AllOKinDPRK

There's a couple of Amazon reviews that point out other things.

A few are fairly convinced that this situation didn't actually happen like the book makes out:

"another version puts it this way: They got kidnapped, the kidnappers were not prepared to babysit four climbers and did not have enough food or water for everyone. They got no support from local villagers so they let the climbers go. End of Story.

The climbers say they pushed a kidnapper to his death and then ran the equivalent of a marathon across mountainous terrain with no food or water, after having had no food or water for days.... not likely. In Kyrgyztsan at the time, most ex-pats had the same opinion of these four: "Stupid rich kids in over their heads who greatly exaggerated their story." "

What do you think of these stories? how have they come about?

The Vanity Fair piece is typical American pandering and sucking up to celebrity status, and treating former drug abusers like aliens who have come to earth with a touching message we can all share and feel warm about.

20k in south america???

holy fuck you could travel the whole world for double the length with that budget

Picking a small note from a very long document published and discussed at length in its entirety many months ago and saying it should be discussed is ridiculous.

I can only imagine your upvotes are for suggesting that a conspiracy is going on.

it doesn't cost that much to go travelling.

People like telling themselves and even convincing themselves that travelling is a nice idea but a distant dream. It really doesn't have to be like that at all.

$20 a day is all you need in the vast majority of countries on Earth. That's 3 months travelling with $1800. Book your flights early enough in advance and be smart enough to be flexible with departure/arrival times and you can make huge savings on this as well.

They key is to stop seeing travelling as a 'dream' but a reality that millions do every day. Ask yourself where you want to go, go on Kayak or Skyscanner and work out a time when you potentially could go. Then use WikiTravel to get a sense of what you want to do while you are out there.

In truth, travelling is one of the cheapest things I do with my spare time. Paying rent/bills/tax/insurance/transport in my home country- now that's an expensive business.