Customer Reviews

The Wrong Way Home

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I'm now a dedicated fan of Peter Moore (please see my reviews on the other two books of his that I've read: "Swahili for the Broken Hearted" and "The Full Montezuma"). I particularly like his sense of humor, as evidenced by the titles of his books, including "Vroom With A View." The bright colors and juxtaposition of cut 'n paste images on the covers are further evidence (maybe a publisher's choice?).

"The Wrong Way Home" is my current favorite, not only for its subject matter but for the informative way Moore covers areas of the world that few of us dare to tread in these trying times. Traveling overland from London to Sydney, his audacity gets him across the borders of such diverse and potentially volatile countries as Albania, Afghanistan, Iran, Tibet and East Timor. Ostensibly to follow the old "Hippie Trail" of the 1960s and '70s, Peter takes us on a "Magical Mystery Tour" of his own.

I marveled at the man's chutzpah as he frequently pushed his luck, talking his way into getting a visa for Iran, taking a dangerous trip up Afghanistan's Khyber Pass, bluffing his way into Tibet and overstaying his visa in Laos. The insight this adventure provides is invaluable for all of us, whether we aspire to be adventurers ourselves or are content with our roles as armchair travelers and package tourists. I wouldn't recommend the route he takes but it makes for fascinating reading as he traipses through an eight-month journey through twenty-five countries.

Moore seems to have an innate restlessness, an attribute I can relate to. When he learns that he can get out of Laos with a Mekong River boat into Thailand he balks, realizing that he still has several days left on his visa. Spontaneously he rents a space on board a boat in the other direction and makes the discovery of one of Asia's gems, the old town of Luang Prabang. That's exactly what I would have done and I laud him for his incessant wanderlust.

Peter Moore is an everyman with a constant need to see, learn and experience. His work isn't of the haughty intellectual variety, but he travels more in the manner most people would view the world if given the opportunity. We'd take photos, read the guidebook, peruse the plaques in museums and move on. No treatise on the history or philosophy of the place for us. The author isn't above lazing about when the mood strikes him, however. He frequently spends several days in a row accomplishing nothing more than having breakfast, lounging on the beach or wandering aimlessly around town, returning to his digs in time for evening cocktails and hobknobbing with his fellow backpackers. He comes across as a friendly bloke, easy going enough to talk to anybody who strikes his fancy, a guy it would be fun to meet on the road.

There are some grammatical and spelling errors in the book that the publisher should have found and corrected. These are niggling complaints, however, offset by some of the quaint gimmicks he uses. This includes a heading at every chapter listing a "soundtrack" for that portion of the trip. An incessant user of a Walkman, Moore appears to have a set of headphones glued to his ears during the many, many dull hours on Asian trains, buses and mini-vans. This differs from the notation he made at the beginnings of the chapters in "The Full Montezuma" where he listed an "Annoying Habit" perpetrated by either himself or his girlfriend, his companion on that trip.

I particularly liked the fact that Moore didn't leave out the Australian homecoming portion of his long journey. Too many travel writers sum up the arrival at home in a paragraph, if at all. I found it enlightening that he saw some of his own country, in the role of tourist, working his way overland before getting back to Sydney. He doesn't skimp on the arrival in his hometown, either, describing the thoughts that went through his head as he traversed, via transit bus, the outer suburbs and the memories they evoked. This is a nice touch.

I'd highly recommend this book as a light read, especially if you're on a journey of your own. It would be great for an airplane, airport or train journey, an excellent way to kill time while you're on the road. Reading about the travails and hardships of the intrepid Mr. Moore's arduous journey, the hard way, would make any travel obstacles easier to overcome.

The Wrong Way Home is probably the book that inspired me to set off on this adventure (i'm halfway between Frankfurt and Sydney without a plane so far). I read it years ago, and loved the idea of crossing time zones, meeting new people, and never quite being sure what the next day would hold. I liked the idea because it was something not too many people could say they had experienced, and mainly I liked the idea because it involved catching a lot of boats and trains.

What I realised on reading the book (subtitled London to Sydney the hard way) again, was that the route Moore takes is far different from the one I am traveling. Moore travels a more southern line, and along the hippie-trail of Northern Asia, where the Trans-Siberian route is definitely more of a jaunt across the Russian country-side.

The book is a fantastic read, and while a bit out-dated now, it still captures such a spirit of adventure that it makes one want to travel.

A sentence early on reads:

"Travel is always surprising me like that; it can shatter my ignorant generalisations as well as confirm them." Page 57

I couldn't agree more with Moore, and it is for this reason that I think people get the travel bug. The unknown is for some simply too powerful to ignore, and the drive to travel is also an internal thirst for knowledge. This knowledge is not only gained from the places one visits, but the people one meets on the way.

"The ability to instantly assess the motives of people is a skill you learn pretty quickly when you travel. Nearly every day you are put in a situation where you have to decide whether or not to trust someone. You have to decide whether they're ripping you off or helping you out. And it's a fine line to walk. If you take it as read that everyone is trying to stiff you, you'll have a horrible time and rob yourself of some really wonderful moments of generosity and hospitality. Similarly, if you trust everyone blindly, you'll end up being robbed blind." Pp77-78

As Moore says, it is the day to day decisions, relying on your instincts and the people you meet, that makes one feel young and alive. Like in life, it is the small experiences that make the big adventure.

Peter Moore is one of the funniest travel writers. He does capture the humor of other cultures, and strangeness of the different human being behavior. If you have backpacked in some remote corners of the world, you'll see yourself in his sentences; fun/not so fun border crossing episodes and all other randomness that backpacking comes with. By VolkanAkkurt.

Moore's story is a fascinating one without a doubt. If for no other reason, I'd recommend you buy and read the book simply to inspire yourself to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip as he did. However, throughout the book, I found myself picturing Moore simply transcribing his travel logs onto a laptop in a weekend and calling it a book.

The book reads like a story you would expect a good friend (albeit an intelligent and witty friend) to tell you about their trip; the stories only grab you where the situation is one that would capture your imagination even if it were being told on public radio. The writing itself fails to bring the situations to life and wrap your imagination up in the surroundings like so many other great travel writers are able to do. It's clear that Moore's trip was fascinating, but his failure to develop scenes, create context, develop a story line that reads like a novel rather than a travel log are what prevents this book from being great.