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Robert Fear

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Fred's Diary 1981: Travels in Asia Kindle Edition

by Robert Fear (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.6 107 ratings

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Fascinating time capsule from the 80’s

Have you ever wanted to read someone else’s diary?

Would you like to experience travelling in Asia without leaving home?

Then this book is for you. Fred’s Diary 1981 is a fascinating insight into a young man’s travels around Asia in the early 1980’s. This is a unique opportunity to delve into Fred's daily diary, which details the 158 days he spent travelling around Asia. Follow Fred throughout his extensive travels to Hong Kong, Thailand, India and Nepal.

Appreciate the many friendships formed along the way with fellow-travellers.

Relive the highs and lows that he experienced during this fascinating journey.

Recognise the huge differences in technology, particularly communications.

Become immersed in the different cultures, peoples and surroundings of Asia in the early 1980's.

Understand more about the drug culture of the 1980's, especially in Thailand and Nepal.

Learn from Fred's youthful mistakes, especially if your dream of travelling to Asia becomes a reality.

Favourite reviews

Not only a time-capsule but a cautionary tale of gems, drugs, and jail time as he explores waterfalls, Buddhist temples, and snow-capped peaks. Doug E. Jones

Fred’s heart-felt awe towards the beauty and the intensity of the place, his appetite for living the adventure, the mishaps and his clear narrative “takes you there”. Richard Klein

I came to this diary with some expectation, having written a very similar diary myself…and only a few years after this one. And I was not disappointed. Frank Kusy

A real rollercoaster of a read written in a very clever and informative style. This really would make a fascinating movie. Caryl Williams

This book is written with respect and so is not about an Englishman patronisingly describing his trials in another country. Graham Higson

Robert Fear has written a masterpiece. Writing a story in the form of a daily diary is always a challenge but Robert Fear has shown how well he has mastered the art. Pankaj Varma

This book allows for reflection and thought whilst experiencing the culture of Asia in full technicolor. Rukia the Reader

I was attracted to this diary as I was backpacking through some of the same places 33 years later, and I love travel writing. From start to finish I was hooked. G. Hughes

What a wonderful throwback to the 80s. Colour, sounds & sights of Asia are detailed, thoughts dissected which makes this book both fascinating and real. Paul Johnson

I learned what it is to be a traveler as opposed to a tourist. Well written and interesting, and at times, harrowing and turbulent. Bonni Morrison

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00H1POOKO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (December 29, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 29, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2555 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1494241781

Best Sellers Rank: #2,575,938 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #677 in Solo Travel
- #2,964 in General Asia Travel Books
- #3,813 in Asian Travel

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3.6 107 ratings

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Robert Fear

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Robert Fear has lived in Eastbourne, on the south coast of the UK for half his life. He moved there to be with Lynn, his future wife and is still there with her over thirty years later. As cat-lovers they have taken on several rescue cats over the years and are owned by three at the moment.

For his day job Robert works as a self-employed software consultant. In his spare time he writes, edits and self-publishes books, and organises annual creative writing showcases.

Robert’s interest in travel goes back to his twenties when he spent most of his time abroad. His experiences included; a summer in Ibiza, hitch-hiking around Europe and touring the USA & Canada. His most eventful trip was in 1981 when he travelled around Asia.

Born into a religious sect known as the Exclusive Brethren, his father John took the brave step of leaving it with his young family when Robert was nine years old. Robert never saw his grandparents again but is thankful for being able to grow up outside this restrictive group. His life has been full of adventures that he would never have experienced otherwise.

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Fred’s Diary

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2014

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Fred’s Diary is just that, a diary. This book is a compilation of the daily writings of Robert Fear describing his travels through Asia, his personal experiences, thoughts, and growth.

It will take you a while to get into the cadence of the work. It is a daily diary, some days extremely monotonous, others documenting fascinating events. Just like life. Some entries are explicit in description of interesting places, others are a simple indication of having gone somewhere, visited a city, or taken a ferry. Personally, I’d have appreciated more description of these excursions. For example, the author mentions a visit to the Taj Mahal … a place that would merit a poetic description. But, this isn’t the intent of Fred’s Diary, it is not a novel … but simply a non-fiction journal of events. A most interesting part, for me at least, describes Fear's experiences following arrest and imprisonment for a drug bust in Thailand. The uncertainty, bribery temptation, surprising availability of drugs while in this prison, fairly liberal visitation permissions, etc., … are all educational. The story will bring forth some dèja vu regarding late 70s and early 80s technology, a fun walk down memory lane. For example, the Sony Walkman was a big thing, and there is no cell phone, and people still wrote letters - not emails.

No need to suspend any beliefs, this is a true story. Enjoyed.

6 people found this helpful

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Clive Lilwall

A Trip to Remember

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2019

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This book describes Robert Fear's travels in Asia in 1981. He gives intriguing descriptions of the places he visits and the people he meets. But he can't seem to stop taking drugs. Drugs seem to be more important than anything else. This makes me worried that something really bad is going to happen. But he survives prison time in Thailand, illness and even difficulties with his girlfriend.
Overall this diary reads like an honest report of a life-changing journey. I admire Robert Fear's determination to tell his story.

One person found this helpful

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Mary Schmidt

Not for impressionable teenagers or 20 something's

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2017

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I waited a few days before writing this review as I wanted to give an impartial and honest review. I knew this was going to be a diary from the get go due to the title and diaries are fine with me. I have written my own memoir using journals and I have no problem with a diary format. That said, this memoir needs some serious work. The copy right page is incorrect in placement, the table of contents needs work, multiple words are misspelled such as water melon instead of watermelon, yoghurt instead of yogurt, etc., and the tense changes in most paragraphs - past and present tense - and the paragraphs aren't indented. Punctuation errors are found often. This memoir needs some serious editing, and if that is done, then I will change my review and star rating when I read the edited work.

As for the story, some repetition is understandable, but this book has too much - and I mean way too much. Dope is around no matter what the decade is, and it is not to be taken lightly. I don't understand why one must do drugs daily, why they must take drugs to mellow out, go to sleep, wake up, and then do it all again, especially if you are going on a trip. I had hoped by the end of the book the author would have found out that this was not the way to live. Who does drugs in a prison or jail and especially when they went to jail due to drug charges?? What is being promoted here in this book? What does one really see on vacation when stoned and proud of being stoned? Did this even happen in real life? If it did happen in real life, I give the two stars for surviving the ordeal - not that much was hard in surviving due to being stoned daily.

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RoxB

An interesting, adventurous trip

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2020

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Author Robert Fear opens up the pages documenting his 1981 travels to Hong Kong, Thailand, India, and Nepal. Keep in mind this is not a fictional story nor a travel guide to use in your travels, but it is interesting.

These are the daily, detailed exploits of a young man who meets people, sees places, and records the nuances of each day. It takes discipline to register every day on a trip, but Fred’s Diary capitalizes on that effort.

In reading the details of the 158 days of adventure, I wondered how the remote destinations, costs, and interactions might differ nearly 40 years later along the same path. There are several references to towns, travel destinations, and new acquaintances made along the way, which made me wonder how much of this remains today.

“… Sped off into the traffic and within five minutes were at the office of the houseboat company. We chatted over a cup of tea to the owner, a young Kashmir guy whose father owned the houseboats. We agreed to take a place on one of the boats for our first night in Srinagar at least. This will cost R60 with breakfast for a C category room.

We were driven to the Indian Airlines office where Rita got a ticket to Bombay leaving at 8:30 p.m. on the 25th. The flight takes an hour and three quarters and should leave plenty of time for her to connect with the flight back to Frankfurt. The cost was US$81 which is expensive but saves all the hassle and time involved if she’d had to get the train down there.”

The honesty of his experiences over the length of the trip was evident. His writing is clear and concise as well as transparent. It was precisely how it was for him at the time. The drug usage isn’t my cup of tea, but it was available in many places with few regulations. I appreciate the writing as thoughts of the times from a young man who enjoyed the time he traveled.

I recommend this diary for those over 20. It is a look-see inside someone else or, indeed, watching the world through someone’s eyes. It would be interesting if Fred would make the trip again today and compare the younger to the older Fred.

One person found this helpful

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Heidi C. Vlach

Says a lot and yet shares little

Reviewed in Canada on September 13, 2014

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I frequently found myself disinterested and skimming forward in this book. Yes, it’s a personal diary, so it can’t be expected to read like a novel — but Fred says he’s writing this diary specifically for others to read, so I think it’s fair to scrutinize the material.

Mundane information seems to get the most attention in this book. Time of day and currency exchange rates are carefully noted. The reader hears about every minor physical complaint Fred has, his aches and pains and diarrhea, and how he’s budgeting his money, and the precise list of foods he ate that day. But Fred very rarely describes the places he spends his time in, or any actual interesting aspects of his journey. He’ll tell you that he went shopping and bought shampoo. What kind of store did he visit and what did he see along the way? Who knows? He’ll tell you that he bought some lichees and ate them, and that lichees are a type of fruit. That’s it. If you don’t know what a lichee looks or tastes like, or how to peel one, well, this account certainly isn’t going to tell you.

The same few shorthand descriptions are used a lot. Nearly everything Fred eats is described as “tasty”, whether it’s a local specialty or just peanut butter on toast. And every conversation is “a nice chat”, with no hint of what was chatted about. Fellow travellers are just names and nationalities, rarely given any distinguishing characteristics. I found it all disappointingly vague for a diary that’s meant to share experience and understanding. Fred does have occasional reflective moments where he describes some striking scenery, or shares a philosophical thought in enough detail that I actually felt included, but these moments were vanishingly rare.

The blurb also promises an understanding of drug culture. But there’s no real discussion of cultural attitudes, not even when Fred is surprised to find himself in prison for drug possession. After that brief stint in prison, Fred learns nothing and casually does a wide variety of drugs with almost everyone he meets, with no consequences or difficulties. Just about every fellow traveller pulled out some weed/hash/opium to share with Fred, to my strained belief. Most days’ entries are dominated by doing drugs, feeling good, lazing around the … wherever it was Fred was staying at any given time, and having those “nice chats” with nondescript people.

This book does have a few interesting moments, and a casual tone that’s easy to read. But I don’t feel like I experienced or learned enough to make it worth my time.

One person found this helpful

Julie Haigh

A very enjoyable and very detailed diary.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 28, 2015

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I was lucky enough to win a signed paperback copy of this book in a competition. I also have the kindle editions of both the new edition and the older edition, and, at various times, I did read parts of all of them to compare-eg: when I was at a hospital appointment, rather than taking my precious signed copy, I read on the original kindle version-I later got the brand new kindle version and continued reading from the two new editions.

I like diary format-this is kept very simple, it feels as if it would be very authentic to the original diary. Some of it is almost just notes then some sentences are fuller. I like how it is as it was then-it's not been written years later and things tried to remember-this is the actual diary he kept at the time. It's now all in one volume and I still re-read and enjoyed the first two sections I'd read previously in his two shorter books (£99 to Hong Kong and Time in Thailand).

We’re soon exploring India. This is the kind of writing I love to read; informative, describing the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the area. We have climate details, these happen throughout his trip and I found it welcome information. It’s very interesting finding out all the places he plans to visit: Agra, Nepal, Sri Lanka. Also very interesting is reading about the night bazaar with all the stalls selling their wares and the food stalls too where the food is cooked on-site. This is a very detailed diary-there really is everything in here-both of local interest etc, the foods he had, how much it cost and right down to the times he woke up and went to bed! A very open, honest and revealing diary which appeals very nicely to my nosey nature.

I love reading of other people's travels to far flung destinations. It means I get the feel of going there without all the inconveniences. There are great examples and descriptions of his seeing the sights to be seen-the first bit of the diary doesn't have this because of his unexpected detour to prison! Contained in this book are the author’s adventures, the people he meets: other travellers and locals, the foods he eats, the sights he sees. It's all a very interesting log of a memorable trip of a few months from many years ago. Apple crumble?-I was somehow amused to hear that they do this pudding here! It seemed so out of place and unexpected! Eg: fried rice, daal, vegetable curry......Apple crumble!!!!!

Of course, this is in the days before email and he keeps checking if he has any post-only to find there is frequently none. There are news events from the time included-e.g., mention of The Ripper sentenced to life imprisonment. I like how he tells of the books he is reading at various times throughout his trip. One of particular interest, I wondered if this book was still available? It was amazing to think that here was a type of travel book which was interesting ‘Fred’ back then-and he was to end up writing such a book himself. I found this book is still available so this introduced me to yet another book! This is the kind of thing I do-I don’t just read quickly through something-for those few days or week etc. when I’m reading a book such as this, I live it!-I enjoy looking things up and finding out more about the places mentioned etc. I love lots of detail and I get so much out of it. I realise that, for some people, the detail may be a bit exhaustive and indeed, this new edition has quite a few pages less than the original one-but, it’s just my sort of thing. I loved the intrigue about whether Rita would reply, what was going on? Was it on or off with her? Fred certainly keeps us guessing with the Rita aspect!

So he mentions he did take plenty of pictures-I would have liked some in here. Oh my goodness! But oh my how interesting where they see the bodies burning and about what they do with the ones not cremated. And another thing-he's brought out this new edition-and this year 2015-has exactly the same days and dates as 1981. I do like how things tie in like this-what a great idea to bring out a new edition in a year which mirrors the original. It's great, it's just written in normal, everyday language-a genuine, authentic, REAL diary. Just read it like that, it's not meant to be an action novel! Just real, true, raw. And I like that. Oh my goodness, SO interesting-the bit about the Hanging Gardens.

I was reading this book whilst waiting for a hospital appointment and was so engrossed in it that I jumped out of my skin when the doctor called my name out! This is a record of an experience, a moment in Fred's history, it tells it like it was. It doesn't need any dressing up. I really enjoyed it. The diary has engrossing moments and more 'normal' moments too-this is real life. This is an edited and updated edition and I noticed on comparing my different editions that some bits are missed out-I loved all the details but I accept he may have been recommended to take some excess out. There’s still plenty of detail and info in here-a great record of Fred's trip, very enjoyable.

3 people found this helpful

cmris1

Friends and letters, uppers and downers

Reviewed in Australia on September 25, 2023

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It's always interesting to get a window into another's way of doing things, and this book is a window into another time as well. In this case the "thing" Fred is doing is traveling, and he does it very differently to me! I thought he smoked too much weed, but I found his experiences very interesting regardless, and it was fascinating for me to see how communication had to be done by travellers back then. At one point, Fred even sends a telegram! He still does manage to communicate with everyone and have a great time, and I found myself wishing for a sequel or an epilogue so I could find out what happened with Rita and Jan and if he ever saw Stan and Andy again. Fred really brought these people to life in his writing, and I found myself caring about what happened to them.

NiJen

An unadulterated account of backpacking and drug taking in Asia

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2014

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This book is exactly as described by its title - it is a diary and comes across as unaltered from when it was written over 30 years ago. With this format you get an honest account of what went on but, of course, the more mundane stuff on days when not so much happened remains in the book as well.

Fred appears to regard drugs - largely at the lighter end of the market but in cocktails and large quantities - as a central part of his travel experience and a route to finding himself and developing a personality he does not believe is finished.

Perhaps not surprisingly nearly all of the people he hangs out with on his trip also do their fair share of drugs. Some trouble feels inevitable and sure enough Fred and a couple of friends manage to find it with an experience most of us will never have and don't want to.

For those who have travelled in the other group - who have alcohol as their drug of choice as a potential add-on at the end of the day - Fred's Diary provides a true insight into his world. A world that costs him in that at least one of the experiences he has been dreaming of is denied to him because of the drugs.

There is also some insight in this book into an Asian backpacking environment which has changed hugely. But really if you are looking for a travel guide, comment, or a structured story about the effects of this kind of travel, this is not for you.

But, back to where I started. You get an honest day-to-day account of a subgroup (that still certainly exists) which adds up to provide an insight to a different world that most of us will not experience. You are not guided by addition or omission in what to think and can draw your own conclusions. On that understanding I would definitely recommend Fred's Diary.

Note to Fred - I think your book needs a last chapter. Placed at the very end and telling us what effect your experiences had on you. What were you looking for? Did you find it? And the bad stuff - did you learn from that? How much difference to your life did this make and if you could turn the clock back and do it again, would you do anything differently?.

3 people found this helpful

MikeC

Insightful and thought-provoking diary

Reviewed in Australia on October 9, 2016

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading Robert's accounts of his travels in Asia. It's a great insight into what was the standard 'pilgrimage' for young people in the 1970s and 1980s: to experience the exotic cultures and the breath-taking landscapes of south-east Asia, India and Nepal. Robert's diary is both a pithy travelogue and also a reality check in a way for what can also go wrong and the consequences of being in a different culture with different ways.

I definitely recommend this memoir, with one proviso. This is a diary, straight out, not a memoir in the usual sense of a carefully crafted, re-imagining of the past. The text is bare-bones and contains repetitive observations, completely in keeping with it being a diary. This strict diary-style might be off-putting for some, and I struggled in the beginning until I came to terms with the fact that this is a diary, not a fleshed out memoir. After that I enjoyed it much more, simply reading on and taking in larger sections so that I got the 'flow' of it all.

Robert has also bared himself here and for that I take my hat off. He doesn't attempt to reposition himself in a better (or worse) light, but to simply record what was happening and his immediate reactions at that time.

Insightful and stripped of any pretence of an author's 'after-market' tinkering, I found Robert's diary an intriguing and thought-provoking read.

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Fred's Diary 1981: Travels in Asia Kindle Edition

Fascinating time capsule from the 80’s

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Robert Fear

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