Trials & Tea Ceremonies: Misadventures in Far Away Places
A hilarious and heartfelt journey for anyone who has ever wondered: "Is this it?"
What happens when the life you've built no longer feels like your own?For Basho, turning thirty felt less like a milestone and more like "a splinter in the mind." A series of personal crises convinced him and his partner, Cesca, to make a radical choice. They walked away from their careers, put their lives in storage, and set off on a year-long, unscripted adventure across a dozen countries to answer one question: Is there a better way to live?
Their path takes them from the rugged shores of Australia to the spiritual heart of India and the serene temples of Japan. But between the moments of transcendent beauty, a deeper, wilder journey unfolds. They must face down spitting alpacas, chaotic farm hosts, a terrifying encounter with the world's largest spider in a Laotian toilet, and the constant challenge of escaping the "backpacker bubble" to find genuine connection.
With relentless honesty and dry wit, Trials & Tea Ceremonies charts a quest to stop living life as a pilgrimage toward a distant reward and instead learn to dance to the music while it's playing. It's a profound and unflinchingly funny memoir about leaving everything behind to find what truly matters-together.
Perfect for fans of Bill Bryson, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Cheryl Strayed, this is more than a travelogue-it's an invitation to question the path you're on and a roadmap for finding your way back to yourself.
Some early feedback from the celebrated author Pico Iyer, who so generously shared his thoughts:
"I especially enjoyed your reflections on Zen... on the ways in which we complicated the simple and try to explain the inexplicable."
and Mike Richards, author of "The Travelling Ape: What Travelling (Nearly) Everywhere Taught Me about Humanity, Geopolitics, and Happiness"
"A richly written, unexpectedly profound journey. The book highlights how travel can add richly to the meaning of ones life".
It's a love story disguised as a travel memoir-or perhaps the other way around.
In Trials & Tea Ceremonies, you will discover:
Laugh-out-loud misadventures that capture the chaotic reality of long-term travel.
A powerful and honest story of a couple testing their relationship against the pressures of a year on the road.
A deeply relatable quest for meaning, trading the daily grind for a search for purpose.
Unforgettable encounters with sharks, spiders, and the occasional spitting alpaca.
A thought-provoking philosophical journey that challenges you to find the music in your own life.
If you've ever dreamed of leaving it all behind, scroll up and click "Buy Now" to start the adventure today
Related Subjects
TravelCustomer Reviews
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
