“What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen or experienced?” It was the people who answered our question that made this book possible. So first and foremost, we wish to thank everyone who shared their incredible stories with us.
Over the course of our travels, we took notes on several hundred stories. Then we needed the right team to help us compile them. So we researched and read the best travel writing we could find. One name kept appearing—Don George. We also recognized his smiling face from our National Geographic catalogs, where he led immersive journeys of like-minded travelers. We are so grateful for Don agreeing to work alongside us. He helped us select these fifty stories from so many others and then challenged us to make them the best they could be.
Don also assisted us in crafting a book proposal that caught the attention of Larry Habegger at Travelers’ Tales publishing of Palo Alto. We would like to thank Larry and his team of editors and designers for realizing our vision for Strange Tales of World Travel and enabling us to finally share these stories with readers around the world.
We hope that this book will inspire other travelers to ask questions like ours and truly experience the strange world we live in.