Around the world in 80 girls is a lengthy read (+- 500 pages) about Neil Skywalker’s 3-year backpacking trip. The motivation for this globe-trotting journey was partly to break out of his shell and to become a more social guy.
When first published seven years ago, there wasn’t a lot of sites with this kind of information on the internet. But nowadays it’s easier to simply type into a search engine: “Where to meet women in ____ (city name).” Then skip 200 pages of potentially irrelevant information devoted to meeting women in Russia and China. I ended up skimming or “speed-reading” through his adventures in South-East Asia so that I could get to the small section on South America, where I was traveling when I finished reading the book.
Neil had a blog back then, as well as a site to promote the book. But nowadays, all that remains is the book. One negative is that a lot of the recommended bars and hostels have closed down since the time of writing. To make it a more alluring buy, he added a 50-page theory section with very decent seduction tips at the end of the book.
Contents
Neil Skywalker’s Trip
Initially, he struggles a lot with the women he meets. But somewhere in Cambodia, he writes about the death of his inner “nice guy“. Something clicked and he started getting laid a lot more. Although the girls in South East Asia are known for being fond of Westerners, it seems he overcame a lot of his approach anxiety by being more social while traveling.
He has sexual relationships with a lot of high-quality girls along the way, BUT: At the same time, he confesses to banging what he calls “taxi girls” (freelance hookers), without paying. Other bad habits included smoking marijuana, heavy drinking, and cigarettes.
Seduction Techniques and Tips
For beachgame, he used the ‘corniest line ever’: “Hey girls, can you put some sun lotion on my back?”. But he felt it worked very well for him since it demonstrated his balls to approach, while 95% of guys will only perve from a distance.
Throughout the book, Neil is clearly a good flirt. It’s helpful to remember: Don’t only have a normal conversation, you should actually flirt with the girl. He uses a lot of sweet-talking and charming on dates, along with teasing. For example, if the girl is late on a date, jokingly say: “You are a typical woman who is late all the time.” Or when he goes for the kiss, and the girl keeps giving him the cheek: “Why don’t you kiss my lips, are you my grandma?”
He argues that nightgame is purely a numbers game. Talk to many girls and you’ll find one who is into you. He also mentions that when approaching hot girls, remain unimpressed by their beauty. After all, beauty is common.
His mindset is that he is Alpha, and all the other guys in the club are Beta. However, like every seducer who has ever traveled, he does sometimes struggle with daygame in countries where English isn’t spoken.
Neil shares one of his trademark moves to test if a make-out is on during a date: Rub your thumb on her fingers, if she doesn’t pull away, and especially if she rubs your fingers back, then you know she would kiss you. If she doesn’t mind your hand resting close to her pussy, then you know she’s an easy catch.
A routine question he asks after sex with a new girl is: “At what point did you become attracted to me?”. He gets responses such as: “At the point when two other girls were fighting over you”. He sometimes uses jealousy to create attraction in women. This is where pre-selection comes in.
Pre-selection (and de-selection)
When kissing on the dance floor, he makes sure the other girls around (especially the girls he is flirting with) see him kissing. Another example of pre-selection: He tries to sneak a girl into a hostel. Then gets reprimanded in front of other girls by the staff. Since that moment, all the girls start checking him out. Pre-selection could also be when the girl you’re really interested in watches you having a long conversation with two other attractive girls.
He tends to be very open with women he meets, not hiding his romances with other girls. He feels this demonstrates further pre-selection, and thus creates jealousy, which can stimulate attraction. Similarly, when he talks about his sexual exploits with male buddies in the hostel, he made sure the girls overhear the conversation. He realized it frames him as a sort of a player. But this isn’t a bad frame. Most girls dig a player. Players are fun. Players know what they want. Stereotypical shy nice guys are boring. When a girl said “I don’t wanna be your 25th lay on your trip”, he could read between the lines that it was simply her anti-slut defense, and an indirect invitation to pick her up and make her number 25. To Neil, her words were a dead giveaway and a blip on the slut radar.
He writes about de-selection as well. This refers to, for example, an unattractive girl grabbing your hand and pulling you through a crowd. Jealousy game didn’t always work for him though. It can easily backfire and put a girl off, as much as it can turn her on.
However, solid pre-selection is something I can also vouch for. For example, go with a cute girl on a date to a bar, and see how the other hot girls also now check you out, because your “pre-selected” by your date. You’ll read more about this in other game books as well e.g. A Thousand Tiny Failures.
Wingmen
In Indonesia he meets a young wing, Darren. He helps him become more alpha. Either way, Darren gets good results, proving that anyone can do well in game if you do the basics right. Neil also writes about how the “ugly” Indonesian tour guides were using their status as guides to get laid with traveling foreign girls. He points out that he’d rather go out solo than have a passive cockblocking wingman.
In the Philippines, he met a cock-enabling wingman – offering him free lodging in his house. He got girls to visit him in his room by showing pics of his friend’s cute Chihuahua dog and by mentioning the “Videoke” machine.
Logistical problems
When the hostel or guest house owners told him not to bring girls in, he did it anyway. He admits that he risked being kicked out, but it’s not like he was stealing anything from the hostel. I’d do the same – if there isn’t a night-manager checking everybody who enters the building. Usually, if the hostel or hotel is cool with this, I’d reward them with a very good review after my stay. Otherwise, no review.
Since he mostly stayed in hostels, he often reserved rooms in love motels. Another solution was to drape a towel or some linen in front of his bottom bunk bed. The beach, or the girl’s place, were other options.
Lack of Shyness
His lack of shyness is hilarious. He sneaks a girl (who barely speaks any English) into a guesthouse. Then, they have sex without a condom (not recommended). The next morning, he lets the angry guesthouse owners help him translate pregnancy-related questions with the girl he spent the night with.
He uses every opportunity to go on dates, including his Spanish teacher, who seems more interested in his advances than his Salsa teacher.
Then there was the “bus game”. If he saw an attractive girl on the bus, he asked if he can come sit next to her. Next, he has a conversation and they warm up a little towards each other. Now before falling asleep, he’d rest his hand on her body (not in a sneaky pervert way, but calibrated and friendly). He explains the five-second test: If she doesn’t tell you to remove your hand in five seconds, then you keep it there and explore the rest of her body. Eventually, it can progress to e.g. squeezing her boobs. Of course be careful to stop whenever there’s a sign that she’s uncomfortable and never go directly to the sexual zones such as the boobs (this is not something for complete beginners).
His Conclusion
“I became myself on the trip. I am not who I was. I stand tall. I don’t look at the ground, and I have no fear. there’s nothing that can be thrown at me that I haven’t faced before.”
He became a more masculine and confident version of himself: The Neil “Skywalker” with a huge “laycount”, whom other guys ask for advice with women. He responds that in seduction, you have to be persistent in spite of rejection.
My Conclusion
After reading Around the World in 80 Girls, when you travel, perhaps a few of Neil Skywalker’s experiences will pop into your head as references to your own unique situation. Ideally, I could simply have plugged my brain into a computer, and then downloaded this book in 5 minutes onto some memory reference bank in my mind. But unfortunately, as humans, we are not that advanced (yet), so I had to read the book. I’m glad I finished it, although it took a lot of hours.
Do I recommend it? Sure I do. Considering the trash we are spoonfed daily by the media, books like this are actually very decent. What’s more, it is a truthful story, not some random fiction novel. Since its one of the first books written on this topic, it can be considered one of the classics of Travel Game. Even though some recommendations became a bit outdated.
(Each rating is out of 5)
Readability: 4.5 (Easy to Read. The 2nd edition flows decently well.)
Reading time: 2.5 (It took long to finish the book. More than 500 pages)
Cost: 5 (Cheap enough)
Quality of info: 3.5 (A little outdated, but some cool tips from a genuine “pickup artist”)
Overall Impression & Rating: 80%
In 2023 the book is out of print. Meanwhile, here’s a link to Skywalker’s Author page on Amazon. It won’t be easy finding a copy, but good luck anyway!
Have you read Neil Skywalker’s Around the World in 80 Girls? Write your thoughts or questions in the comment section below!
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