No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late

Ayun Halliday may not make for the most sensible travel companion, but she is certainly one of the most outrageous, with a knack for inserting herself (and her unwitting cohorts) into bizarre situations around the globe. Curator of kitsch and unabashed aficionada of pop culture, Halliday offers bemused, self-deprecating narration of events from guerilla theater in Romania to drug-induced <i>Apocalypse Now</i> reenactments in Vietnam to a perhaps even more surreal collagen-implant demonstration at a Paris fashion show emceed by Lauren Bacall. On layover in Amsterdam, Halliday finds unlikely trouble in the red-light district - eliciting the ire of a tiny, violent madam, and is forced to explain tampons to luggage-searching soldiers in Kashmir: &quot;They're for ladies. <i>Bleeding</i> ladies.&quot; A self-admittedly bumbling tourist, Halliday shares - with razor-sharp wit and to hilarious effect - the travel stories most are too self-conscious to tell.<br><br>This second edition includes a new foreword from the author.<br>