Foreword / Jason Wilson -- Introduction / Elizabeth Gilbert -- A prison, a paradise from New York times magazine / John Jeremiah Sullivan -- The bull passes through from Morning news / Kevin Chroust -- The way I've come from Legal studies forum / Judy Copeland -- Blot out from Creative nonfiction / Colleen Kinder -- The year I didn't from Gulf Coast / Daniel Tyx -- Tea and kidnapping from The Atlantic / Sarah A. Topol -- The paid piper from T magazine / Grant Stoddard -- Dentists without borders from New Yorker / David Sedaris -- Confessions of a packing maximalist from Travel + Leisure / Lynn Yaeger -- Summerland from Travel + Leisure / Peter Jon Lindberg -- The wild dogs of Istanbul from Smart set / Bernd Brunner -- Bombing Sarajevo from Outside / Dimiter Kenarov -- Vietnam's bowl of secrets from Afar / David Farley -- Babu on the bad road from Virginia quarterly review / Jesse Dukes -- The pippiest place on earth from New York times magazine / Sam Anderson -- Dreaming of El Dorado from Virginia quarterly review / Marie Arana -- Caliph of the tricksters from Harper's magazine / Christopher de Ballaigue -- A farewell to yarns from Outside / Ian Frazier -- Pirate City from Paris review / Rich Cohen -- Contributors' notes -- Notable travel writing of 2012.