Author: Dom Joly
Pages: 278
Rating: êêêê
Dark Tourism is the act of travelling to places which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme.
Dom Joly travels to many places around the world that usually a person would be warned not to visit. He also takes part in crazy activities, interacting with locals and having some incredibly amazing experiences.
He first visits Tehran in Iran, where he plans on going skiing. This causes many problems as no one believes him, not even security in Tehran! He also has his visa stamped right next to his American one which causes problems later. He eventually meets his guide who unwillingly takes him to see local graffiti that aims to frighten Americans, then he takes him to the carpet museum, where the security guard is incredibly pleased to see a foreigner. When he goes skiing the place is almost empty and he meets some locals and ends up having an interesting meal with them.
Next Dom Joly visits America and goes on a road trip to see the places where Kennedy, Lincoln and Elvis died. He found loads of people in the street giving tours, and all of them believed that Kennedy's death was a conspiracy. These rumours aren't helped by the fact that the official government museum doesn't allow photos, and Dom gets chased out of the building for taking a photo out of the window next to the one Kennedy was believed to be shot from.
The third journey he takes is to Cambodia. This was the most emotional journey. Everyone Dom Joly meets is some how affected by the reign of Khmer Rouge. People would be sent to The Killing Fields for small things, such as being educated or wearing glasses, including children. Dom Joly even meets a man involved in the record keeping of prisoners. Dom then visits Chernobyl in The Ukraine. He goes on a tour that takes people close to the Nuclear Power Station, it appears to be safe but as they get closer the machine the guide brought with him gets louder and louder, by the end of the tour they just want to leave. However, they visit buildings, such as schools, that appear to be frozen in time.
His penultimate journey is to North Korea. This was the most interesting journey in my opinion. Everything there is so different and it was so amazing to get an insight into what life is like there. And his last journey takes him to his home country, Lebanon. Here he talks about what his life was like as child, bringing home friends from England and how much has changed.
I really enjoyed this book, Dom Joly's anecdotes were funny and it was incredibly interesting reading about all these places people wouldn't dare visit. There were pictures included, however, I would have liked more but after searching through Facebook I found them on his fan page. This made the book even more interesting! There were also so many facts included in the book that probably not many people know unless they have researched the area. I learnt a lot reading this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this book, I thought travel books would be boring but this one was so good I wanted more! I also want to recommend all of Dom Joly's shows, they are hilarious.
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