1 comments about From Peking to Mandalay.

1. In 1906 Reginald Johnston (who became the tutor to the last emperor) travelled from Beijing to India through parts of China and Tibet.. in describing his journey he brings us through a part of the world that was probably the inspiration for Hilton's Lost Horizon. Johnston also documented the languages of the area and made a record in his book of these languages. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the temples, the culture of the time! A beautiful travel journey! A great read for any linguistic student or asian studies student as well as anyone who has been to China or plans to go there!

No comments about Taiwan Travel Map Second Edition (China Regional Maps).

No comments about Mit Zeppelin nach Spitzbergen: Bilder von der Studienreise der deutschen arktischen Zeppelin-Expedition. Mit einem Vorwort S. K. H. des Prinzen Heinrich ... von A. Miethe und H. Hergesell; Mitarbeiter.

5 comments about In The Empire of Genghis Khan: An Amazing Odyssey Through the Lands of the Most Feared Conquerors in History.

1. a joy to read... a man who captivates language .... GREAT and fun book.....



2. I couldn't put this book down, i'll give it that much.
   But I didn't always like it.
   
   While the narration was interesting and fairly well written, I felt a rather pretentious, and quite condescending air as he described the mongolians he met and the way in which they lived.
   
   The descriptions of the landscape were beautiful, but it didn't hide the fact that I felt Stewart was narrating a 4 star resort tour of the country instead of what was supposed to be a wilderness trek.
   
   None the less, I found it hard to put it down, maybe because the historial bits were so intruiging.



3. I am amazed by Mr. Stewarts ability to write. He can convey the emotions and feeling of a place with amazing clarity and I found myself really feeling like I was there.
   
   The trip itself is quite an epic, a thousand miles by mostly horseback through a culture completely different than anything we are used to. it also comes at a really interesting time in the countries history when they have thrown off Communism and are deep in the throws of trying to make something else work.
   
   At its best the book is full of delightful descriptions of faraway places and unique locations, the people are described so well that you can picture them sitting next to you and their conversations relate items of real significance. Learning from the people what the fall of Communism has done to their economy makes for fascinating reading. Also learning about the history of the Monks and the world of Genghis Khan was fascinating.
   
   At its worst, the book doesn't cut the Mongolian people very much slack. They have decided not to live in cities but rather to live in tents (gers), rather than celebrate a thousand-year-old tradition and show what good it brings and how it enriches the lives of the people who live it, mostly you get the feeling that it is inferior and the people who live it ought to switch to something better.
   
   It also portrays Communism and the Russian government in a completely evil light, no effort is made to record areas where the life of the Mongolian has gotten better thanks to Communism, although brief mention of government bldgs, schools and acting troups is mentioned. Yet how poorly the people fared and when the system didn't work is vividly brought out into the open.
   
   This is also about travelling over some of the most lonely isolated terrain in the world, yet little time is spent discussing the travel itself. How did they get food when they were not in a Ger, what did it feel like to spend weeks in the saddle from morning to night, How did the clothing feel, etc. Very little was spent on the actual travel itself, the book focuses primarily on the people that were met.
   
   But these are minor points, its is a good book to learn about the culture of Mongolia and what has been happening to the common man since the fall of Communism and I found myself reading all the way through without being bored.



4. I picked this book up browsing in my hospital bookshop while on call on a lazy saturday. On the back cover I discovered it had been recently translated into Italian (2004)from English and decided to buy it. From the moment I opened it, I couldn't put it down, I read it on work, at home, and also while driving the car (!). I laughed by myself on more than one occasion and looked around for someone to laugh with me. Naturally, I will probably never go to Mongolia, or have the guts to take the trip the author went through, but, somehow I felt that I was there. That I met the people he describes.
   
   One interesting point of the book is its inspiration from the trip of William of Rubruc eight centuries ago. This short miliary description of the mongol world of those times has the same off hand descriptions of the mongol people and customs we find in Mr. Stewart's book. However, no one accused William of beeing "politically not correct" or "sarcastic". Often it is not necessary to have an empathic vision of a different culture to describe it to people that share our cultural standards.
   
   Mr. Stewart's book is instructive and definitely fun to read, but above all it "takes you along" the whole time, which is really what readers that don't have the opportunities to travel as much as they would like, really want.



5. I've always been intrigued by the Mongols, as they are at the edge between settled and nomadic people. And I've also always like travel writing. Stanely Stewart's book therefore made me very happy. It is beautifully written and the research is thorough. I learned about the Secret History of the Mongols in one section and in another found one of my favorite senteces in any book. I do not have my copy with me, but the sentece included truck repair, camels, and Uzbeks.
   
   Mr. Stewarts book is too good to be called a travel memoir and to lively to be called a history book. It is one of the most entertaining and informative books I have read.

No comments about Arka Tagh the Mysterious Mountains.

1 comments about High Tartary (Kodansha Globe).

1. "High Tartary" is the sequel to the "Desert Road to Turkestan",from the 1927-1928 journey carried out by Owen Lattimore and his wife through Chinese Turkestan. While the first book dwells in depth on Lattimore's cavan trip through Inner Mongolia, High Tartary is focused more on the places than on the traveling method. Arriving in Urumchi and thinking the dangerous part of the voyage over, Lattimore beckons his wife Eleonore to reach him. With a seventeen day sledge journey through Siberia (that is object of the beautiful "Turkestan Reunion"), Eleonore reaches her husband and together they travel trough Tartary, a medieval country from the highlands of Tien Shan to the Pamir. Similarly to the Desert Road, Lattimore makes friends with all the people he travels with, he studies in detail all the places he visits with particular attention this time not only to the trade routes, but also to the relationship between Russians and Chinese in these border towns. Naturally we must remember that the book was written just about 10 years after the Russian revolution, so the political interpretations and the situation of those times was different from now, as is also pointed out by the Author in his introduction.
   The most fascinating aspect of the book in my opinion is the description of all the human types and ethnicities the travelers meet. They are most fascinated with the nomads Quazaqs, Qirghiz, Chahar, Torgut, whose habits are described in detail.
   After a long and apparently meandering trip full of hunting, reading, just simple staying (remember it was a honey moon trip!), the travelers go to Kashgar and then through the "Five Great Passes" to India, where their trip ends.
   This is a great travel book, like those written in the 1920-40 (when the going was good), it has humanity, culture, humor, learning, and I would say love in it. Owen and Eleonore Lattimore's lives went on to other books and other feats, but this narrative jewel is still here to remind us of youth, enthusiasm, courage and curiosity.

No comments about Turkestan. Notes of a Journey in Russian Turkestan, Khokand, Bukhara, and Kuldja: Volume 1.

No comments about The Classic and Connoisseur in Italy and Sicily: With an Appendix, Containing an Abridged Translation of Lanzi's Storia Pittorica. Volume 3.

No comments about The Great Wall (Chinese/English edition: FLP China Travel and Tourism).

No comments about Return to the Desert: A Journey from Mount Hermon to Mount Sinai.