No comments about Vietnam, 5th: Tread Your Own Path (Footprint - Travel Guides).

No comments about In The Lands of Buddha: Travels of a pre-teen in Asia.

2 comments about Afghanistan Map by Nelles (Nelles Maps).

1. It is the best Afghanistan map I have found. I like the detail and accuracy.
   
   I only wish the format was smaller so the entire country was on one side. It is not convenient to hang this on the wall with half of the country on each side. I would also like street maps of the major cities on the reverse side. We know enough about the cities now and have enough military and civilian maps to provide reasonable detail of several cities.



2. Share reviewer above's idea that it would be good if the whole country were on one side. Would really like to find a map with more topographical detail. Have a son there "somewhere south of Kandahar," so it would be good to know more about the area.

1 comments about Philippines - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette (Culture Smart!).

1. The Philippines- Culture Smart! book is intended for the American or Western business traveler only. It only provides guidance for social and business interactions with a short term visit in mind. I find it amusing that the book attempts to give advice for the expatriate business traveler, but there is no way that this book is sufficient, even for a brief visit. As very quick guide (1 - 2 hour reading) for the first time traveler, on a very short trip, this book may help you avoid any hideous cultural mishap, but as for insight into the Pilipino culture, it is definitely lacking. I would recommend the Culture Shock! Book or the Insight book instead for those seeking the next level.

2 comments about The Little Tokyo Subway Guidebook: Everything You Need to Know to Get Around the City and Beyond.

1. With the release of IBC's "Little Tokyo Subway Guidebook," there are now three distinctly separate volumes designed to help us navigate through the maze of Tokyo's underworld. The first, published by Kodansha in 2002, holds up surprisingly well and boasts a distinct advantage in having maps for about 50 of the stations most likely to be used by visitors, showing how each station, and its numbered exits and entrances, relate to the street system and noteworthy buildings above. The guide published by Tuttle in 2005 does have about 13 area maps, but these are far less detailed than the Kodansha volume. The latest entry from IBC (2007) is the first to acknowledge a 13th line (due to open in June of 2008), though the map shows only one short segment between Ikebukuro and Kotake-mukaihara, stations already served by the Yurakucho line. The unique benefits of the IBC volume are sections that explain the ticketing system (with illustrations), airport connections (for Narita and Haneda), and several pages of bilingual phrases (that could come in handy).
   
   If you feel that a guide book is needed, I'd suggest investing in both the Kodansha and IBC books. They're compact (about 4"x 6" each) and complement each other nicely, with the Kodansha supplying station and area maps and the IBC providing the latest information and helpful ticketing guidance.



2. If you're planning to use the subway system in Tokyo, this is the book for you. It's very easy to follow and its small format makes it easy to carry. I don't know what I would have done without it!

5 comments about Pakistan & the Karakoram Highway (Country Guide).

1. Pakistan is among the tourism world's best kept secrets, and this book throws open those secrets very well. Lonely Planet has always been good with detail and comprehensive coverage, and that trend continues with its coverage on Pakistan.
   
   Without the off-the-beaten track records, I would have missed some of the greatest historical and cultural artifacts that Pakistan has to offer. And the guide truly works as you trek up north into Pakistan's majestic mountains that offer the most mind-blowing natural beauty - even India's Kashmir area is nothing compared to the rugged and untouched beaty of the Swat River Valley all the way to whitewater rafting areas in Gilgit.
   
   So when you head to Pakistan, definitely take this book along.



2. Lonely Planet Guide is the bible of all backpackers. Once again I would not travel without this addition for Pakistan.



3. Very detailed information about a remote part of the planet. Good pictures, but very small in the book. Day-by-day diary information for a trip on the Karakoram highway by bicycle, too. It appears the reviewers last visited in 2003 or 2004. The current (2007) security situation near the Northwest Frontier provinces (where Osama is allegedly hiding) is an important concern in deciding to make the trip. It would be helpful to list a URL in the book for up-to-date security information, on a Lonely Planet web site.



4. I used this guide in 1988. Loney Planet has had time to correct errors. Let us hope they have.
   
   Example: Lonely Planet said catch a bus in Peshawar for Darra at the bus station in Grand Trunk Road. No one in Peshawar had a clue what Grand Trunk Road might mean. In Peshawar, Grand Trunk Road is known as GT Road.
   
   After much difficulty getting this sorted out, the traveler learns that buses for Darra do not leave from this station. Buses for both Darra and Chitral leave from an open field called something like Nee Ooo Wah Dah.
   
   These errors create doubt about the reliability of the rest of the guide.
   
   One expects better from Lonely Planet.



5. The first five reviews listed here pre-date the May 2008 publication of the 7th edition of the guidebook, and refer to comments on earlier editions. Please submit reviews only on this edition of the guidebook, not on previous editions. Amazon should correct this oversight. Contributing authors, John Mock & Kimberley O'Neil

1 comments about National Geographic Traveler: Hong Kong, 2d Ed. (National Geographic Traveler).

1. This travel book is fantastic....I have several National Geographic Traveler Guides and wish they made them for everywhere. I have always used Lonely Planet exclusively but have been switching over to these guides instead in places that are covered by National Geographic. I work for an airline so I travel a lot, and these really are the best. They sometimes miss a few little details that Lonely Planet has, but the problem with Lonely Planet is there is often too much information and not enough photos/descriptions. The National Geographic books have tons of photos so you know what you want to see, and give great route and detailed itinerary descriptions so you don't miss anything along the way. You must have this book if you are going to Hong Kong! If you are backpacking you might still need the Lonely Planet, but if you are just traveling through or are visiting on business or pleasure buy this book.

5 comments about As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in 11th-Century Japan (Penguin Classics).

1. As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams is a truly nonwestern work. In its tone, its narrative devices, and in the world it presents, this is a work that is clearly "other" from traditional Western fare. While sharing the same structural shell as the Western novel, its story is largely outside the limits of Western expectation.
   
   At its heart, As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams is a song sung in retrospect by Lady Sarashina. This is a song of denied dreams that always just barely seem to fail.
   

   The one constant of the narrative is sadness. Whether Sarashina's life was really so melancholy or whether she wrote this looking back through the lens of bitterness is speculation. Yet the sadness is palpable. Sadness hovers over each scene. When happiness breaks in, it is an unexpected and short-lived guest.
   
   The narrative covers most of Sarashina's life. It starts in her childhood and leads up to her later years. She lives a very sheltered life in her father's house. So much so that it, in some ways, could be described in non-religious terms as a cloister. All the young Sarashina has to occupy her time is her love of tales and the hope of a more fulfilling future.
   
   The genesis of Sarashina's great unhappiness is the glimpse she gets of the greater life around her--a life that she is never capable of partaking in. In all her travels she is never able to break free from her own internal solitude. She will not allow herself to live in anything more than a "dream."
   
   For me, the extremely episodic nature of the book made it hard to get deeply involved as a reader. There were long spaces in this book where the author dwelt on seemingly unimportant matters. There are also quite a few brief sections where the author skips ahead a number of years. This made things difficult for me to follow on a number of occasions.
   
   The one part of the book that I enjoyed was the poetry. I greatly enjoyed the poem that the author's father had his daughter compose to send to his ex-wife. The moment was both touching and insightful into their relationship.
   
   The native Japanese worldview was wholly foreign to me. All the pilgrimages, priests, nuns, and what I would term "superstitions" struck me as convoluted and semi-capricious. The mother's taking of vows while still living within the house, yet being separated from the household, was a truly odd moment.
   
   Though sometimes hopeful, Sarashina has no true hope. In its place Sarashina resigns herself to the idea that all the bad things happening to her are the result of Karma.
   
   I have a hard time swallowing this much hopelessness. There is an endless sense of wallowing about As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams. I wanted to talk to Sarashina--to tell her that no matter how deep the darkness, it only takes one point of light to dispel it.

   While this book may have value in being representative of the Japanese Literature of its day, it is not something I would choose to read again. The problem with As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams is that no one ever crosses the stinking bridge.




2. Short, poignant and redolent of a very individual experience of life in Heian Japan, the memoirs of 'Lady Sarashina' provide a fascinating glimpse of a woman's life slightly outside of the most exalted circles of eleventh-century life. This is a highly idiosyncratic portrait of its time, concentrating on episodes important to Sarashina herself (dreams, pilgrimages, poetic exchanges) rather than to the politically-active class as a whole. The sense of chronology is vague, the structure dictated more by mood pieces and observations than straightforward diary-keeping.

   As such, this probably isn't the place to start with medieval Japanese writing, but something to try after Sei Shonagon (an altogether more ebullient and resilient character, who _is_ at the centre of things) and Lady Murasaki. Sarashina is too withdrawn to involve herself in the customary court intrigues and liaisons, and too low-status to have much impact. Instead, she occupies herself with the fantastical world of Genji and other "Tales". Her memoirs are also notable for their account of a journey through the provinces to the capital, and for highly-praised poetry that unfortunately doesn't translate particularly well.

   Ivan Morris' concise introduction sets the work in its context and discusses its significance and textual history; line drawings and unobtrusive notes further build our picture of Sarashina's world. A worthwhile purchase.




3. Lady Sharashina lived a life of dreamy lament. It is a wonder if someone of her nature could ever be happy with what the real world could offer. Her brief moments of happiness are gained in dreams and fantasy, or tempting/dreaming the impossible, the forbidden fruit. The real world, despite living a life of relative privilege, was a never ending experience of pain to her. She took seeing the ephemeral (wabi sabi/mono no aware) aspects of life to heiights of seeing the eternal in the ephemeral the great in the small, which can be beautiful (as with Basho), but Lady Sharshina seems too idealistic and self obsessed which makes it something pitiful in the end. The real world is one of duty and lament: "veni, vedi, vici" would not be her epitaph; more like perpetual nostaligic anguish and shyness. Her regrets seem misguided.
   
   Lady Sharashina avoided popular attractions, as opposed to her near contemporary Sei Shonagon, in "The Pillow Book", who endeavored to be the attraction. Some of the scenes are unforgetable and the book is a classic for what it is: the memoirs of a dreamer. The book has one of the most poignent poetic conundrum sort of endings I can recall.
   
   The translation failed to capture all of the poems, which is to be expected; but those that were captured are brilliant.
   
   The contrast between Sei Shonagon and Lady Sharshina is one of the beauties of these books and poses an interesting psychological comparison.



4. This charming, brief book really does move at a dream-like pace. There are great leaps in time, with no apparent explanation. Things that should have seemed vitally important, like raising three children, are dismissed in a few scattered lines. Sarashina simply walks out on a once-in-a-lifetime imperial ceremony, but returns again and again to the sight of the moonlight.
   
   Sarashina, the pseudonym we have for her, lived and wrote in the first half of the 11th century, in Heian Japan. It is a wonderful quirk of history that this era hosted so many educated, literate women, with cloistered lives that allowed time for introspection. The authors of The Gossamer Years and Shonagon's Pillow Book lived during that same era, and even had family connections to Sarashina.
   
   She wrote this memoir near the end of her life, and seemed to use it as a package for presenting her life. Like an elegantly wrapped package, this tantalizes us by hiding the real substance inside. We read a little of her role in the imperial court, but never see into the closed society of the women's quarters. We see a courtier's career interrupted by family duties, but quite make out what those duties were. We learn that her husband was influential enough to be named regional governor, but we never see her part in his court or how that related to her imperial service. Instead, we read a few conversations, travelogues, and poems, the kind that hide more than they reveal.
   
   As a child, she had a passion for romantic stories. She used those tales to enter worlds of elegant people and beautiful places. It was only in her thirties that she came back to earth, and realized that she had let too much time go by. She did marry, but was widowed early. She did have a comfortable life as lady in waiting, but never found her way into the court's inner circle. It was almost as if her life were one of those romances, but she had been given only a minor role in it.
   
   She wrote this memoir when she was old and alone. It is beautifully literate. Still, I almost wonder whether her mind had started to wander, and wander only where the little girl's romance stories led.
   
   //wiredweird



5. This lovely poetic lament transcends time and space.
   How often does a glimpse of the forbidden (that
   which lies beyond our cloistered grasp) create a melancholia
   that pervades our life?
   As we cross this bridge of dreams - fleeting and ethereal, we
   identify with Lady "Sarashina" and a life of desires destined to remain unfulfilled.
   
   And yet, it is precisely this unfulfillment that allows the memoirs' moody
   passion to blossom. As a result of her discontent, we readers have an opportunity
   to savour the gentle nectar of her often luminous writing.

5 comments about The Japanese Way : Aspects of Behavior, Attitudes, and Customs of the Japanese.

1. As many seasoned travellers are acutely aware, visiting foreign countries without adequate research into the language and culture can turn a business trip or holiday into a nightmare. Since WW2, most European countries use English as a second language and therefore are accommodating to the ignorant visitor. In other terms, one can 'get by' without too much confusion or fuss. A few years ago, on my way to the U.S. to visit friends and family, I made a two-day stop over in Japan. Because of my limited stay and time constraints, I chose not to do any research on the language and culture. This was a big mistake. The reason being is that Japan's culture - behaviour, customs and attitudes are so different to Western modes of living. My two-day stop over was a personal disaster for many reasons. If only I had done at least a little research, my short time in Japan would have been much more meaningful. ~The Japanese Way~ is a gem of a text that covers the essentials for any one to successfully 'get by' while visiting this fascinating country.

   This text is a crucial reference to the most common aspects of the culture to the more specific traits in Japan's social framework. In the contents page is a list of 89 subjects ranging from body language and gestures to gender roles and business cards. For example, taking a taxi in Tokyo can be expensive and sometimes frustrating because the address system, house numbers, are not assigned according to grid location or position on a specific street. The buildings are grouped in blocks and are numbered according to the time in which they were built! Requesting a specific residential home, in other words, is an exasperating exercise and most of the time the driver will not be able to find it. (The lesson learned here is to purchase a map and use public transport.) This text also provides the basics in language - Hellos and Goodbyes and some basic rules on politeness and rudeness. These basic phrases and suggested approach to social situations are invaluable, even if you're only planning a short visit.

   If you're planning to travel to Japan sometime in the future, I highly recommend this invaluable book, because it literally covers just about everything you will need to know to ensure your stay is fulfilling, memorable and problem free.




2. A useful and welcome concept, but the book is altogether too short, I feel, to teach you much. Most of the topics covered will already be things that someone who's read a few basic books about Japan and Japanese culture will have read already. I would recommend this book to a person who doesn't know anything about Japan as a quick guide to the culture, perhaps. I felt an expanded edition-- some added topics or digging a little deeper into holidays or national policy or government-- might be more interesting.



3. My friends actually gave this book to me before I left for a trip to Japan. The book is organized into mini sections of information, which makes it a quick read and perfect distraction for the daunting 12 hour flight over there. I found that the book does a really good job of explaining the culture and some of the do's and don'ts while visiting. This was the only book I read, but found it extremely helpful and interesting - I definitely suggest buying this book if you are taking a trip to Japan.



4. Although it may be a little outdated by now, this quick read is an ideal way for first-time Japan travellers to get acquainted with the rather complicated Japanese ways. As a Japanese-American I wish I had read this long ago to better understand my mother! My husband found this book very helpful when he went to Japan on business. For business or pleasure, this book should make your trip to Japan easier... and hopefully keep you from accidentally insulting someone. But then, the Japanese are polite and will understand you are just a "gajin."



5. The book is a nice thorough overview of Japanese life and culture. Great for the traveler. Amazon waited a week before even shipping with Super Saver shipping, and there is no other way to leave feedback.

5 comments about Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru.

1. Este es un libro de marcada factura antropológica, de antropología de terreno. Como es sus otros libros, Tahir Shah construye una atmósfera narrativa en la que se incluye, con humor, sin una gota de solemnidad ni de auto consciencia. Inicia la historia con una confesión de interés personal y es capaz de emprender una expedición casi excéntrica en la que invierte sus haberes. Luego va desmenuzando el tema central, desmitificando (curanderos que usan técnicas de amenazas y persuasión semejantes a las que observó en su investigación de los shadu de India)personajes y roles, mostrando los efectos de la invasión cultural, turística e industrial en territorios hasta hace muy poco vírgenes. Plantea abiertamente su repudio por la acción de los evangelistas que, en su afán proselitista, ocasionan daños que ellos mismos no alcanzan a preveer (enfermedades y desaparición paulatina de una sabiduría medicinal milenaria). Finalmente, valida su interés inicial con un real curandero y experimenta la experiencia de volar sobre la selva.
   Con menos humor que en Sorcerer`s Apprentice, pero igual monto de rigor antropológico y una resistencia admirable a las fatigas de viajes llenos de incomodidades y dietas incomibles.
   Para conocer el Amazonas peruano y para mirarse en los personajes.



2. This is not your typical travel book! The author describes a long journey through Peru as he searches for the origins of a myth about people flying in Pre-Columbian Peru. This search involves his discovery, and imparting to us, lots of information about textiles, mummies, shrunken heads, and many, many colorful characters that the author encounters. Honestly, in reading Mr. Shah's books, I can only think that the dreadful places I have stayed in were oases of tranquility and cleanliness when compared to his places: For example, a hotel that keeps its chickens in his bathroom, a hotel that has no other guests because a story is circulating that anyone who stays there will be beheaded by a ghost, a boat so rank that a stay in a pit toilet might be more pleasant, etc. But somehow, when he tells it, you just have to enjoy and laugh. I recommend this book highly to anyone who enjoys travel writing, adventure writing, or simply a great story. As an aside, I should mention that if anyone doubts the possibility of the final scenes (and I do not want to ruin this book for anyone), a beloved relative of mine actually did a similar trip (and I am SO glad I didn't go along! And the only reason I didn't, at the time, was that I thought I would be needed to retrieve her body [which thankfully didn't happen] after such a crazy trip). The physiological experience of the native drug was absolutely perfectly described (and many a jolly laugh we have had over my relative's story at her expense)! So, don't doubt this book is possible. But whether or not it is, read it and enjoy!



3. "O men, up from you I fly.
   I am not for the earth, I am for the sky.
   I have soared to the sky as a herald,
   I have kissed the sky as a falcon,
   The essence of a god, the son of a god,
   The messenger of a god am I."
   (Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts)
   
   It seems to me these beautiful, evocative opening lines of an ancient poem belong somewhere in Tahir Shah's powerful work on the Incas and Birdmen of Peru, the best book in the travel genre I've read to date. (And, indeed, early in the author's research into the question of actual flight by ancient man, an expert whom he consults reminds us of the model airplane, or glider, which was found in an ancient Egyptian tomb in Saqqara in 1898.)
   This book is much more than a fascinating and often hilarious travel book; to me it is more akin to a narrative of an unfolding spiritual journey. In addition to the usual points of interest of a Peruvian tour, this author's 'nose' for uncovering the 'underbelly' of a given culture allows him to get right to the heart of a matter he is investigating. And, true to his Sufi upbringing, he is not afraid to seek knowledge wherever it takes him; by means of itself, by experience, not content to be a mere observer (or as the proverb goes, "He who tastes, knows.")
   Thus, his ocular experience of El Colibri (the Hummingbird), and the other symbols of the Nazca Lines from a Cessna, prove to be only a prelude (almost like a facsimile from the past), a metaphor, for the riveting experience which is to follow, as, undaunted, the trail leads him into the heart of the Upper Amazonian jungle to find the descendants of those who occupied the coastal Nazca plain when the Lines were made, before they and their shamans were driven into the interior by the Spanish Conquistadors.
   Loose your grip on your analytical, Western mind and get ready to "kiss the sky"!
   Early in his quest, perched precariously atop Huayna Picchu, looking directly down on Machu Picchu, the author recounts a conversation which hints of ancient memories of a forgotten and glorious past:
   "I opened my eyes a crack, and began to understand the significance of Machu Picchu. Stretching out in symmetrical flanks, on east and west, the ruins were arranged as wings. Once I saw them, I couldn't get them out of my mind. They gleamed up at me, glinting in the yellow light.
   Machu Picchu was laid out in the shape of a condor.
   I would have slithered my way back down to the cafe much sooner. But a refined-looking Peruvian man was watching me.
   'It's a condor!' I shouted. 'Machu Picchu's a gigantic condor!'
   The man was dressed in a sheepskin jacket, with the flaps of a woollen hat pulled down snugly over his ears. His nose was streaming, ad his cheeks were scarlet. In his hand was a tin, and in it were coca leaves.
   'The condor is the messenger,' he said in English, offering me some of the leaves.
   'Whose messenger?'
   Resting the tin on his knee, the man washed his hands over his face.
   'The condor links us to heaven,' he said. 'Just as it did the Incas. It is the bridge, the bridge between man and God.'
   'Could the Incas glide like condors?'
   The man twisted the corners of his mouth into a smile.
   'We can all fly,' he said.
   'All of us?'
   The man nodded.
   'Si, all of us.'
   He paused, to regard me sideways on.
   'Todos tenemos alas, we all have wings,' he said, 'but we have forgotten how to use them.'



4. This is the second of Mr. Shah's books I have read. I will probably end up reading them all. It's hard not to like a book whose opening sentence is "The trail began at an auction of shrunken heads." He is an excellent author and his tales are fascinating. If you read this book to the end you will be able to shrink heads, but only practice on sloths.



5. _Trail of Feathers_ by Tahir Shah began at an unusual place; at a London auction of shrunken heads. The author, who had been on the trail of shrunken heads for some time and who had sought to begin a collection, was frustrated by his lack of funds and the limited availability of tsantsas (as they are more properly called, a product of the Jivaro people of South America). However he did come across a mention of something else interesting out of Peru, a group referred to by a cryptic Frenchmen as "the Birdmen." At first dismissing this ("at shrunken head sales, you get more than the usual smattering of madmen"), he meets another (insane?) South American Indian enthusiast, this time a self-schooled authority on ancient flight, an eccentric man who maintained that the Maya, Aztecs, and Incas had all built gliders (along with of course the Ancient Egyptians and King Solomon himself). Like the Frenchmen, this expert urges Shah to go to Peru and do his own research.
   
   After also coming across a brief mention by an early 17th century Spanish monk by the name of Friar Antonio de la Calancha, who wrote "...the Incas flew over the jungle like birds," Shah decided to put together a one-man expedition to Peru and find out the truth himself. Could the Incas or other Andean peoples really fly, or was it just myth and legend?
   
   What followed was a two part journey through the mountains, deserts, jungles, cities, and tiny villages of Peru. During the first half of his expedition Shah was largely alone and traveled from Machu Picchu to Lake Titicaca across the Altiplano through Nazca and on to Lima. On his quest for something - anything - that could shed light on whether there was flight among the Andean peoples Shah introduces the reader to the many unusual sights and people of Peru. Among the author's many encounters were the textile weavers of Taquile (an island in Lake Titicaca), who bemoaned that the once sacred cloth was mostly sold to tourists now instead of more properly being sacrificed to spirits, the chullpas (round-sided towers) of Sillustani (did the Incas once jump off of them; Shah recounted how there was a medieval fad of sorts, tower-jumping); and the famous Nazca Lines, huge geometric and animal shapes, so immense that they were only first noticed by a pilot in the 1930s. Shah wrote that this fact lead an American by the name of Jim Woodman in the 1970s to speculate that ancient man had in fact flown in balloons, citing the fact that ritual smoke balloons were used in Guatemala and the Quechua language had a word for "balloon-maker" (Woodman later built a working balloon he dubbed _Condor I_ and flew it). Shah found images of Birdmen in a museum containing Paracas textiles (Paracas being a pre-Incan culture of the Peruvian coast that existed between 1300 BC and 200 AD and was noted for the exquisite textiles they used to wrap their mummified dead, found in immense cemeteries in the desert).
   
   After consulting with various people in his trip, Shah came to the conclusion that Incan and pre-Incan flight was likely more metaphysical, allegorical, or mental. One local urged him that in order to understand the Birdmen one had to understand the drugs that they took while they were alive. He stated that they drank a tea made from a vine, known as ayahuasca or "the vine of the dead" (scientifically it was two species, _Banisteriopsis caapi_ and _Banisteropsis inebrians_), which gave the user the feeling of growing wings and flying. A professor he met told Shah that ayahuasca was still in use by various tribes in the jungles of the Upper Amazon in Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru, including coincidentally, the Jivaro (which means "barbarian;" though that is their most famous name, the proper name for them is the Shuar, which means "men").
   
   The second half of Shah's expedition becomes an often frustrating trek to find brewers of ayahuasca among the Shuar, an expedition that begins in the jungle city of Iquitos and takes him hundreds of miles downstream the Amazon River and its tributaries. After a series of adventures in Iquitos Shah manages to finally find a reliable guide, a very colorful man by the name of Richard Fowler, a Vietnam veteran (who volunteered for Vietnam, saying "As far as I was concerned it was an all expenses paid, two year snake hunt, with unusual and additional hazards thrown in"), who promised Shah only one thing, that he would keep him alive. Putting together an unusual team (including a local man by the name of Cockroach and a shaman) on a rickety, rotting wooden, rat-infested boat (infested by still worse things when Shah ordered the rats removed), they do make contact with the much feared Shuar, something many people had warned the author would do various dire things, including slit his throat, decapitate him and shrink his head, or eat him.
   
   This was a very enjoyable book, as the author was an excellent writer and really did a good job of describing what he saw and the people he met. I loved how he contrasted his earlier expectations of the jungle and what "experts" in London said he would find with the real thing and found him often funny without trying to hard to be so (as some travel essay writers are prone to doing). He clearly did a good amount of research, as he had a several page bibliography and two appendices, one detailing the science and history behind ayahuasca as well as several other Amazonian flora-based hallucinogens and a number of Old World ones as well (some authors he said speculated that hallucinogenic content of Syrian rue might have given rise to the vivid geometric designs of Oriental carpets as well as legends about flying carpets) and the other the history and culture of the Shuar (going into detail about the how and why of the tsantsas).