Rating: 
Summary: Maybe You Can Judge a Book by Its Cover?
Review: It would seem that other reviewers somehow missed the purposefully bad grammar in the title and the photo of the howling monkey on the cover and expected "Voltaire on Travel". Sure, Ms. Halliday is self-absorbed and purposefully too cool, but her point of view is mostly very funny and often hilarious. Even her naysayers would have to agree that she has a compact and breezy writing style and is a pleasure to read. Yes, monkeys, booze and hookers figure prominently in many of her stories, but heck, stories about kitty-cats, milk shakes and Parish Preists may not be as funny and enjoyable to read.
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Summary: I missed sleeping cause I couldn't put this book down
Review: Serious. I literally spent the whole night reading this book. That doesn't happen often. It was absolutely hilarious. Ayun's adventures in Amsterdam and Tanzania had me rolling off the couch. My dog thought I was nuts.A bit gross at times. The slipping on vomit and the hours spent in a German WC? Ayun takes vagabonding to the extreme. Surely she could have afforded to buy a few beers at Octoberfest in Munich instead of spunging off some strangers. And sleeping on the trains instead of paying the $20.00 for hostels in Europe. That's a bit extreme. In place of a $50.00 hotel room, yeah. But a measly $20.00 hostel? I thought I was the "King" of low budget travel - sleeping in my car at Rest Areas throughout the U.S. to save a few bucks on my book tours. Uhh, uh. Ayun has me beat by kilometers upon kilometers. I don't agree with her preferred travel style 100%. But admire her for inspiring others to save some bucks and not always go for the most comfortable of travel routes. Sometimes it can be much more fun roughing it. One of the best travel books I've ever read hands down. Ranks right up there with Rolph Potts' "Vagabonding" and P.J. O'Rourke's "Holidays in Hell." Eric Dondero, Author, Worldwide Multilingual Phrase Book
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Summary: nailed the lonely planet life
Review: Talk about throwing the Lonely Planet on the barbie and making lemons out of lemonade (and far more noxious emissions). Anyone who's ever done the low-budget thing in Nepal, Thailand, Eurailing, etc. etc will find her howlingly funny. Funny enough, it kind of made me want to do it all again, the filthy pit toilets, the murderous monkeys, the endless banana pancakes, everything
Rating:
Summary: DOGGIEPANTS! A mokey named Doggiepants!
Review: This book brought about my own memories with extreme low-budget travels in Asia and in the USA. I called up some old travelling companions, reminiced about our misadventures, and ended up spitting whatever we were drinking through our noses. Anyone who has travelled like this was will instantly bond with her in a way that regular tourists cannot even fathom. Everything from illnesses, to attacking animals, to lifelong friends, this book captures the world in a way that is lived and not just visited.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading
Review: This book is not funny. It's the ramblings of a whiny, self-absorbed, ambitionless person, who thinks the grass (legal or otherwise) is always greener on the other side. Getting smacked around by someone in a red-light district is funny?! Descriptions of how blitzed-out one can get is interesting?! Carrying illegal drugs in foreign countries is, what, something we should all experience?! Motherhood didn't even open Ms. Halliday's eyes to responsibility - she thinks she should be able to take her baby into pubs and whines that taking care of her own child takes her away from doing what she really wants to do! Most disappointing is the fact that Stephen Colbert has a blurb on the cover. Stephen, admit it, you didn't actually read the book. I want my money back!
Rating: 
Summary: Ugly American
Review: This book was a real joy to read. If you've never done any backpacking abroad, she does an excellent job of creating visual pictures of all of her traveling disasters. I laughed on every page, and the writing was great.
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Summary: Grottier than thou travel
Review: To be fair, Halliday's writing is quite good. She does rather well describing her misadventures and traveller's mistakes throughout Asia. For all that, though, it was more than a bit much to read her grottier than thou stories of hasty and much overdue washups in bathroom stalls, numerous exhaustively described accounts of dysentery, and constant attempts to score dope in the Third World. Her praise of Brits on the dole travelling in Asia chafed a bit, as well. Halliday comes across as the nightmare travelling companion. As for the hilarity, I'll have to take a pass.
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Summary: make this the next destination on your book itinerary!
Review: Wanting instant gratification, i sought out this book in my local chain bookstore a mere few days after its release, and found it rubbing its exuberant shoulders with some stuffy, long winded fare in the travel section. While technically it IS a travel memoir, i would implore booksellers to tuck additional copies of this book in with their right-as-you-walk-in displays of "Hot New Non-fiction" and "Must reads", as well as in the Essay, Social Commentary, Humour, and Poetry shelves. Ayun Halliday is the literary equivalent of the fine artist who can perfectly capture a reclining figure, a cathedral, or a window box of geraniums by executing but a few seemingly effortless, well-chosen brush strokes - except in this case, the reclining figure has a swollen dislocated knee, the cathedral is a frightening squat toilet, and the window box of geraniums is a rooftop of flip-flop stealing, imperious monkeys intent on bullying a hapless dog. (Incidentally, Ayun Halliday also has a gift for the brush stroke, as evidenced in the illustrations in this book, as well as her Rapidograph inkings in her 'zine "The East Village Inky") I tried so hard to make this book last - i rationed it in small doses as much as was possible, but i finally gave in and let the dishes go unwashed, the phone go unanswered, and the toddler run amok and immersed myself in my armchair, vicariously traveling with Ayun Halliday, and hoping that if i ever get to meet her i won't become horribly tongue-tied and dumb, or prattle endlessly and fan-girlishly on about how much i love her writing.
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