The ‘Travel Tales Collection, Airplane Stories,’ No. 9, April 2015, is part of Michael Brein’s ‘Collections’ travel tales series and contains among the best travel stories from Michael’s huge collection of travel tales that he has gathered in interviews with nearly 1,750 world travelers and adventurers during his four decades of travel to more than 125 countries throughout the world. ‘Travel Tales Collections’ are groups of very interesting similar travel stories of a kind on a variety of very specific travel subjects, themes, or countries, such as close calls, great escapes, pickpocketing, scams, safety and security in travel, Paris, Morocco, Mexico, and so on. Eventually, several hundred ‘Collections’ on all sorts of specific travel subjects, themes, and countries will be available on all the major eReaders. An airline story is in the news today! And so it goes. There’s hardly a day now that an airline incident of some sort or another is not in the news. We’re taking a lot closer look at air travel these days than ever before. Therefore, as regards the psychology of travel, we should take a much closer look at what actually happens on airplanes. And so, in The Travel Psychologist Travel Tales Series, that's exactly what I do. Air-travel-life stories include the full range of the human air travel experience, from pre-boarding incidents to arrivals; from the cabin to the loo; from the public and private lives of airline personnel as well as passengers—from the pilots to the stews to you—from that which makes us laugh to that which makes us cry, as well as, unfortunately, to that which creates abject fear and terror in the skies. Air travel is now more in the public eye than ever before. Thus, it is no wonder now that regarding the experience of traveling in the skies—like any other aspect of travel—we are not only more circumspect than ever before—we are, on closer view, now much more aware of how air travel is now seen to elicit the full range of the human experience. And in this one particular unique microcosmic window of scrutiny we see that air-travel is but one unique travel environment in a cornucopia of many others, and one that is neither unimportant, insignificant, indistinct, nor independent with respect to the overall experience of travel. Love it, hate it, or simply endure it, the lure of traveling in the skies, whether as just a means to a place or as an end in and of itself, the activity of flying, per se—airplane travel stories not only endure, they are on the increase. Whether you've survived a crash, been bombed by terrorists, been part and parcel of other scares and frights, been harassed upon departure or on arrival, or even laughed yourself stupid on a flight, your tales are memorable, and it is my personal mission that some of them are repeated here! Introduction to Travel Tales of Airplanes: Terror in the Skies! Part 1 Travel Tales of Airplanes: Terror in the Skies! is divided into two parts simply because there is so much material. Part 1 appears here in the current Travel Tales Collection issue No. 9 Apr 2015 and serves as a general introduction to this subject matter. Part 2 The unabridged, expanded forthcoming ebook Travel Tales of Airplanes: Terror in the Skies, part of The Travel Psychologist Travel Tales Series, is a larger volume and includes both Parts 1 and 2. The travel stories in Part 1 consist mainly of the personal air travel tales of Michael Brein (me), the author, plus those of a few other contributors. The travel stories in Part 2 are, largely, the air travel stories of world travelers and adventurers whom I’ve encountered and interviewed all throughout my travels over the last four decades to 125 countries. Mostly, your own air travel will typically be exciting, interesting, and without incident, but odd things can and do happen to you at almost any turn along the way in your travels, and air travel is no exception. Unfortunately, the restricted, constricted, and microcosmic environment of the airplane lends itself sometimes to a variety of episodes illustrating the vagaries of the human temperament and behavior that rear their ugliness on airplanes from time to time, whereby air passengers and crew sometimes act and behave in ways that are often atypical and different from how we normally would behave at home. I hope only peaceful and laughable events happen to you in your air travels. I sincerely hope that the negative travel tales of airplanes do not happen to you in your own travels. If something interesting happens to you in your air travels, you deserve to also be in these pages! Got an interesting travel tale for The Travel Psychologist Travel Tales Series? Please contact Michael Brein at [email protected]. Note: Some stories may be repeated in other eBooks in the series depending on the countries and subjects covered.

The ‘Travel Tales Collection, Toilet Stories,’ No. 8, March 2015, is part of Michael Brein’s ‘Collections’ travel tales series and contains among the best travel stories from Michael’s huge collection of travel tales that he has gathered in interviews with nearly 1,750 world travelers and adventurers during his four decades of travel to more than 125 countries throughout the world. ‘Travel Tales Collections’ are groups of very interesting similar travel stories of a kind on a variety of very specific travel subjects, themes, or countries, such as close calls, great escapes, pickpocketing, scams, safety and security in travel, Paris, Morocco, Mexico, and so on. Eventually, several hundred ‘Collections’ on all sorts of specific travel subjects, themes, and countries will be available on all the major eReaders. In the previous issue of ‘Travel Tales Collections,’ No 7 Feb 2015, I included a selection of food and drink experiences that you can have in your travels. Therefore, it is only fitting, after covering food and drink travel stories, that we now turn our attention to what inevitably comes next or later, namely, the subject of toilets in travel. After all, toilet experiences are an unfortunate but essential aspect of living that, like it or no, we all must come to terms with, whether on the home front or in strange exotic foreign lands. Being often beset with culture shock issues almost at every turn, especially in third-world countries, the necessity of dealing with toilets: where to find them, what to do about them, and how to use them even, elicits from many travelers nothing less than abject terror. Thus, for instance, when ‘nature calls,’ and you have barely a clue as to what to do about it or where to go . . . well, for many, it is in the least, horribly anxiety-provoking, and for others nothing less than horrifying and debilitating. For, in the best of all possible worlds—namely, in your home—where you have your bathroom all set up just as you like it, with an ample supply of paper toilet tissue rolls, a great functioning sink, fresh, safe water, nearby reading matter—in a word—you have conveniently all the first-world accouterments for dealing with the art and science of defecation fit for a king or queen, no less, at least in your own private castle, on your own private throne! But what if you find yourself in a third-world outback where you are bluntly faced with nothing but a bare hole in the ground and with NO paper of any kind anywhere in sight? And what if there are piles of human feces and hordes of flies at just about nearly every turn and in every corner? You have the stark realization that you are not in Kansas anymore. Are you of the proper mindset to deal with all of this? Be it as it may, there is, of course, much humor surrounding the subject of toilets in travel and considerable disgust as well. In this issue we pull no punches and deal with the subject of toilets overseas head on! (Pun intended!) They say, that in travel, people often ask the same basic sorts of questions over and over again when they meet for the first time. “Where are you from?” “What do you do?” “Where are you going?” and on and on. It should not be at all surprising, therefore, that one of the typical morning topics of conversation among travelers in the third-world often is—however disgusting and revolting this may be—and maybe the number one or number two (pun intended) things travelers talk about together during their early mornings (I swear this is true!)—whether they've had a good dump or not. Or, “Did, you have diarrhea again?” Or, “Did you drink the water?” It is about all this crap, literally and figuratively; there is no escaping it. Call it all TMI (too much information), but it's about what starts you off on a good or a bad day! And it IS, after all, what you really do talk about! Some of the toilet stories I've gathered are truly hilarious, and some, sad to say, are not! It's a third-world out there, and if you are not prepared for it—BEWARE! The pages in this ebook will make you much more aware! But be forewarned: this ebook is not for the faint of heart. Oh yeah, you will laugh your “okole” (Hawaiian for ‘butt’) off, and, if you're not quite ready for it, it just might dissuade you from really, truly roughing it. However, discouraging you from third-world travel is not my purpose; rather, it is to inform you, enlighten you, and prepare you, somewhat, for the inevitable consequences of drinking the ice or water, eating unpeeled fruits or veggies, eating some street food, or crossing that stream with an open sore, any of which may have some unpleasant and unintended consequences in store for you! My advice to you is this: if you are squeamish about toilets in the third-world, perhaps you should think about making alternate travel plans! In any event, the travel tales of toilets, which follow, should help prepare you for such adventures! When nature calls you and you have NO-where to go or not much of an idea of what you can do about it, well, you will have earned yourself a place in these very pages!

Michael Brein’s Travel Tales Monthly Bookazine Issue No. 9 for March 2015 contains among the best travel stories from Michael’s huge collection of about 10,000 travel tales that he has gathered in interviews with nearly 1,750 world travelers and adventurers during his four decades of travel to more than 125 countries throughout the world. Why not laugh yourself silly with this collection of funny, hilarious, gut-wrenching, LOL (laugh out loud) travel humor. Oh yeah, we do our fair share of ridiculous, raucous, belly-achingly funny things when we travel. And, I ask you: is this NOT one of the most important goals of travel—to laugh ourselves stupid? Thank God, the funny happens more than the horrific; the ludicrous more than the lame—travel is never boring and never lacking in wonderful, memorable funny causes célèbre that stay with us for the rest of our lives. Whether falling through someone's roof on a horse in Afghanistan; whether getting soaked by taunting the ‘fountain gods’ on a lawn at a castle; whether being thrown out of a restaurant in Buenos Aires for dancing on the tops of tables; whether chilling your wine in a bidet, the funniest travel moments that make you laugh are a welcome counter to those rare horrible travel events that make you cry. And it is also these memorable stories that remain with us, isn’t it, after all is said and done, in our travels? Feel free to laugh out loud with these travel tales of humor presented here in this current issue of Travel Tales Monthly. For many people, life is all about getting laid, lauded or loaded, but for many of us, it is more about sampling the lives, the cultures, the oddities, the sights, the sounds, the foods, the drinks, and the humor of the peoples of other lands. For me, it is all of the above, but it is also about laughter. I like to laugh much of the time, and probably would ALL the time if I could. Laughing abroad is what makes travel especially memorable. Of course, we remember the times that we cry; but we do, indeed, also remember the times that we laugh. Introduction to Travel Tales of Humor: Funny Stories. Part 1 Travel Tales of Humor: Funny Stories is divided into two parts simply because there is so much material. Part 1 appears here in the current Travel Tales Monthly issue No. 9 Mar 2015 and serves as a general introduction to this subject matter. Part 2 The unabridged, expanded forthcoming ebook Travel Tales of Humor: Funny Stories, part of The Travel Psychologist Travel Tales Series, is a larger volume and includes both Parts 1 and 2. The travel stories in Part 1 consist mainly of the funniest personal travel tales of Michael Brein (me), the author. The travel stories in Part 2 are, largely, the funniest stories of world travelers and adventurers whom I’ve encountered and interviewed throughout my travels over the last four decades to 125 countries. Mostly, your travels will typically be exciting and interesting, but funny things can and do happen to you at almost any turn along the way. The freedom from the typical constraints of home that travel offers us allows us to act and behave in ways that are often atypical and different from how we normally behave at home. Thus, in travel, we can take a few more risks and chances and do a few more silly and funny things that we might not ordinarily do at home. With this expanded propensity for more silliness, of course, comes the opportunity for more funny times, more laughs, and more great memories. For me, I’ve found that I’ve reveled in acting out the ‘Fool’ or the ‘Clown’ in my travels, very often making people laugh at my own expense. It is all in good fun. I’m not typically like this at home but more so in my travels. I hope laughable events happen to you a lot. I sincerely hope that the funny travel tales of humor that appear in these pages make you laugh and give you a hint of what lies in store for you in your own travels.

Michael Brein’s Travel Tales Collections is a monthly bookazine release of three or more very interesting similar travel stories of a kind on a variety of very specific travel subjects, themes, or countries, such as close calls, great escapes, scams, wildlife, Paris, Morocco, Mexico, and so on. Collections are small groups of similar travel tales making their way into ebooks in The Travel Psychologist Travel Tales eBook Series. Say, for example, you are interested in the subject of pickpockets. You'll read in the ‘Collection’ on pickpocketing several travel stories about how several people dealt with pickpockets in their travels. So, are you maybe Interested in specific travel stories about France, African safaris, safety and security overseas, mystical experiences, rogues and characters, ghosts and the paranormal, the Cold War Soviet Union, 'from hell' travel tales, or what have you? Eventually, there will be up to several hundred Collections on an extensive variety of very interesting travel subjects and themes to choose from. Simply select any Collections that suit your specific travel interests. “You wouldn't believe the incredible stories people have told me about their travels.” These are—simply stated—great stories! Travel Tales Collections No. 4 Nov 2014: Spooky Tales 1 Michael Brein’s Travel Tales Collection, Spooky Tales 1, features a bunch of bizarre and strange tales of the paranormal that can happen to you in your travels. Strange things do happen, and mostly they are the usual, typical, expected sorts of normal experiences. But there are also those unexpected, strange surprises that pop up now and again in your journeys. The Travel Tales Collection, Spooky Tales 1, features stories of witch doctors, and haunted airplanes, hotels, and cemeteries, such as, “The Witch Doctor,” “Psychic Willie,” and more. Just because you’ve never experienced the paranormal at home, let alone in your travels, doesn’t mean it cannot happen to you sometime when you least expect it! The Travel Tales Collection, Spooky Tales 1, is part of Michael Brein’s Collections travel tales series and contains among the best travel stories from Michael’s huge collection of travel tales that he has gathered in interviews with nearly 1,750 world travelers and adventurers during his four decades of travel to more than 125 countries throughout the world. Travel Tales Collections are groups of three or more very interesting similar travel stories of a kind on a variety of very specific travel subjects, themes, or countries, such as close calls, great escapes, pickpocketing, scams, safety and security in travel, Paris, Morocco, Mexico, and so on. Eventually, several hundred Collections on all sorts of specific travel subjects, themes, and countries will be available on all the major eReaders. Future Collections and other ebooks will include additional travel stories on the bizarre, the strange, and the paranormal.

Book 1: Unravel the art of storytelling with “How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays by Mark Twain.” Twain's collection of essays provides keen insights into the craft of storytelling, sprinkled with his signature humor and wit. Explore the nuances of narrative technique as Twain shares his thoughts on the art of spinning a compelling tale. Book 2: Venture into the realms of mystery and the supernatural with “The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories by Mark Twain.” Twain's short stories delve into the mysterious and fantastical, showcasing his versatility as a storyteller. Each tale offers a glimpse into Twain's imagination, blending the mundane with the extraordinary. Book 3: Embark on a humorous and insightful journey through Europe and the Holy Land with “The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain.” Twain's travel narrative captures the humor and observations of a group of American tourists exploring foreign lands. Filled with satire and cultural commentary, this work reflects Twain's keen eye for the absurdities of travel and human nature.

Michael Brein’s Travel Tales Collection, Close Calls & Great Escapes 1, features a bunch of frightening and horrific tales of fear and panic that can most certainly happen to you in your travels. Scary things do happen occasionally, and mostly your travels are the usual, typical, expected sorts of normal non-anxious experiences. But there are also those unexpected, strange and dangerous surprises that pop up now and again in your journeys. The Travel Tales Collection, Close Calls & Great Escapes 1, features stories of panic, dangerous men, and menacing Gypsies, such as in, Men with Machetes, Bad Day at Red Frog, Airline Hijacking, and more. Just because you’ve never experienced danger at home, let alone in your travels, doesn’t mean it cannot happen to you sometime when you least expect it! The Travel Tales Collection, Close Calls & Great Escapes 1, is part of Michael Brein’s Collections travel tales series and contains among the best travel stories from Michael’s huge collection of travel tales that he has gathered in interviews with nearly 1,750 world travelers and adventurers during his four decades of travel to more than 125 countries throughout the world. Travel Tales Collections are groups of very interesting similar travel stories of a kind on a variety of very specific travel subjects, themes, or countries, such as close calls, great escapes, pickpocketing, scams, safety and security in travel, Paris, Morocco, Mexico, and so on. Eventually, several hundred Collections on all sorts of specific travel subjects, themes, and countries will be available on all the major eReaders. Future Collections and other ebooks will include additional travel stories on dangerous close calls and lucky great escapes.

A collection of stories details the attractions of time-travel and how it is a prevalent theme in both the science-fiction and literary fiction genres, and includes works by such authors as Isaac Asimov, Rudyard Kipling, Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, Rod Serling, and Jack Finney. Reprint.