The waitress suggests that I come back after she closes down the restaurant, around midnight. We end up having sex in a chair and then on one of the tables in the back corner. I pen a note in my Moleskine that I will later recount in the guidebook review, saying that the restaurant "is a pleasant surprise... and the table service is friendly."

For those who think that travel guidebooks are gospel

When Thomas Kohnstamm was approached to write for the Lonely Planet guidebook on Brazil, he thought that all his dreams had come true. So he quit his job on Wall Street, broke up with his gorgeous girlfriend and set off on an all-expenses-paid adventure of a lifetime. But it wasn't long before he learned that the reality was far different from his expectations.

Here, Thomas tells the story that didn't make it into the guidebook-the tale of a desperate twenty-something plowing his way through impossible amounts of research, battling fierce hangovers, a shrinking bank balance, a crushing lack of inspiration, a bevy of temptations and a looming deadline ... with the only comfort being that what he couldn't plagiarize, he could always make up.