Book excerpt: The rewards you can reap from exploring this amazing planet are incalculable. Every year, more and more of us are discovering the joy, the excitement, the sheer sense of adventure in roaming the world. But travelling, particularly to the more remote and volatile corners of the globe, can be a dangerous business. If you don't prepare properly - by looking for potential hazards and learning how best to deal with them - you may wish you'd never started out. Written by international security expert Lloyd Figgins, using his experience of over 80 countries, The Travel Survival Guide is a unique new travel guide and essential reading for anyone planning an overseas trip, whether on business, as a tourist or gap-year traveller. If you want no-nonsense, easy-to-follow, practical advice on how to recognise the warning signs, how to prevent problems and cope with emergencies (should they occur), this is the book for you.