This engaging collection of travel essays by the author of The Sheltering Sky voyages through places that are as yet unencumbered by the trappings, luxuries, and corruptions or modern civilization. Bowles is a sympathetic and discerning observer who is especially alert to what is bizarre and what is wise in the places he settles. He is also disturbed and indignant about the corrosive effect of Western culture on non-Christian ways of life. Above all, Bowles is a born wanderer who finds pleasure in the inaccessible and who cheerfully endures the concomitant hardships with resourcefulness, insight, and humor.