Overview
The travel guide for when you’ve really lost it
If you’re sick of the brochure hype. If you suspect the folk on Getaway aren’t quite telling you the whole story. If you think the whole travel industry takes itself way too seriously, you’ll love No Shitting in the Toilet.
NSITT, the book, is a celebration of all that’s perverse about travel. Instead of practical hints it gives you impractical ones. In that sense, NSITT is more in touch with the way things really are.
F.A.Q.
Where did the title come from?
Where did all the stories come from?
Is it true NSITT started as a web site?
Why all the Eastern European editions?
Favourite Photos
Dali, China: Contrary to popular opinion, the title No Shitting in the Toilet is not entirely gratuitious. It is in fact named after a sign I saw on the toilet door at Jack’s Cafe in Dali in China.
To me it summed up everything that I loves about travel – it’s illogical, irrational and perverse. Plus I figured people would feel compelled to find out what it was all about.
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The Wrong Way Home
London to Sydney overland. Regarded by many as my ‘classic.’ I must admit I have a soft spot for it too.
Swahili for the Broken-Hearted
Cape Town to Cairo overland, crashing Mugabe’s birthday party and riots in Addis Ababa.
Hi Peter
I recently found a very bedraggled and unloved copy of NSITT at my local second-hand bookstore, under a pile of Mormon and feminist literature (I am neither Mormon nor a feminist, so read on without fear). It was the cover that attracted me; that and the rather fetching author photo on the inside and the fact that you’re Australian (it has been my experience that most Aussies have a delightful sense of humour, or, at least, are very amusing to those of us who are not Australian).
Anyway, I clutched your book to my chest, immediately read it from cover to cover, nearly died laughing, spent the next two days delighting my family with recitations of my favourite passages and have now decided to go backpacking through East Africa.
So, what I really want to say is thank you; something about your irreverence and tales of disease and distress have finally given me the nudge I needed to get out there and travel. I can’t thank you enough.
Oh, and I am really, really looking forward to reading your other books.
Hey Theresa – thanks for rescuing that copy of NSITT and giving it a good home. I’m sure Joseph Smith and Germain Greer are thankful that it is no longer bringing the tone down in the Mormon/Feminist pile at your local second-hand bookshop.
I’m really pleased that the book inspired you to set off on your own adventure. I had hoped that by revelling in the more perverse aspects of travel in NSITT I’d encourage others to as well. It seems I have succeeded!
Have a great time in Africa.
BTW, if you’re serious about getting more of my books try Swahili for the Broken-Hearted next. I travelled up the east coast of Africa from Cape Town to Cairo so it probably covers some of the places you’re going.
if i took a photo of my copy NSITT, you would laugh.
It is in such horrible condition and both the front & back covers are quite worn and wrinkled as well as various pen scribble marks in a few languages other than english. Not to mention a few coffee stains and tears in a few pages.
I suppose you could call my copy of NSITT well traveled, since it has traversed the globe with me wherever i have gone since i bought it back in 2001. It has definitely seen better days, but i do hold it dearly and i must thank-you for the greatest book i have ever read. It literally is my bible and i swear i could almost recite it word for word. It has got me through the darkest, dreariest days of my travels and always makes me smile.
It was this book which gave me the travel bug, and since then i have never looked back. Every time i come home (Melbourne) I just want to go back and do it all again – and i do.
So thanks for being an inspiration and a great author!
Hi Nick – glad to hear NSITT had such a positive impact. I always hope people will read one of my books and be inspired to go off and have their own adventures. That’s the impact my favourite travel books had on me.
And BTW, I’d love to see a photo of your NSITT. Maybe I could start up some kind of competition for the ‘most loved’ examples of my books. I’ve got a picture of a copy of Vroom chewed by a dog somewhere. It’s owner bought it along to an event for me to sign once. But your copy of NSITT sounds like it may be hard to beat!
Hey Peter,
Just to say, I’m reading “wrong way around” now and its good (so thanks!) but I have to say you really nailed it with the NSITT…whenever people ask me how it is to travel the world with no money whatsoever for long periods of time I just give them (or if they are not my friends…recommend them) this book. There was so much in there I recognised, I really thought I was the only person ever to have fished their contact-lens out of an indonesian toilet in the morning having thought the night before (after an arak-attack) this was probably the best place to store them…glad to see there are more idiots around to do similar stuff…really loved that. Hope to write my own book one day but I appreciate its not as simple as you make it seem from time to time to order all those crazy memories and notes from the travels.
Cheers,
Sjors