Shave My Spider! Six Months in the Weirdest Bits of Asia

by Tony James Slater | Travel |
ISBN: 9781720054856 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/5/2022
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Monday, September 5, 2022
I got this softcover from an online seller. I've enjoyed Slater's other humor/memoir/travel books, including That Bear Ate My Pants!, Don't Need the Whole Dog!, Kamikaze Kangaroos!, and Can I Kiss Her Yet?, and was pleased to get a copy of this one, in which he and his new bride kick off their married life with a six-month-long trek around Asia! (Note: I first read Slater's books via audiobook, with the delightfully apt and enjoyable narration of Tim Campbell.)

Given the amount of traveling Slater has done in his life, it's always surprising to me (and, apparently, to him as well) how often he messes things up. Issues with visas, border crossings, missed connections, and some just-plain-being-an-idiot seem to pop up wherever he goes, even with his much more level-headed wife to help out. (Then again, she married him despite having seen his travel-karma in action during a many-months-long tour of Australia.)

While many of the places that Tony and Roo visit are far too hot and/or crowded and/or noisy for my taste, I do appreciate experiencing them through Slater's eyes - and am very thankful that I'm not participating in the painfully long hikes, getting lost (again), scrapes and blisters and sunburn. But I do envy some of the experiences; now and then they'll catch a perfect moment of mist on a river or sunset over the ocean, and it's just delightful. (And then Tony will sit down on an ant-nest again...)

The adventures included an attempt to climb Mount Hua in China, "the most precipitous mountain under heaven" - which Tony took to mean that it rains a lot {snerk!}. The descriptions alone made me clench everything clenchable, and when I looked up some photos that was even worse. But the section describing their attempts to get there made me howl, as they kept getting diverted, distracted, or just plain lost, before finding the way to the path they wanted: "the damn hard path, which is climbed only by the very dedicated and the very stupid, because it's damn hard." The climb itself involves steps, lots of steps - and some hilarious passages in which Tony's mind wanders as he keeps doggedly trudging upwards, ignoring a "steps closed" sign at the halfway point, pausing for breath before suggesting to his wife (who must be amazingly fit as well as game) that what they should do next is climb some stairs...

There's so much here that I can't begin to touch on all my favorite bits, from the too-hairy spider to Tony's insistence on taking a photo of a to-him hilarious caution sign at an armed-guard post in China (debating with his wife as to whether the humor was more important than risking becoming a political prisoner).

By the time our happy couple makes it home, it seems that the burdens of ordinary life - official documents with deadlines, acquiring a regular source of income - might be the most terrifying things they've faced in the entire trip. But I can't help hoping they take more trips soon, so that Slater can write another book!

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at LFL [OBCZ] - New Searles Rd, #46 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Released 1 yr ago (10/4/2022 UTC) at LFL [OBCZ] - New Searles Rd, #46 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book in my Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2022 You're Such an Animal challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2022 Tick Tock challenge. ***

** Released for the 2022 Spook-tacular challenge. ***

Journal Entry 3 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Tuesday, January 3, 2023
I'm reclaiming this from my LFL, as it's gone unchosen for a while; will release it elsewhere soon.

Released 1 yr ago (1/3/2023 UTC) at Little Free Library, Horse Hill Nature Preserve in Merrimack, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book in the Little Free Library on this chilly, rainy day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

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