A review of Bob Riel’s Two Laps Around the World

[Note: Each Saturday this month, Vagablogging will feature self-published travel books reviewed by self-published travel authors. We start with Robert Downes’s review of Two Laps Around the World.]

Review by Robert Downes

A book of ideas as well as adventure, Two Laps Around the World by Bob Riel offers the sort of insights that spring from the traveling life — particularly for those who journey through foreign lands.

In the early 2000s, Boston newlyweds Bob and Lisa Riel decided to travel east around the world on a “life sabbatical” before having children. That trip took them to Istanbul, Kenya, Thailand, China and Japan. Two years after returning home, they found that “the children hadn’t arrived and the travel bug hadn’t left,” so they took another lap around the world, this time traveling west through Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Singapore, Egypt, Jordan and Europe.

Along the way, Riel compiled a series of “Life Lessons” and “Global Rules,” based on his study of exotic cultures, such as the Masai tribesmen of Kenya, or Buddhist monks in Asia. His observations are collected in the last chapter of the book, with samples including: “If you want to grow, do something that makes you uncomfortable,” like learning to sky-dive, or getting naked on a clothing-optional beach. Also: “The world would be a saner place if more travelers went into politics,” considering that as a set, we travelers tend to have a more enlightened view of our planet and its people.

As a writer, Riel has a painter’s eye for the color and mood of life on the road. Here, for instance, is his description of an African sunset: “It began with streaks of light shooting down from thick clouds. As if the heavens had opened and hundreds of golden Masai spears were thrust down into the pale green dusk of the plain. Then a sunset exploded across the sky in streaks of mango and purple.”

As a result, veteran travelers will enjoy revisiting favorite places through his prose, while other passages can serve as a primer for your wish list of destinations. A freelance writer and consultant, Riel lets his own story unfold slowly through the book, which correspondingly ‘grows’ on you with a series of anecdotes and vignettes. If you love that sub-genre of armchair travel that involves stories of everyday adventurers circling the globe, then Two Laps Around the World is a keeper.

Robert Downes is the author of Planet Backpacker: Across Europe on a Mountain Bike & Backpacking On Through Egypt, India & Southeast Asia.