Overland were at the launch last night (7th April 2014) of a new adventure travel title that explores South East Asia.
Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent is no stranger to adventure travel, having, among other things, ridden a Tuk-Tuk overland from Bangkok to Brighton resulting in the best-selling ‘Tuk-Tuk to the Road’.
This new book, published by Summersdale, recounts her journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail on a slightly knackered C90 Cub, travelling through the mountains and jungles of Laos, Cambodia nd Vietnam. As Lois Pryce says, ‘it informs and entertains in just the right measure, taking the reader on an action packed journey’. We’ll have a full review soon.
The event, sponsored by Boxer Gin, was held in Stanfords Covent Garden, probably the world’s best travel book and map shop and not somewhere it’s easy to leave if you have even a passing interest in travel. Among those attending, it was great to catch up with Jonny Bealby who wrote the classic African adventure in ‘Running with the Moon’.
The fallout from the Vietnam War is still affecting the population of the whole region today not least in the form of unexploded ordnance, and no trip in the area could possibly overlook the fact. Antonia positively draws attention to it and it was really enlightening to meet some of the team who campaign for MAG (Mines Advisory Group). We had no idea that Laos had more bombs dropped on it per capita than any other country and it wasn’t even participating in the war!
Antonia read a couple of pages from ‘A Short Ride..’ that described what she was experiencing on the road exactly a year ago, deep in Vietnam and thousands of miles away from a good G&T. This is a title that promises much. Keep an eye out for the review.
Huge thanks to Tommy Williams for the images.
