HYENAS LAUGHED AT ME

Everyone knows that stories improve with the telling, and nothing helps a travel story more than something going wrong. As soon as things stop going your way you know you're in trouble, but the frustration, embarrassment, danger, and inconvenience provide great material for stories once the anguish has faded. What we remember are the absurd, surreal, and wacky moments when travel becomes slapstick and grand plans dissolve into comedy. The adventurers here encounter just about everything you'd never expect, from a monster dildo that won't go away to becoming the prey of religious zealots at the world's largest human gathering to the proverbial "hair in my soup" at a French restaurant and the proprietor's remarkable solution to the "problem." In a case of life imitating art, nothing is too ridiculous on the road, as these travelers discover and so generously share without shame or undue embarrassment.