The Naked Man Festival, by Brian Thacker

It was only a degree above zero and the rain was coming down in sheets, yet here I was about to run around in nothing more than a nappy. I was pretty sure it was going to be the silliest thing I’d ever done.

How many wierd and silly festivals can one man attend in six months? Not a question many would have ever considered, but Brian Thacker did, so he set out to find the answer. In six months he attended as many festivals as time and money would allow.

With a festival of some kind being celebrated somewhere in the world on any given day of the eyar, Thacker decided to focus on Australia, the United States and Japan, with brief forays into Vietnam and Scotland, just for a bit of variety.

Visiting such varied festivals as the Bean Throwing Festival and the Naked Man Festival in Japan and the UFO and Tomato Festivals in the United States, Thacker shares his own humorous insight into the events and recounts his experiences with a good blend of genuine information and healthy imagination.

This is a book for travellers looking for something different, for armchair travellers and for those who just like a dose of something different.

The Naked Man festival (and other excuses to fly around the world), by Brian Thacker
Allen & Unwin, 2004

Planes, Trains and Elephants, by Brian Thacker

Brian Thacker loves to travel. His first big trip was at the age of six when he boarded a plane in England to come and live in Australia. Since then he has had many more adventures in many different countries. But sometimes, Thacker has dicovered, the journey can be a bigger adventure than the destination.

In Plains Trains and Elephants, Thacker shares the tales of some of his most memorable journeys. From riding a Vespa around the Greek island of Corfu, to doing a pub crawl on the London tube, and riding an elephant in Thailand, Thacker recounts his journeys with humour and perhaps just a slight degree of exaggeration.

Plains Trains and Elephants
is a funny read and would make an ideal gift for the traveller (arm-chair or otherwise) on your Christmas gift list.

Brian Thacker was born in English and trained in advertising before spending many years travelling and working as a tour leader. His first book, Rule No. 5: No Sex on the Bus, also about his travel experiences, wss well recived. Thacker currently lives in Melbourne with his wife and daughter and works in advertising.

Planes Trains and Elephants, by Brian Thacker
Allen & Unwin, 2002