1 comments about Adventuring in East Africa: The Sierra Club Travel Guide to the Great Safaris of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Eastern Zaire, and Uganda.

1. Very good book. Deals with photographic safaris. There is only one page on hunting. There are very good descriptions of the different parks and the native people of the region. Information on visas is out of date.

1 comments about Vintage Egypt Cruising The Nile.

1. i love egypt so i read any book written about it but you rarely can find a book like this one . this beautiful photos returns you to the golden era , to the glorious days of twenties and thirties when egypt was ruled by the mohmmed ali royal family . so impressed by it . you will never regret buying this book espesialy arab readers and egyptians .

1 comments about The Essential Africa.

1. Michael Poliza's AFRICA was hailed as one of the best photography books on the continent when it was published in its oversized volume: THE ESSENTIAL AFRICA is a more concise, portable edition of the large coffee table original and is even more highly recommended to libraries seeking photographic representation of the continent's wildlife. The close-up animal photos lose nothing in reduction to the more standard book size and even are enhanced, fairly leaping off the page with lots of color and striking close-up effects. THE ESSENTIAL AFRICA is even more highly recommended for library holdings: easier to file, easier to hold and display, and certain to be a popular pick for any general-interest collection where patrons enjoy wildlife pictures.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

No comments about Somalia & Djibouti Map by ITMB.

2 comments about Kenya Diary (1902-1906).

1. After reading Peter Capsticks book about Meinertzhagen I had to read his own account. It was an enlightening account of what life was like for a young British officer in the early 1900's in Kenya. It is somewhat supprising the efforts that it took to maintain control of the wild colony in that date and time. The diary describes numerous military compaigns against native tribes (like the Nandi). Written as a true diary account, its condor, detail, and occasional natural history observations make for interesting reading. Some of his observations and predictions are right on the money in describing later events that unfold in Kenya. One note, there is a lot of killing in this book, not for the faint of heart.



2. The book about Richard Meinertzhagen's life in Kenya between 1902-6 is mainly about the military expeditions he participated in. It is a worth while insight into the the country known as Kenya today. Richard Meinertzhagen comes off as blood thirsty, a racist of the first order and as having a complete disregard for human life (he himself writes that he has no special regard of human life). He gloats over the number of africans killed and continues to emphasize how 50 years after the events, he has no regrets and would do it exactly the same way if it came back again.
   
   That aside, it is full of details and tid-bits of valuable information that would be very usefull if not for the fact that Richard Meinertzhagen's other writtings have been thoroughly discretited. Because of this, there are a number of suspect entries entries that could have been inserted much later.

No comments about Cassava Is The Root.

No comments about Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773: In Five Volumes. Volume 2.

No comments about Climbing in the Moroccan Ant-Atlas: Tafroute and Jebel El Kest (Cicerone Climbing Overseas).

4 comments about MAN EATERS' MOTEL CL.

1. I read Boyles's other African book (African Lives) and loved it. When we decided to visit Kenya this year on vacation, I started looking for this book, which I had found discussed in some newsgroups, but it was "out of stock" (whatever that means!). My local public library did a search for it, but couldn't locate the book before we left. When we got home, it was there and I read it. I can't tell you how much I wish I'd had this book before I went. Not only is the writing wonderful, but since the book follows the railroad (telling the story and describing the places along the way) from the coast to Lake Victoria, the details are exactly the kind of things a visitor really needs. Our vacation was expensive and tame, even though we enjoyed the people and the scenery. This book was better than the trip, since it was free (from the library) and very exciting (funny, too).

   The best things in it are hard to pick out, but I recommend the story of Patterson and the man-eaters (better than the hokie movie, by far), the depiction of Zanzibar, the social scene in Nairobi and the description of Lake Victoria. If we had known about the little winery in Naivasha, we would have gone there. This book is full of things I wish I'd known, but didn't. Find this book if you can.




2. I am planning a trip to Africa, so I bought this book (used) and "Ghosts of Tsavo" by Phillip Caputo and "Man Eaters," which is Patterson's book (he is the British officer who shot the man eating lions). I liked this one best of the three. It is really exciting in some places and tells the story of the man eating lions in Tsavo better than Paterson does, and he was there! I enjoyed the travel aspect too, where Boyles takes the train ride from Mombassa to Lake Victoria and gives a stop-by-stop account of the journey. This book is also very funny in places. I'm glad I took the trouble to get this book. I recommend it completely.



3. I lived in Africa for many years - Rhodesia, also I've spent time in Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Angola - but to my eternal regret I never travelled to Kenya. This author's history of the British-built railway there and how it opened up towns and cities and agriculture and other forms of development there, is very good and very interesting.
   
   Many years ago I read Patterson's memoir THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO of his days building parts of the railway and his attempts to stop man-eating lions who were steadily devouring his Indian labour force and many tribal locals too, even dragging off at least one white colonial. It is still available in the modern Capstick library edition and other re-issues.
   
   The present author does cite Patterson quite a bit as well as provides many fascinating details which he unearthed to round out the story of the man-eaters quite a bit more. Additionally, he provides much modern information on the tourist industry and conditions on Zanzibar, at Mombassa and Nairobi, and points in between and beyond. Refreshingly, there is little of the all too common colonialism-bashing political correctness found in other works on Africa, and that alone gives this another star.
   
   Altogether it is a great book to read and I highly recommend it. I am now going to find and read the author's earlier AFRICAN LIVES.



4. _Man Eaters Motel_ is a fun, quirky, entertaining book about Kenya, or perhaps more specifically, the railroad that created it. "To appreciate fully Kenya's enormous success," wrote author Denis Boyles, "it must be seen in the odd manner in which it was achieved." Kenya was essentially almost accidentally created. To bridge the "unhappy gap" between the East African coast, particularly the region once controlled by the then mighty and storied Zanzibar, and the lakes of Uganda, a railroad was created. The railroad was originally constructed to help safeguard the route to India and the headwaters of the Nile but had huge unintended consequences. "One thing lead to another" and people started to disembark from the train early, first to farm, then to hunt, and later for tourism, along the way making the final destination of the railway, a sleepy town on the shores of Lake Victoria, "somewhat incidental." Essentially, "Kenya was invented in the space of a lifetime along the tracks of a railway going nowhere." Without the railroad, there would have been little or no development of Kenya and Uganda, and indirectly, Tanganyika.
   
   For those looking for a technical history of the railway from Mombassa to Kisumu they will be somewhat disappointed, as the author's admits in his introduction that he used the railway as essentially a plot device to provide a framework for stories from Kenya's past and the author's own observations. This is not to say that railroad is not covered, as Boyles discussed the railway stations, those who built the railway and operate it today, and what it is like to ride the train, noting what might be seen (and not seen) along the railway.
   
   One of the things not seen, and something that may surprise tourists, is just about anything marking the famed attacks of the man-eaters of Tsavo. The author searched high and low in the area where the attacks occurred and interviewed a number of people resident in the area but found any memorial or indication of the attacks hard to come by (other than the hotel mentioned in the book's title). Happily, this did not stop the author from telling the tale of how two man-eaters held up the construction of the Uganda railway for nearly a year (in 1898), of the fight against the lions, and the personalities involved in the famed incident, notably of course Colonel John Henry Patterson (who was known for many things, the fight against the man-eaters being only one incident; other things he was noted for include fighting in the Boer War, commanding the Jewish Legion in World War I, and being a keen supporter of the foundation of Israel).
   
   The Tsavo man-eaters were easily my favorite part of the book and read like a great adventure story (did you know that twice the workmen of the railway tried to murder Patterson?) but it is not by any means the only thing in this book. Boyles gives the reader a tour of Zanzibar, once a rich and influential island kingdom that ruled over much of the East African coast, at one time the richest place in Africa, sort of a "Hong Kong" for Africa, though boasting a wealth that was acquired in "hideous ways," from not only the ivory trade but most especially the slave trade. Now it is a sleepy, rundown place of ornate though neglected fascinating architecture, reeking and rusting ancient freighters in the harbor, and sleepy dreams of becoming a booming tourist resort (at least this was the case in 1991, I don't know what it is now).
   
   Boyles interviewed a number of Kenyan whites, an odd class of people, descendents from the days when Britain ruled Kenya (if not resident themselves during British rule), a people unsure of their place and future in a black Kenya, an unease shared by many black Kenyans as well. Boyles never came to any firm conclusions as to their future, as some whites felt discriminated against and others felt quite the opposite. He did however have some pointed words about a few famous white Kenyans and others, such as Karen Blixen, the "precious, affected, patronizing, self-absorbed Dane" who was more worried about her aristocratic title than anything else in her life, portrayed on the silver screen by Meryl Streep in the "only version of her life that matters," and Henry Morton Stanley, a "murderous" explorer who was unfortunately "canonized" in the movies by Spencer Tracy.
   
   The author spent some time on President Daniel arap Moi, the dictator who shaped much of post-colonial Kenya, discussing his corruption, a corruption that is suspected to include covering up the murder of political rivals.
   
   The history of tourism - particularly of the safari - in Kenya is well-covered,, from the early days of the large, expensive practically paramilitary hunting expeditions, ones with many porters, trucks, good china, professional chefs, and often lasting months, to the modern economical package tours of today, in large part made affordable to the middle-class thanks to the advent of low-cost international jet travel. Interestingly, Boyles wrote that the abolition of hunting in Kenya in 1977 had the opposite effect intended, as many former hunters stated that without hunters to keep tabs on animal numbers and to go after poachers many thousands of elephants and hundreds of rhinos were slaughtered. Without a hunter police force, not even Kenya's military can keep poachers in check, though others dispute this, noting that many Kenyan law enforcement officials are neck-deep in corrupt ties with the poachers.

1 comments about Footprint Jordan/Syria/Lebanon Handbook: The Travel Guide.

1. I travelled to Syria and Jordan this November, armed with my first Footprint guide book, and I'm now a convert. It is especially good in giving out well written historical background and cultural titbids that just make the trip so much more rewarding. Lonely Planet and Rough Guides are sooooo shallow by comparison.