T H I S+W E E K Lost in the Sahara By Jeffrey Tayler A simple overnight trip becomes a battle for survival Dunescapes By Pamela Roberson A desert portfolio Letter from Amsterdam By Mary Elizabeth Williams Toke of the Town D E P A R T M E N T S The Surreal Gourmet By Bob Blumer Running on full > Mondo Weirdo Lions and rhinos and loos -- oh my! Readers' Tips and Tales Hitchhiking adventures - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Your virtual travel agency - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LA S T+W E E K Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1997 Bali low By Cintra Wilson Loveless in paradise A full list of all Wanderlust articles

M__O__N__D__O____W__E__I__R__D__O__________ for the past month, Wanderlust readers have been responding to the question: What's the strangest place you've ever slept? Last week Amanda Jones related her amazing tale of a sleepless night in northern Thailand, when she was transformed from a potential murderer into a life-giving goddess. This week we present three more readers' tales from around the world. Have you spent an unforgettable night on the road? Send your story to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lions and rhinos and loos -- oh my! I have had four strange makeshift bed experiences. Here are my Tales from the Deep Sleep: When I was in the army, we had to make our own temporary bases wherever we slept, mainly out of dead branches from the ground. Ten men would sleep in a 10-by-10-foot circle, in the midst of our biggest national game park in South Africa, the Kruger National Park. Lion prides would come up to these "bases," which were sometimes only five feet high. One time they jumped in, and everyone jumped out! (There were a lot of bullets fired into the air to scare them away but no one got seriously hurt.) That, plus a couple of hefty rhinos -- who could breathe these things down -- would amble over and do their things. All this under a starry sky, no one in a 25-mile radius and nowhere to run. Just an operations radio for comfort if something got out of hand! I once spent the night under a bridge next to a sewer manhole next door to the Princess Stephanie hostel in Monaco, Monte Carlo, at 1:30 a.m., because some Frenchman did not like my English, and gave me all the wrong train times so that I arrived in Monaco after almost everything was closed. Quite disgusting: After a drinking competition in Roxies Rhythm Bar, Melville, Johannesburg, I barfed my brains out and then slept on the floor next to a loo. When I was 13 years old, I slept in a toilet. This was after an extreme heat wave in Kariba, Zimbabwe, and the toilet was the coolest place to be -- even the pool was hot. -- George Eggberry - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Haunted hangar As a summer intern at the Smithsonian Institution, I took advantage of the open access my internship gave me to the Institution's non-public storage areas, including a Maryland facility containing much of the Air & Space Museum's collection. I wandered into a hangar where several planes were being restored, climbed into one and took a nap in the cockpit. One of the workers awoke me and informed me that I was sleeping in the Enola Gay. Needless to say, I wasn't able to go back to sleep. -- Dr. Bombay - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Buffalo Hill I thought I'd found the best camping spot on Catalina Island: a breezy, sun-baked, grassy area atop a rolling hill above Avalon. It appears that I have the same taste in creature comforts as the mighty buffalo, for the flat, grassy area turned out to be the stomping ground for a wild herd of the woolly beasts. I awoke the next morning snout-to-snout with a big mama buff! -- Deb Fellner Sept. 16, 1997 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - How about you? Do you have a weird travel tale to share? Send it to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com. And join our Table Talk discussion on travel and food.

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