1 comments about Red Odyssey: A Journey Through the Soviet Republics.

1. Marat Akchurin ý an Uzbek poet and man of letters - set off on a tour of the Central Asian republics, just as the Soviet Union was crumbling into extinction. This is the travelog of his journey through states and countries that were being thrown into turmoil. Itýs fascinating, partly because heýs an Uzbek and therefore able to go to places where westerners canýt, and partly because he went there just at the time the split was getting into full swing.
   
   Even in those days, the Central Asia republics werenýt particularly happy places. Ethnic cleansing in Uzbekistan & Kirghistan rivalled anything weýve seen in recent years in the former Yugoslavia. Destitution was rife as the final death throws of central planning removed any regularity and certainty from life. And the withdrawal of Soviet troops meant that gangs, mafia and warlord factions were rife. Akturin had a number of lucky escapes from mafioso along the way.
   
   His travels also take the reader thorough the fascinating old Moghul/Silk Road cities of Alma-Ata (now Almaty), Samarkand and Tashkent. Youýd be hard pressed to describe them as either glamorous or affluent these days. He finally ends up in Baku, a former naval base for the Imperial Russian navy, and the place where Russian agents used to set off on their journeyýs across the steppes to fight their covert war against the British Raj.
   
   The style is free flowing and extremely readable. He may be a poet, but this is factual travel writing with an eye for fascinating detail. The translator has done a fine job in bringing Red Odyssey to an English speaking audience. The maps of his travels are also very good. Four stars.

1 comments about Barbarian Lens: Western Photographers of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces (Documenting the Image Series).

1. Régine Thiriez, an independent scholar who holds a Ph.D. in art history and is currently an associate research fellow in the East Asia Institute in Lyon (France), preparing an inventory of China photography, presents a substantial body of important new research on photography in China from the early years in the mid-19th century to 1860 as well as Qing dynasty China's reception of European technology. Her study, Barbarian Lens: Western Photographer's of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces, explores the Western involvement with the ruins of the European-style buildings constructed for the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1795) in his summer palace of the Yuanmingyuan, the "old" summer palace outside Beijing. The Yuanmingyuan was sacked and burned in 1860 by a French and British expeditionary force. Only the European part of the garden, constructed of brick and masonry, left substantial ruins. Standing mysteriously on the overgrown grounds of the half-abandoned site, the ruins exerted a powerful pull on European memories of the humiliation of the Emperor of China, and the shameful part played by Western armies in the destruction of the incomparable garden-palace and the treasures kept there. Such are the troubled feelings invoked by photographic images of the ruins. Placing the extant photographs in their historical context, Thiriez makes available to the interested reader and China specialist alike unprecedented primary research on the beginnings of photography in China, the identities and careers of the mostly little-known men who produced photographic images, and the complex relationships between photography and Western penetration of China. Barbarian Lens contains a wealth of scholarly information, presented in clear and succinct detail. Individual chapters focus on the practice of photography in Beijing (beginning in the early 1860s), the tragic encounter of China and Europe in the destruction of the Summer Palace, the amateur and professional photographers of the ruins, as well as the overlapping personal, political, and photographic ambitions of men in the Qing Imperial Maritime Customs, Western diplomatic missions, and other various undertakings. The volume is amply illustrated with more than 50 images-most of them previously unpublished-and includes extensive appendices on such subjects as the pioneering French Mission Palais d'Été studies of the European palaces. Perhaps the most impressive appendix is an exhaustive 24-page list of all the photographs of the European ruins identified by Thiriez to date. It tabulates photographers, photographic collections and sources, cataloguing information on the individual prints surveyed, the most likely date of the photo, additional reprints or rephotography of the same images (a very thorny problem in early photography), and the importance of the photo to the study of the place. It also cross-references the images, showing how they complement each other through the years. The appendices, notes, and bibliography supplement a richly rewarding text and generously make available the result of a decade of painstaking research in an almost unknown and unstudied field. In a volume that presents a complex, fascinating, and sometimes horrifying story of destruction and recovery, Régine Thiriez's contributions to the history of China photography and the fast-growing field of Qing dynasty historical studies are invaluable.

No comments about Living Landscapes and Cultural Landmarks: World Heritage Sites in the Philippines.

3 comments about Berlitz Korean Travel Pack (Berlitz Travel Packs).

1. I found this set (book and cassette) to be quite useless. There are things on the cassette which are not found in the book! The narrator on the cassette speaks in a condescending manner and the corny music is a complete distraction. I returned this set for a refund!



2. The expressions, and phrases in the book are rather too formal and outdated. They probably want you to sound polite when you visit Korea, but this is simply not a real life talking style. The book gives a better introduction about the country Korea itself, than teaching you the language.



3. Comprehensive as a phrasebook, but of little value otherwise. Buy only if you have some incredible power to commit to memory long sequences of sounds that have no grammatical meaning to you. Some of my other frustrations : (1) The cassette tape has no pronounciation guide - sheesh ! (2) The book's romanization is horrible.

1 comments about Travel Talk Hindi & Urdu (Travel Talk).

1. We got this a couple months before our trip to India. The CD was great for self study in the car on the drive home from work and on the flight over. The book that comes with it was small enough that it didnt take up too much room in the pack, and was much lighter and more comprehensive than the one at the back of the Lonely Planet guide! Great for the basics. If you are looking for grammar or any other higher level study, I would advise against this one. Highly recommended for the basics.

1 comments about Fodor's Singapore, 12th Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1. The book has most of the items that are necessary to the traveler, i.e. the section in the beginning, "Smart Travel Tips,"; however, there should be a section describing a brief history of Singapore and there should be a more detailed description of the walking tours, including better maps, of the ethnic neighborhoods.

4 comments about Travelers' Tales Guides India (Travelers' Tales Guides).

1. A collection of many essays, book excerpts and stories from many different authors about travelling in India. Nearly every aspect of travel in India is covered: heliskiing in the Himalayas, staying at ashrams, being sick, travel in the women's compartment of trains, standing in a monsoon, bicycling from Leh to Pakistan, riding with a truck driver. Some essays cover unique aspects of the society, such as the enterprising dish-wallahs who set up a satellite dish and sell cable tv to an apartment building or two. Several of the source books are now out of print, making this collection particularly valuable



2. This series offers a really nice way of getting insight into India's culture. The stories are well written and entertaining and it covers lots of different aspects of India -- from religion to customs and the way people think. We just returned from a trip to India and brought it along for reading on the flight over.



3. This book gave a great insight into the world of India! It had so much information about things that most people would not ever have the chance to experience. It is great reading!



4. The stories are from all far corners of the country and really
   get to the soul of the region is it set in.
   
   I would highly recommend this book to most people, Indians or
   non-Indians, they would enjoy learning about the country and
   possibly even making travel plans based on the stories and locations
   listed in the book.
   
   I've so far bought four copies of this book and gifted three of
   them to my friends.

No comments about A Long Walk in the Himalaya: A Trek from the Ganges to Kashmir.

No comments about China Map.

No comments about Caves of Northern Thailand.