http://ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/thread/1b47ac84-9621-4b1d-9848-cdfda0e56829?format=rss Tribe.net. Local Connections http://ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/thread/1b47ac84-9621-4b1d-9848-cdfda0e56829#b63bd1f1-2ccf-4a3d-a814-54ce60f25c82 My second book by Eric Newby was "Slowly down the Ganges", given to me by a girlfriend who came back from India. Eric Newby, and a couple of other people decide, for whatever mad reason, to travel through India in a little boat on the Ganges, from the source to the delta where it meets the ocean. Their boat runs aground 63 times during the first 6 days, which presented enough of a motive for me to read the whole story. Lots of laughs! Eric Newby's black humour keeps everyone afloat, even when he and his friend decide to visit an Indian bordello where they have to paint themselves brown before they go because the whores dislike white foreigners. (was that really in that particular book? I think so!) Their trip encounters further complications when they get lost on the countless side-arms of the Ganges, try to ask for the way repeatedly and it turns out that the local Indians are not only analphabets but also have never been taught geography which means, none of the people they ask has a clue of what cities might be downstream and where, they have never heard of anything that is on their map. Wildly determined, the travellers do not give up and manage somehow to continue travelling along the river until they reach the end, about 6 weeks later or so? Not a journey i would ever attempt to make but an entertaining read nevertheless. Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:58:55 GMT http://ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/thread/1b47ac84-9621-4b1d-9848-cdfda0e56829#b63bd1f1-2ccf-4a3d-a814-54ce60f25c82 Canela, too hot for you 2009-06-16T11:58:55Z http://ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/thread/1b47ac84-9621-4b1d-9848-cdfda0e56829#b0745a15-8b63-4e3b-8625-8b310a82b4d0 My first encounter with travel writing consisted of reading Newby's "A short walk in the Hindukush", the entertaining account of two Brits attempting to scale the Himalayas, hire Tibetan sherpas wjho later refuse to accompany them any further and finally reach the goal, "Nuristan", a country I have never heard of and am still not sure whether it actually exists and where exactly. Apparently it is situated somwhere between Tibet and Afghanistan in the middle of the Himalayas, and nobody has entered it for 4000 years since Alexander the great, before Eric Newby and his friend arrived. Their mountain boots were stolen on the first evening in a tent with the illustre inhabitants, an odd mixture of tall, short, blonde and dark people, the descendents of all the adventurers who ever made it into that remote country. Newby and his austere but reckless friend incongruously train for scaling the Himalayas on the only little hill the manage to find in South Wales, and then set off with lots of tea, canned biscuits, canned custard and little else, as the spartan friend is not into shopping, eating well or living lavishly. On their way to Afghanistan they encounter all kinds of strange characters, especially when their car breaks down in Turkey (tell me about it, I can just imagine the scenario), eventually find themselves sitting by a mountain stream in Kafiristan at last, a place where people piss into the river upstream when they want to harass their downstream neighbours. Newby studies a bit of the language with the help of a Kafir dictionary and tell us exemples of how to strike up a normal conversation with a Kafiri. For peners there is "I saw a body floating down the river this morning", and :"By the way, the girl I am sleeping with is a bride". The hilarious tale finds it depressing end when the two finally run into Wilfred Thesiger on a mountain side, a veteran traveller who is totally unimpressed with their adventurousness. Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:47:30 GMT http://ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/thread/1b47ac84-9621-4b1d-9848-cdfda0e56829#b0745a15-8b63-4e3b-8625-8b310a82b4d0 Canela, too hot for you 2009-06-16T11:47:30Z http://ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/thread/1b47ac84-9621-4b1d-9848-cdfda0e56829#47897492-d670-4eee-909a-f896fd61295d "Ararat! By bicycle through Kurdistan" is the German title of "Beyond Ararat: A journey through Eastern Turkey" by Bettina Selby. Not everyone may feel the compelling urge to explore the outskirts of South Eastern Anatolia on a mountain bike, and right after the Kurdish uprising at that. Especially if you are a lone woman. But if traveling adventurously and cheaply off the beaten track is how you get your kicks, or love even just dreaming about it while remaining safely on your couch, this book is for you. Selby describes her journey from Istanbul, along the black sea, via Trabzon, through Kars (which sounds like the pits) through the green valley of Siirt, Diyarbakir, Harrang, Antakya etc., and tells you what to bring along on your trip: a dog stunner comes in handy, and so do diarrhea pills, antibiotica, typhoid shots, sun screen, bottled water etc.etc. There are not many guide books for exploring Kurdistan for fun (which is listed as one of the most dangerous places on earth in an American travel guide for journalists and other professionals) . Lonely Planet Turkey gives you a reasonable amount of information about it, such as: "Dogubeyazit- places to see: the local hamam. the one for men is one side of town, the one for women on the other." Oh, well. How much more interesting is Selby's account of discussing the political situation with the talkative and open-minded Kurds in the local tea shops and her tale of how to buy booze in the only shop of Dogubeyazit which sells whisky bottles wrapped in brown paper on the sly to Iranians crossing the border solely with this purpose in mind. On the other hand, Selby devotes a great deal of time to visiting biblical places and describing ancient Christian monuments while I would have liked to know myuch more about Kurdish culture and the mentality of the people living in the area. Anyway, I used a yellow marker to mark all the places to visit or not to visit which is a good deal of information on that very un-touristy area of Turkey. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:08:51 GMT http://ijustfinishedreading.tribe.net/thread/1b47ac84-9621-4b1d-9848-cdfda0e56829#47897492-d670-4eee-909a-f896fd61295d Canela, too hot for you 2009-06-15T09:08:51Z