Product Description

In June 2005, John Higham, his wife September, daughters Jordan and Katrina packed-up and began a 52 week global adventure, visiting 30 countries on five continents. They stayed with friends, strangers, college girls on spring break and polish shipyard workers with a penchant for striped boxer shorts and little else. The Highams learnt more than just the food and cultures of their destinations; fish can mistake nipples for a snack, a Chilean mall isn't the best place to get ears pierced and that elephants love receiving flowers and they learnt all about eachother.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408697 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Customer Reviews

A nice idea, but misses the point
I was looking forward to reading this book, subtitled `One Family's Journey Around the World'. As a family with two children of our own, I was hoping to get some inspiration as to how travel and kids can be combined for an adventure, however I became irritated early on by the author's pre-occupation with comparing everything to the US. Despite his assertion in an early chapter that the intention was "to experience first hand that all we really need is something to eat, something to wear, and somewhere to sleep", he seems insistent on pointing out how things are either unsafe/expensive/unhygienic/inconvenient compared to `back home' (complaining that there's no Wall Mart open in France at 3am).
The idea of linking locations/incidents within the book to Google Earth sounded like a great idea. However, as the blurb on the back cover states: "...see the majesty of the Swiss Alps - without leaving the comfort of your chair", one suspects this will just encourage Americans to stay at home instead of seeing it for themselves: "hey honey, we don't need to go there, this guy's already done it for us!".
I have to admire the author and his family for their bravery, but would have respected them more if they didn't treat the rest of the world as one big theme park. There is very little insight into cultures or meaningful interaction with the locals - either they are `helpful' or `unhelpful' (like the aim of every European citizen should be to help American tourists?).
The book is easy to read, and I would recommend it for armchair travellers, but anyone with a genuine passion for travel will be disappointed by the lack of depth.