2 comments about Nashik Kumbh Mela: A Spirtual Sojourn.

1. THE NEXT BEST THING TO ACTUALLY BEING AT THE KUMBH MELA.
   GREAT PHOTOS AND EXCELLENT NARRATION!
   HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!



2. This book is fantastic. It really is, as the previous reviewer says, almost as good as being there! It shows the various parts of the sacred Ganges where different sects and people of India and Tibet make their pilgimage to the Kumbh Mela. It shows Vaishnite, Shaivite, and other types of babas (holy men)..The pictures, MY GOODNESS they are so beautiful and candid! It shows arial views where theres so many people they look like a million dots! Also, this book may seem as merely a "picture book" but it is much much more. Crisp CLEAR pictures...even FEMALE Sadhis! Rare to see them! There are at least 3 photos of them. Most authors leave the Sadhis out..because they are female...
   I suppose what Im trying to say is : I believe the author wanted to portray this holy bath with beautiful photos (that HE took) instead of with so many words..you must see the Kumbh Mela to kno what it is. And as much as I want to go to India so very bad, i cannot for a few more years, this helps alot for my aching of going. It will put a smile on your face!
   Its worth every single penny!
   It is also a long lengthwise hardcover book worthy of a coffee table book. Wonderful!
   NAMASTE!
   :)

1 comments about Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India.

1. Asia's overland route
   
   Hit the road, Jack
   Jul 20th 2006
   The Economist
   
   IN THE 1960s, thousands of free-spirits set forth on the world's wildest trail, stretching 6,000 miles across six countries and three religions. The Asian odyssey began in Turkey and, barring mechanical (or mental) breakdown, took in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan before ending up in the revered destinations of India and Nepal.
   
   Rory MacLean retraces the steps of these "intrepids" to find out why the hippie trail became the journey of the age. The original flower children, he explains, wanted to swap the conformism of the 1950s for spiritual enlightenment. Inspired by the music of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, the works of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, and the social revolutions of the time, they flocked east aboard a patchouli-scented convoy of psychedelic buses, Bedford trucks and VW campervans.
   
   Thousands took to the road, fuelled by dope and the dream of nirvana. In 1968, the year the Beatles were meditating with the Maharishi in Rishikesh, there were 10,000 young foreigners in India. Five years later, that number were crossing the border from Pakistan each week. By the mid-1970s, Afghanistan, an easygoing paradise, welcomed 90,000 visitors a year.
   
   Mr MacLean is an entertaining guide, conjuring the flavour of the trail: the Pudding Shop in Istanbul catering for the travellers' "sugar-craving munchies"; the rose-scented, bug-infested Crown hotel in Delhi; pipes of Mustang at the Eden Hash Centre in Kathmandu; embroidered jeans, ankle bells, karma, peace and love.
   
   Yet "Magic Bus" is more than a series of travel anecdotes; it raises questions about how the hippies influenced the places they visited. In Turkey, the author learns how their rejection of materialism spurred their host's material prosperity. In Iran, he asks if their "casual morality" stirred the "stern Islamic reawakening".
   
   The popularity of the overland route declined when Iran's borders closed in 1979. Yet the trail gave birth to an industry which has packaged the globe. Independent travel is fashionable, students' gap years are becoming the norm, and guide books--the route was the starting point for the Lonely Planet empire--sell in huge numbers. Sadly, however, politics has, in one way or another, put the brakes on the magic bus.

2 comments about The Gilgit Game: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas 1865-95.

1. Because if you do, you'll enjoy Keay's quips. But they're lodged in, at least in this edition, tightly packed small print. Keay packs in quite a bit of information, though it is difficult through the first 100 pages or so as you drill yourself in the names of tribes, leaders and geography. Though he follows explorers, they all were entangled in the Great Game between Russia and Britain (and to a lesser extent, China). It doesn't touch so much on Afghan history, to those looking to learn more of their history. Primarily it focuses on Dardistan, the Jammu Kashmir region and the Hindu Kush, Gilgit being a British base of operations for these tribal regions north of India. These Dr. Livingstone/Mata Hari mountaineers and military men all have distinct personalities, brought out by Keay's exhaustive writing. He draws on a great deal of primary source reading, including from a couple of extremely prolific writers who strove to become the reigning experts on the region. They belonged to a small elite club of Europeans who braved dangerous routes in a foreign land for glory, conquest and thrills.



2. I am a student of the history of this region of the world and I must state that "The Gilgit Game" is by far the best book ever written on this subject. I consult it all the time.
   
   "The Gilgit Game" describes the real history of the "Great Game" as described in the Rudyard Kipling book "Kim". During this period, the Russians under the Czar were capturing lands to their south, while at the same time the British in India were taking over areas to their north. The territory in-between was not well known or explored, so both sides sent spies to investigate and map the area and report back.
   
   The end result of the Gilgit Game was the creation of the nation of Aghanistan, which had not existed previously and which was set up as a buffer state betwen the Russians and the British.
   
   Understanding this period of history is important to understanding and resolving the current War in Afghanistan.
   
   Sam Sloan

No comments about Middle East With Central Asia and North Africa.

No comments about Hanoi: Biography of a City.

5 comments about Uzbekistan.

1. Although at times this guidebook serves as an outlet for the authors' intellectual and personal preoccupation with the region, thereby losing its practicality for the reader, overall it is both helpful and beautifully written, brimming with sensory and cultural detail... The authors do not just tell you to go to a bazaar in Samarkand; they take you there, weaving you through narrow streets and by beer vendors, letting you smell the shashlik, nudging you to watch out for pickpockets. Because the authors do not miss a beat, this guide is at times almost a virtual tour of the country. Because the region is unstable and consequently dynamic, this book is now somewhat outdated in certain areas. The two need to update the edition.



2. This is not a mere travel guidance of Uzbekistan, but one of the best scientific articles full of joyful information spiced with humanistic reaction of the authors toward the legacy of Silk Road and Soviet Russian history.
   Names of people, telephone number, street name, as well as social and political information are all correct. Evaluation of the hotel accommodation including smart managers and busters is illustrated interestingly. If the authors would be aware of the fact that the inattentive attitude of the people in some area shows the existence of military secrets, this book might have shown a different flavor.
   Because I have given this book to my friend in Uzbekistan, I would like to order you another copy.



3. I live and work in the heart of Central Asia. Of all the guide books available, this one is the best yet. Not only does it have beautiful color photos and maps, the history articles are excellent. Beware: when you open up this book on the streets of Samarkand, Bukhara, or Khiva, people will gather around to view it! It's so good, I am ordering a full class room set for my students to use in the Uzbekistan studies part of our curriculum at Tashkent International School.



4. This book is not only the definitive and most comprehensive but it is also the most uncannily accurate and comprehensive guide to Uzbekistan in 2006. Throughout our travels from Tashkent to Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand and back to Tashkent it was our bible, not only helping us to negotiate the culture but directed us to the 'must do' places to see or visit. In fact it made eveything about the country utterley comprehensible - from food and culture to history and politics. It came home very badly thumbed. Brilliant!



5. I lived in Uzbekistan for two years, and at the time this was the only reliable guide to sightseeing in the country. Well researched and full of historical anecdotes. Re-reading the book only makes me want to return to this very complex nation.

No comments about Japan (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

1 comments about New Light on Hampi: Recent Research at Vijayanagara.

1. A fantastic topic spoilt by poor writing skills. No clue what the author is after. Diagrams in the book are so arcane. It is hard to make any sense of the book unless you have visited Hampi. Photography is also not upto the mark. Although the production quality of the book (quality of paper used, bind etc.) is quite good.
   
   
   Save your money - buy some other book instead.

1 comments about The Travels of Lao Can.

1. China has had few relations with Spain excepting for the Catholic priests, as Spanish Church has reached the whole world. This book remembers to me the stile of storytelling that can be found in Thousand and One Nights: an Oriental stile that seems infantile if you're accustomed to Occident novels from Sweden to Italy.
   The adventures of the Dr. Can, so named as he's a wise and good man even cultivated in the Confucian philosophy and other humanities, has however only a precarious formation in medicine, Chinese or occidental. He travels here and there as an ambulant physician and many times he succeeds as, if no real medicines, he's plenty of common sense. The novel reveals the disastrous and demoralized state of China at the beginning of twentieth century and his terrible governmental corruption, deplorable state of the roads, river floods, attacks of tigers and wolfs in the country, selling of women as slaves, pirates, and many other catastrophes, and how the doctor must act sometimes as a detective in a case of murder by poisoned cakes, and it's curious, as it's named Sherlock Holmes as an example to follow, a proof that even in the China of these times this hero was yet translated and known. Also the doctor posses a wristwatch, an object I think no very common by 1903 between Chinese people.

4 comments about Travels to Northern India: Agra.

1. The developers of this CD have gone to a lot of trouble to build the platform for their presentation. Frankly, I think that the pictures, the videos and the soulful music would have been phenom by itself. Navigation is great and the historical/travel info useful. It has been a great addition to my travel books collection. I am so enticed by the video and the pictures that I am planning my next trip to see 'Taj Mahal' with another girlfriend, this October! Very exciting.



2. I have been to India several times on company business and have had the opportunity to see the Taj Mahal, up close. So I was very skeptical about this book when I ordered it. However, I loved the video and pictures. It reminded me of the time I was there and I noticed a lot of artistic details that escaped me during my short visit. I was able to share my experience with friends and collegues to show them exactly where I went. And I did not even have to lug around a 10 lb camcorder to do it.



3. I am planning to visit India later this year and a friend of mine couldn't stop raving about these CDs and recommended that I buy them before my trip. Hats off to the developers of this product. The video, pictures and exotic Indian music in the background just enthralled my girlfriend and I. The best part is that now we know exactly which places to see and what to do during our trip. I am looking forward to the New Delhi CD to be released. Totally worth it!



4. India has always been on my wish list of places to go and this is the year for me! I have bought several guidebooks and THIS travel CD is definitely the way to go. Not only was it full of detailed pictures and descriptions of Agra's vast history and architecture, but it was so much more than I ever expected. The travel tips, useful words, phrases, and FAQ were an added bonus. What really brought things to life was the video. The video flowed so smoothly with the musical sound, giving it a local flair. It really made me feel like my trip is much closer to reality than I ever imagined.