The World's Most Dangerous Places
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Robert Young Pelton's, The World's Most Dangerous Places (ISBN 0-06-273738-4) (1022 pages) is a frequently updated handbook written by Robert Young Pelton and an unusual crew of contributors. Although it is not meant to be used as an actual travel guide like Frommers, the book's advice to staying alive and the facts about the world's most dystopian countries is still unique in the publishing world. It continues to be the only non aligned, apolitical, on the ground guide to high risk regions. It is as much a primer on political science as it is a humorous book about the impressive ability for apparently rationale humans to routinely plunge their world into chaos and violence.
The first edition came out in 1994 and has gone through 5 editions. The most recent book in the series will be the upcoming DP Professional Strength from HarperResource.
The thick book is divided into three basic parts. The intro is a primer on the basics of staying safe in war zones and high crime areas.
| Section | Notes |
|---|---|
| What is Dangerous | general travel stats that help tourists assess their travel risks and put things into prospective. |
| What Danger Awaits the Weary Traveler | Teaches you about the safest mode of transport statistically, including third world airplanes, buses, trains and taxis. |
| Making the Best of Nasty Situation | Including dealing with terrorist territories, thievery, impoverished countries, political upheaval and more. |
| Business Travelers | Dangerous places for business travel and dealings with gangsters. |
| Tourists | Dangerous places for tourists. |
| Bribes | When to, when not to and how to. |
| Dangerous Diseases | Covers STDs and AIDS, malaria, worms, Hepatitis AB and C, the fevers, old fashioned diseases and more. |
| Drugs | Covers cocaine, heroin, cannabis and dangerous drug hotspots. |
| What to do if You're Arrested. | self explanatory. |
| Guns | covers different types of weapons. |
| Intelligence | Safety information for journalists ad writers as well as the traveling public. |
| Kidnapping | Security resources and kidnap, rescue and extortion insurance. |
| Land Mines | more than you ever wanted to know about land mine dangers. |
| Military and Paramilitary Organizations | dealing with military rule. |
| Terrorism | Staying as safe as possible in terrorist situations. |
The second section is a country by country breakdown of what Pelton considers to be the most dangerous places. It usually includes about 26 countries or regions including the US which prophetically became a very dangerous place on September 11, 2001.
The final and third element of this book (besides web links, addresses and even cell phone numbers for terrorist and rebel leaders) are the stories of what it is like for Pelton and his band of DP'ers to be in the middle of some of the planets most brutal events. They freely tell the reader how they got in, who they met and many of their failures. Readers should keep in mind this book predates our current obsession with places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran etc.
The book is a favorite of correspondents, military, NGO's, State Dept and is used by a number of intelligence agencies due to its entirely fresh and surprising access to the world's rebel groups. Many of the fans can be found at Pelton's website www.ComeBackAlive.com. The section entitled Black Flag Cafe provides updates, opinions and articles all moderated by the salty comments of Pelton himself.
DP is very favorably reviewed on Amazon and by the media. Once readers penetrate the dark cynical musings of someone who may the most war seasoned author of this era they find much to admire about having someone without an agenda but with a sharp barb for all combatants and their causes. Trivia fans might like to know that Pelton also produced a documentary series of the same name on Discovery and CTV in Canada that ran for four years. He is originally a Canadian from Edmonton and lives in Southern California.
