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The Backpacker

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The Backpacker

By: John Harris
Narrated by: Tom Lawrence
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About this listen

A gripping adventure that takes the listener on a backpacking trip through South East Asia.

John’s trip to India starts badly when he finds himself looking at the sharp end of a knife in a train station cubicle. His life is saved by the enigmatic Rick, who persuades John to abandon his mundane plans for the future for much, much more.

Fast forward to the Thai island of Koh Pha-Ngan, where they pose as millionaire aristocrats in a hedonistic Eden of beautiful girls, free drugs, and wild beach parties. Soon pursued by the Thai Mafia, they escape to Indonesia, Australia, and Hong Kong, facing danger at every turn.

©2001 John Harris (P)2011 Audible Ltd Travel Writing & Commentary China
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I really enjoyed this book and felt as though as I was travelling to all of these countries and experiencing all of the things in the book. The narrator did a fantastic job of brining the story to life with variety different accents.

Thoroughly enjoyable

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Listened to this on 1.4 speed to hasten the bore. I guess the alleged true stories could be inferred as exciting but my huge disdain for the three main guys made me hate everything about the book. What abhorrent behaviour in every regard. Can’t believe the author published his name to this, he should be so ashamed of his character.

Bad book, awful man

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I was looking forward to a good listen on a long flight (No WIFi or entertainment plus it was the only thing I had time to download) After a while I sped it up to 1.5 and made it to chapter 11 before finally calling it quits. ( In all fairness, I may have fallen asleep for abit). The main characters were just so unlikeable and threw off your stereotypical vibes of "Brits on Tour" I'm unsure if any of them enjoyed any aspect of travel or culture and my sense was they just wanted to freeload and take advantage of less fortunate people for as long as possible. I have to admit I was gunning for the Thai Mafia to catch them (plot spoiler) this unfortunately did not happen so no happy ending!!!

I struggled.......

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