Ayun Halliday may not make for the most sensational travel companion, but she is certainly one of the zaniest, with a knack for inserting herself (and her unwitting cohorts) into bizarre situations aroudn 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 APOCALYPSE NOW reenactments in Vietnam to a perhaps 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, which she admits, 'might have looked like white cotton bullets lined up in their box,' to soldiers in Kashmir - 'They're for ladies. Bleeding ladies.' A self-admittedly bumbling vacationer, Halliday shares - with razor-sharp wit and to hilarious effect - the travel stories most are too self-conscious to tell.

'I laughed hard on nearly every page of this shockingly intimate travel memoir and deeply funny book.' -Stephen Colbert, THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART