The quest to escape tourist hordes can lead you to some pretty strange places, but some travelers go a bit farther than most, hence the arguably suicidal, but almost always compelling, war-zone travel adventure.

We’ve written before about tourists heading to war zone destinations like Iraq and how tourism can transform economies-in-ruin into thriving tourist meccas. In that context tourism often helps war ravenged areas, but the other side of the coin is the much crazier practice of traveling to war zones for fun.

Most travelers prefer to at least wait until the bullets have stopped flying, but some want to see precisely what it’s like when the bullets are flying.

World Hum recently printed Cullen Thomas’ second-hand story about his friend’s frightening and tragic experiences as a tourists in Afghanistan.

While Thomas’ friend’s experiences make for a gripping read, please don’t head out to book a plane flight to Afghanistan or Iraq or any other war zone. The desire to get of the beaten path is a healthy one, but there are plenty of ways to do it without heading to war.

Still, if the article piques your armchair interest there are a couple book you might enjoy, the first being the infamous Robert Young Pelton’s guide to The World’s Most Dangerous Places. I stumbled across Pelton’s guide while I was in Asia and couldn’t it put it down for two days.

There’s also a new book along the same lines, To Hellholes and Back: Bribes, Lies, and the Art of Extreme Tourism by Chuck Thompson. Thompson, perhaps best known for his tell-all confessional on lazy guidebook writers (Smile When You’re Lying) is not for everyone, but if you’re looking for more travel-adventure-through-foolishness stories it looks like it’ll deliver.

[Photo of Afghanistan by The U.S. Army via Flickr]