Escapades of a Gay Traveler: Sexual, Cultural, and Spiritual Encounters

Rating:
Summary: Real Tales from Real Life
Review: I have traveled the world for several decades. I would recommend to every gay traveler that he read this book before going to virtually any Third World country.

Many gay readers do not like Joseph Itiel because of his "Virtual Boyfriend" and "Escort Tales" books. I personally have read and loved his guide to Costa Rica and this book. I have only started to read "Escort Tales" and have immediately come to dislike it.

Joseph Itiel is best as a non-fiction writer. While he seems to have some strange sexual preferences (like frottage) his adventures in other lands are mesmerizing and illuminating.

Homosexuals from the United States and Europe live in a world where sex is based on social courtship. Their reality is that it is demeaning and improper to "buy sex" although some might do so.

However, traveling with those perceptions can be both naive and dangerous. In very poor countries, sex of any kind is a means of survival, not just a game of social courtship and the pursuit of pleasure.

Joseph Itiel paints a daunting picture of how Mexicans inevitably come to ask for "a loan" for some pressing social situation from travelers who are sexual partners. It is a subtle form of prostitution even though they would be offended if you put it in those terms.

He describes the dangers involved in getting sexually involved with the poor denizens of other lands. Leave your passport in the Hotel. Carry your International Driver's License or a photocopy of your passport.

Each country is different. In the Phillippines, he finds himself fought over and passed around from one friend to another like a "prize". However, then he sees that he is simply exploiting the poverty of his sexual conquests.

Itiel does have some personality quirks. He came out later in life and discovered he actually preferred sexual liasons based on financial arrangements. That simply frames his stories.

Their real value lies in his practical advice for tourists who travel in societies where "their world" is replaced by an environment in which sex is more a means of survival than the quest for romance and pleasure.

I have found myself "a stranger" in such situations and learned many of the lessons Itiel shares in this book the hard way. Anyone planning a trip to a Third World country should read this book first.

They may decide to avoid sexual encounters. However, if they choose to pursue such encounters, they will be far better prepared to do so safely and sanely for having read this amazing and entertaining book.

Rating:
Summary: A Gay Man's Sexual Travel Adventures & Erotic Experiences!
Review: Once in a while you read a book where you actually feel the author is having a personal conversation with you as he relives and tells you about his life experiences. You become so absorbed in the story he is telling you that you forget that the present world exists around you. That's the way I felt while reading Joseph Itiel's book about his gay sexual travel adventures and experiences. He reveals the many fascinating, exciting, and erotic sexual experiences he has had with men of different nationalities over the last four decades. He begins with his first sexual experiences in the1950's in NYC and Toronto, and his first foreign adventure to Rishikesh, India, where he became an apprenticed yogi. By taking up yoga he was able to cover up his homosexual activities while living in India. After all, this was the 1950's. This trip was not the wonderful experience he had hoped it would be. It did confirm and teach him, however, that his most satisfying sexual experiences would come from males who were ethnically and culturally different from him and he soon discovered he was also assured a more pleasurable sexual experience when he paid for it. Thus, his life-long positive relationships with male "hustlers", now known as "sex workers", would be established.

We're taken all over the world on his many sexual travel adventures, from Toronto to Mexico, to the Philippines, Japan, London, Hong Kong, Manila, and numerous other places. This book is a truly fascinating confession of his private life told in a beautiful, honest, and very personal way. I especially enjoyed his chapters titled "The Dancing Boy", "A Tiny Room at the Inn", and "Four Japanese Tales." The characters he meets, from callboys, to male geisha's and other sexual workers, are fascinating. His Manila diary entries were interesting, intriguing, humorous and sad at the same time, especially when he talks about the "psychic surgery" patients he met. They are interesting beyond belief.

Although all of these foreign sexual encounters are fascinating and very erotically described, there's even more to this wonderful book. In addition, it's a real learning adventure for any gay man who plans to be or is a world traveler. The knowledge and experiences Joseph presents to us are as relevant today as when he first traveled on his annual pilgrimages. Joseph has always had an insatiable curiosity and desire to learn new languages and study other countries customs. It's through his experiences that we get to share an intellectual and sexual history of one gay man's adventures as a world traveler.

I started reading this book early one evening and couldn't put it down till early the next day. We can certainly learn a lot from other's experiences and that is definitely true in this case. It will take you away, excite you, and open your eyes, all at the same time. I truly enjoyed and highly recommend this book. I look forward to this author's future endeavors. ...