“Travel is not about finding something. It’s about getting lost — that is, it is about losing yourself in a place and a moment. The little things that tether you to what’s familiar are gone, and you become a conduit through which the sensation of the place is felt.” — from the introduction by Susan Orlean

The twenty pieces in this year’s collection showcase the best travel writing from 2006. George Saunders travels to India to witness firsthand a fifteen-year-old boy who has been meditating motionless under a tree for months without food or water, and who many followers believe is the reincarnation of the Buddha. Matthew Power reveals trickle-down economics at work in a Philippine garbage dump. Jason Anthony describes the challenges of everyday life in Vostok, the coldest place on earth, where temperatures dip as low as minus-129 degrees and where, in midsummer, minus-20 degrees is considered a heat wave.

David Halberstam, in one of his last published essays, recalls how an inauspicious Saigon restaurant changed the way he and other reporters in Vietnam saw the world. Ian Frazier analyzes why we get sick when traveling in out-of-the-way places. And Kevin Fedarko embarks on a drug-fueled journey in Djibouti, chewing psychotropic foliage in “the worst place on earth.”

Closer to home, Steve Friedman profiles a 410-pound man who set out to walk cross-country to lose weight and find happiness. Rick Bass chases the elusive concept of the West in America, and Jonathan Stern takes a hilarious Lonely Planet approach to his small Manhattan apartment.

Best-selling author and New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean edits this year's volume of the finest travel writing from the past year. Contributors include Ian Frazier, Ann Patchett, David Halberstam, Peter Hessler, and others.

Jason Wilson has written for the Washington Post, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel + Leisure, and Salon.SUSAN ORLEAN is the author of My Kind of Place, The Orchid Thief, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup, and Saturday Night. A staff writer for The New Yorker since 1982, she has also written for Outside, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Vogue.

Foreword by Jason Wilson ix Introduction by Susan Orlean xiii

JASON ANTHONY. A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth 1 from WorldHum.com

RICK BASS. Lost in Space 8 from the Los Angeles Times Magazine

KEVIN FEDARKO. High in Hell 24 from Esquire

IAN FRAZIER. A Kielbasa Too Far 43 from Outside

STEVE FRIEDMAN. Lost in America 54 from Backpacker

ELIZABETH GILBERT. Long Day’s Journey into Dinner 71 from GQ

REESA GRUSHKA. Arieh 89 from the Missouri Review

DAVID HALBERSTAM. The Boys of Saigon 107 from Gourmet

PETER HESSLER. Hutong Karma 115 from The New Yorker

EDWARD HOAGLAND. Miles from Nowhere 129 from The American Scholar

IAN PARKER. Birth of a Nation? 148 from The New Yorker

NANDO PARRADO. The Long Way Home 168 from Outside

ANN PATCHETT. Do Not Disturb 184 from Gourmet

MATTHEW POWER. The Magic Mountain 190 from Harper’s Magazine

DAVID RAKOFF. Streets of Sorrow 210 from Condé Nast Traveler

GEORGE SAUNDERS. The Incredible Buddha Boy 219 from GQ

GARY SHTEYNGART. Brazil’s Untamed Heart 246 from Travel Leisure

ANDREW SOLOMON. Circle of Fire 255 from The New Yorker

JONATHAN STERN. The Lonely Planet Guide to My Apartment 288 from The New Yorker

CYNTHIA ZARIN. Fantasy Island 292 from Gourmet

Contributors’ Notes 299 Notable Travel Writing of 2006 304