Dalat Central Market in Vietnam I have recently fallen in love with the idea of taking a gap year after I graduate from high school. I think knowing that there is a spectacular backpacking trip to Southeast Asia at the end of the nightmarish, sleepless tunnel of high school will make it easier to endure :D But while I am still trapped in the United States, I intend to travel vicariously through books instead. 1. Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell - An unspontaneous, bookish 16-year-old girl (ohmigod, that's me!) is "kidnapped" by her bohemian grandmother and dragged through Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. 2. City of Beasts by Isabel Allende - The story of another uptight young person - male, in this case - whose eccentric grandmother takes him adventuring - in the Amazon, in this case. Allende tackles environmental issues and the persecution of native peoples by Westerners, all the while describing the jungle in ethereal d...