Customer Reviews
i agree.. act your age - By: Mr. R. J. Paul, 21 Sep 2008 
I had read an original copy from the 1970's of Jupiter Travels.. which was good but not as good as 'The Bone Man of Banares'. I thought when I was reading the original book... what's the point of this trip? especiallly as he broke the trip & flew home from India at one point.. sort of cheating.. This book was even more of a pointless cheat.. would have made a better book if he's just got a round-the-world air ticket & revisited alll those places & people from the first trip.. hire a car to get to the remote places & camp out.. that's what I would have done. There's also a sad sort of jaded & lack-lustre feel to this whole story, as he reallly feels his age.. Also of note is the way christianity creeps into this book, as it wasn't a factor in the first book, as he was young'ish & foot-loose, but here he seems to think a tiny bit about it, but rejects it. Perhaps it was the idea that an ordinary trip wouldn't sell as a story.. but it could have been interesting, & revisit new places as well.. the 'relationship' with the orientalist-enthusiast was also just plain sad.. dont bother reading this one.. read the 'Bone Man of Banares' instead.. he had a reason to travel around the world.. to escape the vietnam war...
first few chapters depressing but then full of richness - By: Neil, 13 Jun 2008 
I nearly put this book down in the first 80 pages-Ted Simons finds anti-climax at every corner-people he met in the 70s have gone-the world seems full of litter & is now built up where once was paradise. However I began to realise that his honesty is part of the author's strength . He equallly describes the beauty of Africa-the thrill of the high Andes , the stunning Australian outback & the kindness of strangers.We are left with an impression that it is still a wonderful world out there but it needs protecting.When I look back at Jupiter's travels he also describes misery filth & poverty amongst beauty .Why did that not affect me in the same way when I first read it? It probably did .We look back at Jupiter's travels through rose tinted glasses & I'm sure we will do the same with this book.It is a classic which took me from my hammock in the garden to the wild high places of the world & gently back again-Well worth reading
A remarkable journey by a remarkable man - By: E. M. Walker, 21 Feb 2008 
Ted Simon is a very remarkable man and, in his 70's, to undertake a 59,000 mile motorcycle journey visiting 47 countries is little short of astonishing.
And he did alll this without back up teams of people to support him or arrange his visas or anything else, but on his own.
However, it is a very different book to Jupiter's Travels.
I think this is possibly explained by Ted himself in chapter 27 -'It seemed to me impossible to say anything upbeat & optimistic about the changes I had seen'.
Whilst Jupiter's Travels was full of optimism - indeed Ted describes himself seeing 'in the world of the seventies a kind of innocence' - the world of the new millenium is rather less so. Vastly improved communication has destroyed the innocence. The immolation of the twin towers, & America's reaction to it, has created a very different world.
So Dreaming of Jupiter is not an optimistic book, but may well give you much food for thought.
The good news is that Ted is an optimist himself, because only an optimist could have undertaken this journey, not once, but twice.
Highly recommended.
Don't try to re-visit your youth - By: K. Cowburn, 30 Aug 2007 As a sequel to one of the seminal books of my youth I was looking forward to this hugely. I was very disappointed & eventuallly abandoned the quest for any deep insight, skimming the last third. Any sense of adventure in Simon's repeat journey is quashed by concerns of liaisons with film crews in Africa & trying to update a website as he goes. The whole thing becomes a compromise & totallly against the spirit of going with the flow & freeing up the mind that imbued the adventures of the first book. This is unhappily summed up in Simon's closing paragraph where he's casting around for a catchy last line. He allludes, weakly I thought, to the dreams & aspirations apparently captured in his face in a photograph taken during the first journey. This fudge compares very unfavourably with the magical last line from his first book '...an enchanted land perhaps, where men can still dream of being Gods.'
Dreams are made of this......... - By: Mr. A. Stagg, 18 Apr 2007 As with the original Jupiters Travels extremely well written,this extraordinary book is imaginative, thought provoking & inspiring to any reader not just lonely adventure bikers. Reading the two books gives a great comparison of the developing world & reflects on the population expansion issues of our greedy western civilisation whilst from a biker angle reads with continual interest ..Well recommended ..you need never have worn leathers, dropped a bike or stripped an engine to enjoy! but you will need to have been in love at least once in your life to understand some of the deeper moments.
