TRAVEL WATCH: FEBRUARY 7, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 5

Off the Shelf

ALSO IN TIME

Living the Wild Life in Steamy Singapore While things have gotten tamer since Singapore's last wild tiger was shot in the billiards room of the Raffles Hotel, this notoriously hygienic metropolis has not completely lost touch with its tropical roots Detour After a long socialist-era hiatus, Shanghai is reviving its reputation as a dancer's heaven Off the Shelf A collection of travel-disaster stories is the latest brand extension from the folks at Lonely Planet

Unpacked
(Lonely Planet; 250 pages)

This collection of travel-disaster stories is the latest brand extension from the folks at Lonely Planet--and who better to tell of travels gone wrong than the guidebook company's intrepid staff? Unpacked opens with a witty account of an Outback accident. It's followed by a disappointing tale of a travel-writing assignment in war-torn Congo (the so-called horror story involves nothing worse than the loss of worthless wads of paper to a pickpocket). There are other letdowns: some of the contributors should stick to guidebooks. Many of the essays repeat the hackneyed gripes of armchair travelers, about Chinese toilets, Vietnamese bureaucrats or the deplorable horrors of ... lost luggage. But there also are flashes of brilliance, like a tour of Siberia with secret police in pursuit and a storm-battered family outing in Puerto Rico. Regrettably, there are more misses than hits in these pages.