Travelling With Maria: Embracing Life

After the publication of The Short and Wonderful Life of Henry Hemingway – Fred’s wildly humorous and hard-hitting memoir of his years in Berlin, the USA and Canada – he surprises his readers with an enchanting and tender travel and love story about a two year journey through India, Sri Lanka and Australia. Travelling with Maria is an entertaining book, a page turner, full of amazing events like running away from wild elephants, meeting a goddess in a Hindu temple, lunchtime striptease shows and a lot, lot more. Ultimately it is a book about how to embrace life.

Table of Contents

Part 1: First time in India
Crazy things like running away from elephants
How life in the jungle taught me two lessons
Introducing the travellers
First contacts with India’s wildlife
As if the bell had rung and the stock market closed
As the Minolta clicked for the third time…
About friendship, trust and honesty
How do you forgive yourself?
How Maria shook the foundations of my world
A quick meeting with a goddess
How I was made a hero for the price of ten rupees and a few paise
A discussion, yet to be finished
About death and how this time we got it right

Part 2: Sri Lanka
Let’s have a look at Buddha’s tooth
A biscuit tin in Rameswaram
How we survived gigantic cockroaches, bloodsucking insects and rats the size of little dogs in a hotel in Colombo
A delicious fish and true beauty
How an old Buddhist monk caused turmoil in my mind
How I discovered another side of myself
How we discovered the real thing at the end of a hard tourist day

Part 3: Back in India
If Medhananda had waited only a few more minutes
Everything went smoothly and drove me nuts
No sex and no answers
How I nearly figured out how to bring two mosquitos back from the dead
Overloaded and time to leave
Some of us are close to the Sun

Part 4: Perth
The first miracle
Why Perth?
How to get a job in Australia
About tools and unfulfilled dreams
How I discovered that Australia was not the conservative country it was meant to be
The difference between Maria’s work and my work
About Australian politics and an amazing election night
Replaced
Thoughts about Hemingway
How Maria and I discovered the true meaning of fish and chips
Things that really matter in life
When life was perfect and money didn’t matter
Hard to say

Part 5: Across Australia
People do it all the time
On the road
A word with many meanings
Looking for George
Perfect peace and happiness on the Nullarbor Plain
How I fetched the wrong water three times in a row
Old people, wise people and a recipe for a happy life
Sorry, our mistake
Sorry, another mistake
A man with a slightly damaged brain
How a collection of beautiful shells can become a serious obstacle in a relationship
How to catch a crayfish at the bottom of the ocean, in total darkness and surrounded by sharks
Who would have thought that guts can taste so heavenly
Forty five minutes can be a very long time
Too much
A travel agent who knew exactly what had to be done and did it
A thank you to a great man and a great Australian
Home…