Publisher's Synopsis
With a touch of Bill Bryson's humour, this wacky, fun book takes readers on a fascinating journey to parts of the world that few people visit. The Ten-Letter Countries is a story of a unique blend of countries visited by David based solely on their spelling.... David Jenkins is The Alphabet Traveller. Having previously made an 85 000 mile journey to visit all countries in the world whose names are made up of four letters, David is now off to explore 12 countries which all have ten letters to their name. He heads to Bangladesh in search of the elusive Bengal tiger but disaster strikes quickly and worse is to follow. After a bungled attempt to break into a Luxembourg jail he sets off to cross the Stans of Central Asia by horse, jeep and bicycle only to stumble upon the world's most notorious heroin trail. Assaulted by customs officials and hi-jacked at gunpoint, he manages to escape across the mountains and make it safely over the Steppes in a Lada full of vodka. To a land of oil, pelicans and naked men beating themselves with branches. He follows the Silk Road and the spread of Islam to the deserts of Mauritania and makes the rail journey of a lifetime through the mountains of tiny Montenegro. In the sparkling Indian Ocean he uncovers the sinister side of the seductive Seychelles, finds himself at the helm of an aircraft over the islands of Mozambique and takes a razor attack in his stride to enjoy the wacky wildlife of magical Madagascar. David Jenkins hitchhiked to France the day he left school and has trotted the globe ever since. He has waited tables in Switzerland, sprayed crops in Israel, crewed yachts around the Pacific and cleaned urinals at Sydney Cricket Ground. He became a professor in Japan and then ran a business school in Rio de Janeiro before setting up his own company delivering newspapers across Africa. Now based in Cambridge, David's first book The Four-Letter Countries, was widely featured in the national media.
