ivandias

I listened to this book on tape (unabridged, read by the author) while jogging in the SM mountains, which I pretended were the mighty Himalayas. Palin is only a fair writer but - of course - an excellent presenter. I think my review might have been less positive if I had read rather than heard this book. I particularly enjoyed the bits about the supposedly Greek hillbillies of Pakistan, claiming descent from Alexander's conquest, as well as Palin's visit to some of the weirder ethnic minorities in SW China. As an uncultured slack-jawed American, I had wrongly lumped each of these countries into single, uniform ethnic and cultural groups - glad to see I was wrong. This book will really make you want to visit Tiger Leaping Gorge in China before it is destroyed forever by "progress" a la Glen Canyon and Hetch Hetchy. Good stuff all in all, for wage-slaves like me who love reading about travel.

2023-08-02 06:05