* Title: Rubies and Rucksacks
* Author(s) name(s): Mel Christie
* ISBN (or ASIN): 9781624295935
* Publisher: Opus Publishing
* Publication Date Year: 2026
* Publication Date Month: July
* Publication Date Day: 28
* Page count: 270
* Format (such as paperback, hardcover, ebook, audiobook, etc): Paperback
* Description:
Ren was tired of offices. Meetings. People staring at screens and calling it a life. It wasn’t.
He quit. He left London with a rucksack and a one-way ticket to Bangkok–a year long search under the flickering neons of Southeast Asia for Life, Love, and Meaning.
But with hustlers, mercenaries, jailers, and a Brotherhood of Nigerians along the way, the search took longer.
And took him further.
Set in the 80s and 90s, when Burma denied visas to journalists, Beijing had one budget hotel, the USSR existed, and the best currency was Johnny Walker Red, this memoir of wanderlust is a coming-of-age story for anyone who has felt that the only way to find out where you belong is to throw away the map.
* Language (for non-English books): English
* Link to book page: https://flyingcormorant.com/rubies-book-details/
* Image:
* Author Details: MEL CHRISTIE returned to writing travel stories after thirty years working in the tech industry in the UK, Asia, and the US. Originally from London, he is settled in the DC metro area, where you can find him practicing Tai Chi with a sword, when not travelling to discover more to write about.