What do you think?
Rate this book
Footloose: Twisted Travels Across Asia, From Oz To Baku
In this offbeat travel book, Mark rides buses, trains, and boats from Australia to Azerbaijan, via the likes of Luang Prabang and Chachoengsao, Chengdu and Coober Pedy. He catches a cargo ship across the Indian Ocean, risks a dicey gauntlet of terrorists and Chinese tanks, has beers with a naked ex-Soviet officer in Kazakhstan... And he wears flip-flops for the whole journey. Why? For no good reason — though it does mean saving money on socks.
- GenresTravelNonfiction
211 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2015
20 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 4, 2016
The book is ok, but he comes across as a jerk on several occasions.
February 7, 2026
Unfortunately I didn’t know this was one in a series so it ended quite abruptly for me. A strange mix of humorous observations, harrowing situations and some sarcastic and quite negative criticisms of pretty much everybody. While this can sometimes be a turn off it can also be quite funny. Those offended should grow out of their wokeness.
November 2, 2017
Footloose is a comedic travelogue covering Walters' nine month overland journey from Sydney to London. The title refers to his penchant for jandals or flip-flops by virtue of not wanting to imprison his feet in closed shoes.
This is a book that will definitely divide people. For some, the off-key and inappropriate humour will be too much while for others it will be guaranteed to provide a laugh a minute. There is probably more laughter material contained within the covers than any other travel book I’ve ever read, with (sometimes questionable) humourous efforts every other sentence. If you’re not put off by the first chapter then this will be one of the funnier and more politically incorrect books you’ll read in some time.
This is a book that will definitely divide people. For some, the off-key and inappropriate humour will be too much while for others it will be guaranteed to provide a laugh a minute. There is probably more laughter material contained within the covers than any other travel book I’ve ever read, with (sometimes questionable) humourous efforts every other sentence. If you’re not put off by the first chapter then this will be one of the funnier and more politically incorrect books you’ll read in some time.
October 12, 2018
Once upon a time when the world was much bigger than it is today and a much more dangerous and unknown place, it was a great achievement for a traveller to get from A to B without getting killed, kidnapped or lured into a life of great hedonism. Today when you can buy a round the world ticket for about the same price as a new sofa, a traveller has to try a bit harder to make their journey seem somehow 'special'. Mark Walters set himself (in my opinion) a fairly silly challenge to get from Sydney to London without taking any flights and wearing flip-flops (or thongs for the Australians who sadly don't always realise that double meaning of that word).
Personally I loathe flip-flops and can't wear them for more than about 5 minutes so I utterly reject the authors claims to the superiority of his chosen footwear - but that's up to him. What I object to much more than his sartorial choices are his disgusting attitudes to other people - but more of that later.
Taking no planes is an arbitrary choice. It's entirely self-set as a restriction. It really wouldn't make a jot of difference to anybody else if he'd hopped a flight now and then. Especially since a lot of the time nothing is said at all about how he got from one place to the next. Suddenly he's in Prague, then Berlin, then Amsterdam and he probably took a train. I doubt he hitched a ride on a camel cart.
Some people travel alone - and I've done it myself - because they don't want to risk friendships on stressful situations. Some do it because they can't find somebody else who wants to do something so stupid as flip-flopping about. Sadly some do it because your average Joe or Joanna couldn't spend more than a few hours in their company without wanting to push them under a train.
I'll be showing my 'highlights' from the book - please take a look. He says such unpleasant, rude, racist and just plain nasty things. There are nasty quips about fat people, women, disabled people (to quote "Messier than a spastic with a jammy donut"), Israelis, women with face veils, public school boys, lady-boys and many many more. There are people who think this kind of humour is clever but most of them are still in their early teens and even those are a declining band in our more diversity-aware and culturally-sensitive times.
I'll give him two stars for putting himself in some physical risk and quite a lot of discomfort, for being so stupid as to spend 10 times more than he needs to plus weeks on buses just to get a boat when the plane would have been so much easier, and for admitting about 2/3 of the way in that what he was doing didn't really stack up against the guy who had walked from France or the couple cycling around the world. But I'd really suggest that if he doesn't want to offend a lot of people, he let an editor give him good advice on his bad language and 'hate speech' and clean his act up a bit in any later books.
Personally I loathe flip-flops and can't wear them for more than about 5 minutes so I utterly reject the authors claims to the superiority of his chosen footwear - but that's up to him. What I object to much more than his sartorial choices are his disgusting attitudes to other people - but more of that later.
Taking no planes is an arbitrary choice. It's entirely self-set as a restriction. It really wouldn't make a jot of difference to anybody else if he'd hopped a flight now and then. Especially since a lot of the time nothing is said at all about how he got from one place to the next. Suddenly he's in Prague, then Berlin, then Amsterdam and he probably took a train. I doubt he hitched a ride on a camel cart.
Some people travel alone - and I've done it myself - because they don't want to risk friendships on stressful situations. Some do it because they can't find somebody else who wants to do something so stupid as flip-flopping about. Sadly some do it because your average Joe or Joanna couldn't spend more than a few hours in their company without wanting to push them under a train.
I'll be showing my 'highlights' from the book - please take a look. He says such unpleasant, rude, racist and just plain nasty things. There are nasty quips about fat people, women, disabled people (to quote "Messier than a spastic with a jammy donut"), Israelis, women with face veils, public school boys, lady-boys and many many more. There are people who think this kind of humour is clever but most of them are still in their early teens and even those are a declining band in our more diversity-aware and culturally-sensitive times.
I'll give him two stars for putting himself in some physical risk and quite a lot of discomfort, for being so stupid as to spend 10 times more than he needs to plus weeks on buses just to get a boat when the plane would have been so much easier, and for admitting about 2/3 of the way in that what he was doing didn't really stack up against the guy who had walked from France or the couple cycling around the world. But I'd really suggest that if he doesn't want to offend a lot of people, he let an editor give him good advice on his bad language and 'hate speech' and clean his act up a bit in any later books.
October 25, 2020
When travelling, there is usually one person in a hostel or dorm that is utterly infuriating, narcissistic to the extreme and convinced that what they know is all that is worth knowing; this book was written by one of those people.
Racism, misogyny and homophobia aside, it’s not even particularly well-written. Clichés abound, stereotypes are dropped as often as unnecessary curse words and just about the only noteworthy personality feature this book possesses is the slightly left-field fact that the writer insists on wearing flip flops anywhere.
The only thing saving this from being a one-star review is the simple fact that travel, even by ill-informed troglodytes like the author of this turgid outpouring, is too important to be dismissed out of hand. I can only hope that the journey helped to make this man a fractionally better human being.
(Edit: at the author’s request, I include examples of racism, misogyny and homophobia in this review. I didn’t want to have to read any off it again, but there we are:
“On the way, we pass Anna Creek Station, the world's largest cattle ranch. At 24,000 km², it's bigger than Israel. Maybe we can move the Israelis here. The twenty thousand cows living on the ranch wouldn't be happy but would throw fewer stones than the Palestinians.”
“Choosing Canberra was the wrong decision. It's like having a couple of charismatic stunners begging for it and, not being able to decide between the two, instead opting for a boring minger.”
“Later, three posh lads join us. If they've been at private school, they'll have had a dabble around the backend.”)
Racism, misogyny and homophobia aside, it’s not even particularly well-written. Clichés abound, stereotypes are dropped as often as unnecessary curse words and just about the only noteworthy personality feature this book possesses is the slightly left-field fact that the writer insists on wearing flip flops anywhere.
The only thing saving this from being a one-star review is the simple fact that travel, even by ill-informed troglodytes like the author of this turgid outpouring, is too important to be dismissed out of hand. I can only hope that the journey helped to make this man a fractionally better human being.
(Edit: at the author’s request, I include examples of racism, misogyny and homophobia in this review. I didn’t want to have to read any off it again, but there we are:
“On the way, we pass Anna Creek Station, the world's largest cattle ranch. At 24,000 km², it's bigger than Israel. Maybe we can move the Israelis here. The twenty thousand cows living on the ranch wouldn't be happy but would throw fewer stones than the Palestinians.”
“Choosing Canberra was the wrong decision. It's like having a couple of charismatic stunners begging for it and, not being able to decide between the two, instead opting for a boring minger.”
“Later, three posh lads join us. If they've been at private school, they'll have had a dabble around the backend.”)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 22, 2017
Undulated travel energy!
I found this book at first to be an easy read, but it grew on me page after page. It can't be easy to write a book and condense that many experiences into a stand alone book, but you've really pulled it off here with an entertaining and funny journey which constantly meant I wanted more! Good job!
I found this book at first to be an easy read, but it grew on me page after page. It can't be easy to write a book and condense that many experiences into a stand alone book, but you've really pulled it off here with an entertaining and funny journey which constantly meant I wanted more! Good job!
November 24, 2019
I've been travelling through Laos with Mark for a week and can ensure you he is neither a racist nor a snobby person (I really don't understand these comments).
His books are full of humor (the British one) and I'm having fun reading them as I was when talking to him. He notices little details in everyone's nature and is able to make fun of really bad situations. That's all, and this is art :-)
His books are full of humor (the British one) and I'm having fun reading them as I was when talking to him. He notices little details in everyone's nature and is able to make fun of really bad situations. That's all, and this is art :-)
July 17, 2018
Mark presents his dry sense of humor, style of writing and gripping narrative as he travels from Australia to London avoiding all forms of aviation. It's a gripping and hilarious page turner, definitely recommended.
April 18, 2020
Ridiculous but...
This is as if a travel book has been written by a writer for Viz. It is relentlessly laddish and not ultra informative. However, this old lady, who ought to have been tutting, laughed a lot. A good read
This is as if a travel book has been written by a writer for Viz. It is relentlessly laddish and not ultra informative. However, this old lady, who ought to have been tutting, laughed a lot. A good read
July 2, 2017
The travel bits were mostly quite interesting, but the author is occasionally offensive and the book needs a(nother) proof-read.
August 15, 2020
Having read and enjoyed India(ish), I thought I would give this book a try. I wasn't disappointed. An entertaining account of the difficulties and pleasures of long distance travel in flip-flops.
December 28, 2020
Funny!
Another witty and irreverent travel book by Mark Walters. I've read them all - they are all great! I hope he is still traveling and writing. I'm ready for more.
Another witty and irreverent travel book by Mark Walters. I've read them all - they are all great! I hope he is still traveling and writing. I'm ready for more.
February 28, 2021
Great escapism, loved his dry humor
September 1, 2021
Expected more. Stories that get boring halfway through the book. Felt like he just wanted to finish it after a few chapters.
August 2, 2021
While talking about Christmas:
" You've experienced them before and there are more to come - unless Muslims seize control of the world and slay Santa"
Incredibly disgusted and this is not the only thing I've come across that has been racist and I'm only 6% through. Im going to try and read a bit more, because I have spent money on this. However if anything else offensive comes up I'm deleting immediately.
" You've experienced them before and there are more to come - unless Muslims seize control of the world and slay Santa"
Incredibly disgusted and this is not the only thing I've come across that has been racist and I'm only 6% through. Im going to try and read a bit more, because I have spent money on this. However if anything else offensive comes up I'm deleting immediately.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews