Contents -- Introduction -- IMPROBABLE JOURNEYS -- Voyage Noir: Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica -- Persian Mirages -- Dancing Outside: A Summer on Lesbos -- Zambia: Bars and Barflies -- Madagascar: Life in the Red Lane -- A Trek in Nepal -- Beginnings of a Life Abroad: Two Houses in the Burgundian Auxois -- Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva -- Trinidad: Rain Forest Birding -- Indelible Gestures: New GuineaÌs Birds and Men -- On Learning to Travel in a Rock Garden -- Acknowledgments -- About the Author.