Following up on his travels detailed in Bad Lands, this time Tony Wheeler, the Lonely Planet founder, sets off to visit Dark Lands: Colombia, Haiti, Congo, Zimbabwe, Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea & Nauru. These places aren’t bad but in some ways conceal a shady story & could be thought of as ‘ Troubled States’, somewhat ‘ Failed States’, & sometimes ‘ Weird Lands’. In his interesting & educational journeys to understand how they got such reputations he sums up their stories with fairytales & legends. He finds examples of the birthday-suited king in Colombia as the war on drugs wages on, Rumpelstiltskin & King Midas in Papua New Guinea where gold brought unhappiness, Cinderella in Haiti though the prince has yet to turn up & Hydra whose severed heads either grow back or doubles, in the hills of Pakistan … He concludes that fairytales, though colourful stories, usually conceal a rather dark meaning to warn children of life’s dangers, the same way that history should teach adults about past’s mistakes. Yet, it seems, we let history repeat itself, as if we had forgotten both, the night time fairy tales & the history lessons! This is a very interesting & engaging account of travels in the Dark Lands, from an unusual perspective. Buy it now!