dry humor, than look no further than the work of this Aussie backpacker. I came across his name while travelling myself - I asked one of my fellow travelers if she could recommend a funny travel writer, and she suggested Moore. In this book the author sets off from London at some point in the late 1990s, determined to get home to Sydney by an overland route and without getting on a plane. He has an interest in checking out the old hippie trail (now mostly defunct due to wars and conservative Islam) as well. Most travel writers inform us about the culture, history, cuisine, and people of distant lands as they move across a landscape, getting into adventures, meeting locals, and sharing their knowledge and perceptions. Moore takes a different route - he does some of the above, but his main intention is to make the reader laugh as he shares not only his travels but his comments on pop music, the absurdities and hassles of life on the road, and some of the odd characters he runs into.For such a grand journey, the book often seems too short (A complaint I rarely make), i.e. there are sections in which I would have appreciated hearing some more about what he saw and did. This was Moore's first book, so maybe he gets more descriptive in later releases, but in this one he often just skims the surface and notes a couple of interesting features of the culture and place. The effect is often one of having a few beers with an interesting traveler (who rattles on using a lot of Australian slang) in some hostel or guesthouse somewhere. Unlike some writers, Moore shows little interest in self-revelation (although he does discuss his family a bit and opines frequently about Australian pop songs) - sharing his adventures and his grumbling humor are the main things.And what a journey it was! London and Eastern Europe fly by in the first 50 pages (with a memorable stay at a hostel called More Than Ways (their motto is "More than ways: one way of life!"), and then he gets into some real adventures in the former Yugoslavia, which happened to be at war at the time. No one could accuse Moore of avoiding troubled regions, that is for sure. He finds himself in the war zone in Mostar, Bosnia, hanging out with a few young men who get by dealing drugs to the soldiers. From there it is on to one of his favorite places, Istanbul, followed by Iran and Pakistan, and then a very dangerous excursion to Kabul, Afghanistan which he leaves in a big hurry after one of his fellow travelers is almost blown away by a half-crazed militiaman. After that it is northern India and the hippie haven of Kathmandu, (whetting my appetite for a visit to those places) where he checks out the shrine of a crazy old holy man who took drugs and lifted heavy stones tied to his penis. Then it is an underwhelming visit to Tibet, followed by a tour of western China, where he does not develop a great love for the Chinese and their practice of overcharging foreigners for everything. A memorable visit to the lovely Lao cities of Luang Prabang and Vientiane comes next, which required some maneuvering to enter from China (actually a big part of the book concerns Moore's efforts to get visas or surreptitiously enter or leave some place or other). From there he checks out Thailand (too overbuilt and touristy), Singapore (hates it), eastern Bali (very interesting), and then even does a little group tour of parts of his homeland. I look forward to joining Mr. Moore on some of his other journeys.