The Seals on the Icepack and More Gay Travel Adventures.

The Seals on the Icepack: And More Gay Travel Adventures By Hanns Ebensten Professional Press, $25

Whether chugging through Central Europe on the Orient Express, marching around the ruins at Machu Picchu, or witnessing the birth of baby seals on a Canadian ice floe, Hanns Ebensten--the man who virtually invented the gay travel industry when he formed his "for men only" tour company in 1972--is more than a travel reporter At 81, Ebensten is a quixotic adventurer--planning, living, then fastidiously recording each of his sublime, spirited, and often salty expeditions. Though fleshed out with attention to history and culture, the marrow of these delightfully unstructured tales is formed by the curious peccadilloes and sexual high jinks of Ebensten's tour guests. Consider the cast of characters on his Orient Express tour: "A big bear of a man who rarely shaved," a man with "mood changes that swung from abject depression to frantic activity and aggression," and a 50-year-old Texan who "dressed like a little boy, in brightly colored T-shirts and flimsy gym shorts outlining his genitals," When Ebensten writes that other "old men" have "human quail ties that separate the true traveler from the mere tourist--stamina, patience, indifference to personal comfort, and possibly because they realize that their time on earth is limited, the ability to make the most of chance encounters," he could very well be describing himself.

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